
Weekend Pilots
Technology, Masculinity, and Private Aviation in Postwar America
Alan Meyer(Author)
Johns Hopkins University Press
Published on 24. February 2016
Book
Hardback
328 pages
978-1-4214-1858-2 (ISBN)
Description
In 1960, 97 percent of private pilots were men. More than half a century later, this figure has barely changed. In Weekend Pilots, Alan Meyer provides an engaging account of the post-World 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 pre-war barnstorming and wartime combat training. After the war, the aviation community's response to aircraft designs played a significant part in the technological development of personal planes.
Meyer also considers the community of pilots outside the cockpit-from the time-honored tradition of "hangar flying" at local airports to air shows to national conventions of private fliers-to 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.
Meyer also considers the community of pilots outside the cockpit-from the time-honored tradition of "hangar flying" at local airports to air shows to national conventions of private fliers-to 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.
Reviews / Votes
Alan Meyer's Weekend Pilots serves as a crucial guide to private aviation's intimidating world of insider references, technical jargon, and showmanship for both the uninitiated and aviation aficionado...This book [is] impressively instructive and accessible to nonpilots...[and] an enjoyable and engaging read. H-Net ReviewsMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore, MD
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
5 s/w Abbildungen, 5 s/w Abbildungen, 4 Graphiken
4 Charts; 5 Illustrations, black and white; 5 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
544 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4214-1858-2 (9781421418582)
DOI
10.1353/book.44201
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
02/2016
Johns Hopkins University Press
€34.49
Available for download
Person
Alan Meyer teaches aviation history and the history of technology at Auburn University. He is a longtime private pilot.
Content
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
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