Stormchasers

by David Toomey (Author), David Toomey (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $25.64

  In September 1955, Navy Lieutenant Commander Grover B. Windham and a crew of eight flew out of Guantanamo Bay into the eye of Hurricane Janet - a routine weather reconnaissance mission from which they never returned. In the wake of World War II, the Air Force and the Navy discovered new civilian arenas where pilots could test their courage and skill - weather reconnaissance was one of them. Hurricane hunters flew into raging storms to gauge their strength and predict their paths. Without the modern technology of the 21st century they relied on rudimentary radar systems to locate the hurricane's eye and estimated the drift of their aircraft by looking at the windblown waves below. Drawing from Navy documents and interviews with members of the squadron and relatives of the crew, this book reconstructs the ill-fated mission, from preflight checks to the moment of their final transmission.