Name of book??

Many years ago I read a book by Nordhoff and Hall or just Nordhoff, or just Hall. Anyway, in this book the author discussed the relative value of a SPAD. The SPAD airframe was constructed by various manufacturers and the Hispano-Suisa engine was constructed by various manufacturers. The different combinations determined how desirable an aircraft was, the ultimate being a SPAD-SPAD, Hisso-Hisso (a SPAD airframe constructed by the SPAD firm and an engine constructed by Hispano-Suisa).

It's been thirty years since I read the book and would like to read it again but the title escapes me. Can anyone help?

[Ira_Silverman]

The original book is:

Nordhoff, Charles Bernard, and James Norman Hall. Falcons of France, a Tale of Youth and the Air. Boston, Little, 1929. 332 pp., 4 col. plates. Fiction.

It was reprinted as a Bantam paperback in 1966.

The book is a loosely disguised biography of Nordhoff and Hall's experiences with the Lafayette Flying Corps. Very highly recommended.

VBR,

Ira

Greetings Ira: That book could have been the Falcons of France by Nordhoff and Hall, the authors of Mutiny on the Bounty. You might be able to plug their names into the Amazon.com search engine which will give you a listing of their books. Scholars Bookshelf and Barnes & Noble the same. Appropos of the Spad & the H-S motor, you could not be more correct: since there were several subcontractors for both the airframe and the motor, there would be small but troublesome variations in the design spec. For example, there were 50 firms in Paris making engines and spare parts, which were shipped without distinction to the repair and maintenance sections, the spares from company 49 going into an engine made by company 50, would be mismatched, and so on. The Spad XIII, could not maitain the spec of 135mph because the gear mesh tolerances were. not fine enough,so that they would slip, in and out of gear at high speeds, then strip. Hartney of the 27th took up a flight of 13 XIIIs, and had all but two (his and Frank Luke's) abort. THis was the controversial flight in which Luke claimed to have shot a EA on Hartney's tail, which the 11 pilots who had aborted and were on the deck did not see, refused to believe Luke was telling the truth. Hartney says that*he believed Luke, but there was no confirmation due to this happening behind German lines. Billy H/EOM/8/21/99.

Greetings Ira: That book could have been the Falcons of France by Nordhoff and Hall, the authors of Mutiny on the Bounty. You might be able to plug their names into the Amazon.com search engine which will give you a listing of their books. Scholars Bookshelf and Barnes & Noble the same. Appropos of the Spad & the H-S motor, you could not be more correct: since there were several subcontractors for both the airframe and the motor, there would be small but troublesome variations in the design spec. For example, there were 50 firms in Paris making engines and spare parts, which were shipped without distinction to the repair and maintenance sections, the spares from company 49 going into an engine made by company 50, would be mismatched, and so on. The Spad XIII, could not maitain the spec of 135mph because the gear mesh tolerances were. not fine enough,so that they would slip, in and out of gear at high speeds, then strip. Hartney of the 27th took up a flight of 13 XIIIs, and had all but two (his and Frank Luke's) abort. THis was the controversial flight in which Luke claimed to have shot a EA on Hartney's tail, which the 11 pilots who had aborted and were on the deck did not see, refused to believe Luke was telling the truth. Hartney says that*he believed Luke, but there was no confirmation due to this happening behind German lines. Billy H/EOM/8/21/99.

Greetings Ira: That book could have been the Falcons of France by Nordhoff and Hall, the authors of Mutiny on the Bounty. You might be able to plug their names into the Amazon.com search engine which will give you a listing of their books. Scholars Bookshelf and Barnes & Noble the same. Appropos of the Spad & the H-S motor, you could not be more correct: since there were several subcontractors for both the airframe and the motor, there would be small but troublesome variations in the design spec. For example, there were 50 firms in Paris making engines and spare parts, which were shipped without distinction to the repair and maintenance sections, the spares from company 49 going into an engine made by company 50, would be mismatched, and so on. The Spad XIII, could not maitain the spec of 135mph because the gear mesh tolerances were. not fine enough,so that they would slip, in and out of gear at high speeds, then strip. Hartney of the 27th took up a flight of 13 XIIIs, and had all but two (his and Frank Luke's) abort. THis was the controversial flight in which Luke claimed to have shot a EA on Hartney's tail, which the 11 pilots who had aborted and were on the deck did not see, refused to believe Luke was telling the truth. Hartney says that*he believed Luke, but there was no confirmation due to this happening behind German lines. Billy H/EOM/8/21/99.

Greetings Ira: That book could have been the Falcons of France by Nordhoff and Hall, the authors of Mutiny on the Bounty. You might be able to plug their names into the Amazon.com search engine which will give you a listing of their books. Scholars Bookshelf and Barnes & Noble the same. Appropos of the Spad & the H-S motor, you could not be more correct: since there were several subcontractors for both the airframe and the motor, there would be small but troublesome variations in the design spec. For example, there were 50 firms in Paris making engines and spare parts, which were shipped without distinction to the repair and maintenance sections, the spares from company 49 going into an engine made by company 50, would be mismatched, and so on. The Spad XIII, could not maitain the spec of 135mph because the gear mesh tolerances were. not fine enough,so that they would slip, in and out of gear at high speeds, then strip. Hartney of the 27th took up a flight of 13 XIIIs, and had all but two (his and Frank Luke's) abort. THis was the controversial flight in which Luke claimed to have shot a EA on Hartney's tail, which the 11 pilots who had aborted and were on the deck did not see, refused to believe Luke was telling the truth. Hartney says that*he believed Luke, but there was no confirmation due to this happening behind German lines. Billy H/EOM/8/21/99.