Wooden Props and Canvas Wings: Recollections and Reflections of a Wwi Pilot

In early 1917, George Robert Christie was earning eighteen dollars a week as a fuel oil engineer. A few months later, he began training to become a pilot in the United States military. Christie's swift transformation from civilian to bomber pilot is recounted by his son, Robert William Christie, using personal accounts, letters, diary excerpts, and notations from his air service pilot's log.

A well-documented account of the pilots' training for the fledgling Army Air Service in WWI, Wooden Props and Canvas Wings includes vivid recollections of the bomber flights over Germany in 1918. It also includes photographs taken during training in the slow, unreliable, wood-and-canvas JN-4 "Jenny" aircraft.

Wooden Props and Canvas Wings reconstructs the WWI bomber pilots' experiences in the originally chivalrous but later vicious war in the air over France, Belgium, and Germany. The evolution of aerial bombing as a military tactic in WW I foretold the strategic role bombing has played in warfare since that time.

George Christie was ninety years old when he agreed to have his training and service memories preserved on tape. These accounts of his experiences make this WWI memoir an important addition to U.S. military history.