Now available…Chasing Horizons-The Great Air Race that Changed the World

IRVING, Texas - July 15, 2013 - PRLog -- Chasing Horizons-The Great Air Race that Changed the World

by Jim Bolander

represented by Loiacono Literary Agency

published by Ecanus Publishing

This impossible feat set precedence for Lindberg, Earhart, Redfern and Yeagar.  This story touches on every element of emotion: a grand love story with beautiful poetry written on cigarette wrappers, to flying over open-ocean in horrific, frigid temperatures and one of the most patriotic and death-defying feats accomplished until space flight.

This "Indiana Jones" action starts out with Bolander and his daughter touring The Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum where he is showing her Chicago, Great-Uncle Lowell’s plane, which inspires her to write about him for a school assignment. Then Bolander takes us to that very time and around the world in an open-air cockpit to win the race. It is an incredible read and a true story.

Chasing Horizons-The Great Air Race that Changed the World is a historical fiction depicting the aeronautical challenge of 1924 in which four Douglas World Cruisers and eight American crewmen set out from Seattle, Washington, to attempt the first around-the-world airplane flight. One hundred seventy-five days later two of the aircraft and crews became the first to circumnavigate earth.

Bolander has taken 90% fact and added the background story to bring it to life. His research and historical details will chill you to the bone when they are in the tundra of Alaska, make you want to swat the mosquitoes in the Orient, feel the sting of the sandstorms as they fly across the deserts of the Middle East, and stand in ovation as they make each extraordinary landing. Imagine a single engine, open cockpit, and wooden airplane held together with wires and bands; no GPS, no radios, no heater or a/c or toilet or any type of refreshments and you are to pilot this “just invented” flying machine around the world – and before any of the other 5 countries who joined the race. To these men, there was no turning back.

Britain, Italy, Argentina, Portugal, and France were all vying with the United States in 1924 to win the race to be first to fly around the world. The story of what transpired in the six months it took to accomplish this virgin task is the stuff legends and heroes are made of.  Lowell Smith, the first to complete the mission, is not only a humble and patriotic aviation icon, but also the great uncle to Jim Bolander, which makes this world and family history as well.  The desire for Bolander to honor his family by putting into words what everyone has forgotten was ignited by the curiosity of his daughter who chose Lowell Smith as the subject of a fifth grade report and oral presentation concerning a famous American.

1924 ....."First Round-the-World World Flight" (http://www.wingnet.org/rtw/rtw001d.htm)

From: 04/06/24 To: 09/28/24 (Seattle to Seattle, WA)
Miles Flown: 26,350 miles
Flying Time: 371H 11M
Plane Type: Douglas World Cruisers - Amphibians
Plane Names: Chicago, New Orleans, Seattle and Boston
Pilot Names: Lowell H. Smith, Erik Nelson, Frederick L. Martin & Leigh Wade
Comments: 1st Flight Round-the-World, 4 Planes started, 2 finished.

Bolander has written Beating Kings and Burning Angels published by Digital Pulp Publishing He has written several other novels and a book of poetry as well.