From Jennies to Jets: The Aviation History of Orange County

Description

Orange County can be proud of its legacy to aviation, but it took a routine visit to a Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce dinner in 1968 by Sen. Barry Goldwater to make anyone realize it. Nevertheless, thanks to a suggestion by the senator, a group was formed calling itself the Red Barons. From that somewhat haphazard beginning, emerged From Jennies to Jets: The Aviation History of Orange County.

Beginning with Glenn Luther Martin building his first plane in a former church building, that history has been an endless parade of talent, vision, hard work, and daredeviltry that has spanned the years from the barnstormers to the Space Age.

Surprisingly, for one of the smallest counties in the nation, Orange County has seen far more than its share of some of the greatest names in aviation and thousands of lesser ones. It is doubtful if any one single area, certainly none of the comparable size and population, has contributed so much of so many to the history and future of aviation.

From Jennies to Jets: The Aviation History of Orange County

by VI Smith

Hardcover

214 pages