Jack Zimmerman is Chief Pilot of the Atlantic Division of the Transcontinental and Western Air Inc., with a record of more than 15,000 hours in the air. He is a million-miler, that is, he has flown a million miles since joining the company in 1929.

But Jack Zimmerman has been in commercial aviation almost from its start. He flew one of the first tri-motored Ford planes for his company. In those days, flying was cold, wet, and noisy. He took up the first DC I in 1934. He piloted the first scheduled flight into New York City's mighty new airport, La Guardia Field, when it was opened to traffic in 1939. He was at the controls of the giant Boeing Stratoliner which set a transcontinental record for a scheduled transport flight on its inaugural trip in July, 1940.

It all started as a rough map scrawled on the back of an old envelope nearly fifteen years ago—the dream of a little group of air-minded men who believed that some day folks would fly from coast to coast in a few hours and think nothing of it. In this book you will learn through the trials, failures and successes of a boy from a town in Ohio, what it takes to be a top flight pilot today.

From the dust jacket

Note: This book was published just months before Lt. Colonel Zimmerman was killed in an accident while piloting an AAF Flying Boat in November 1942.