In 1960, 97 percent of private pilots were men. More than half a century later, this figure has barely changed. InWeekend Pilots, Alan Meyer provides an engaging account of the postaWorld War II aviation community. Drawing on public records, trade association journals, newspaper accounts, and private papers and interviews, Meyer takes readers inside a white, male circle of the initiated that required exceptionally high skill levels, that celebrated facing and overcoming risk, and that encouraged fierce personal independence.The Second World War proved an important turning point in popularizing private aviation. Military flight schools and postwar GI-Bill flight training swelled the ranks of private pilots with hundreds of thousands of young, mostly middle-class men. Formal flight instruction screened and acculturated aspiring fliers to meet a masculine norm that traced its roots to prewar barnstorming and wartime combat training. After the war, the aviation communitys response to aircraft designs played a significant part in the technological development of personal planes. Meyer also considers the community of pilots outside the cockpitfrom the time-honored tradition of 'hangar flying' at local airports to air shows to national conventions of private fliersto argue that almost every aspect of private aviation reinforced the message that flying was by, for, and about men. The first scholarly book to examine in detail the role of masculinity in aviation,Weekend Pilots adds new dimensions to our understanding of embedded gender and its long-term effects.
Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Who Is ""Mr. General Aviation""? The Origins and Demographics of Postwar Private Flying 2. Shouting, Shirttails, and Spins 3. The Family Car of the Air versus the Pilot's Airplane 4. The ""Right Stuff"" Syndrome 5. Hog Wallow Airports, Hangar Flying, and Hundred-Dollar Hamburgers 6. Gendered Communities Conclusion Notes Essay on Sources Index
""Meyer finds a world that tells us as much about aviation as it does about gender and masculinity in American culture in the years the nation began to confront these issues across society. He takes us through the story with telling examples, thoughtful interpretation and a good deal of often humorous, and sometimes poignant, anecdote. Weekend Pilots is an excellent scholarly accomplishment and a delightful read.""
