Author Talk at the Mighty 8th
The National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force’s monthly Author Talk series is proud to present author Donald Pattillo, who will be discussing his book Romance in Flight. This program will take place on November 12th at 11:00 am at the museum.
The program is free to the public, but please register at https://forms.gle/cybVDYYZBA9xDoSo6
Optional Lunch: Join us for an optional lunch afterwards. $10/12 cash/credit for members or $15/17cash/credit for non-members.
About the Book
Donald Pattillo, an accomplished aviation historian, makes his historical fiction debut with the story of a young female journalist, Ellen Hobson. She begins as a newspaper reporter, a field usually not open to women, in her home city of Pittsburgh in 1904. Soon, becoming restless at being limited to covering local news, Ellen gains the opportunity to travel to Dayton, Ohio, in Spring 1905, to report on the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright, who claim to have developed a powered flying machine. She meets the rather reserved brothers and is permitted to witness their flying experiments at Huffman Prairie, a field outside Dayton. Although initially skeptical, Ellen comes to believe in the Wright brothers’ work and publishes well-received articles about them and their flyer. She continues her reports over the next four years as the brothers pursue recognition and success, leading them to Washington, Kitty Hawk, and then to Europe. Their path is far from smooth however, as they deal with political difficulties as well as legal challenges to their invention. Ellen’s involvement with the Wright brothers changes her life in a way she would never have anticipated, including professional recognition, travel, and, unexpectedly, love. Prepare for this compelling story of self-discovery, romance, hope, and ultimately, heartbreak, at the dawn of aviation. Donald Pattillo’s novel, A Romance of Flight artfully combines credible fictional characters with a detailed factual portrait of the Wright brothers, their family, and their legacy as inventors of the flying machine.
About the Author
Donald Pattillo has been a historian of the American aircraft industry for more than twenty-five years. He served in the United States Air Force in the 1960s. He holds a PhD. in business from Georgia State University, and taught finance and international business in a twenty-year academic career. In the 1990s he turned to his first love, aviation, and researched and published two histories of the American aircraft industry, Pushing the Envelope, published by the University of Michigan Press, and A History in the Making, 80 Turbulent Years in the American General Aviation Industry, published by the McGraw-Hill Book Company. Later, he published articles on the history of the aircraft industry and of commercial airlines in the Scribner’s Dictionary of American History, 2003. In 2015 he published The Nonexistent Threat, an extensively researched account of the Cold War Soviet nuclear bombing threat to North America, in the AAHS Journal. A revised and updated Second Edition of the general aviation industry, entitled The General Aviation Industry in America, was published by McFarland and Company, 2020.
With completion of the historical works, Dr. Pattillo turned toward a novel involving the Wright brothers. Long fascinated by their lives, he developed a historical romance blending their actual lives and accomplishments with an imagined romance. The result is A Romance of Flight, published in 2021 by Mountain Arbor Press.