ROARING THUNDER

Military historian and novelist Boyne (Dawn Over Kitty Hawk, 2003, etc.) blends fact and fiction to chronicle the pulse-pounding ups and heart-breaking downs of the struggle to develop jet planes.

Beginning in the 1930s, engineers, physicists and hot pilots in Germany, France, England and the U.S. were all passionately involved in the pioneering effort to replace the piston engine with a faster, quieter jet-propelled model. There were thrilling successes and tragic failures; if in 1943 the Luftwaffe had had a significant supply of their astonishing Messerschmitt 262s, instead of the barest sampling, the course of WWII would certainly have been altered. Boyne tells this dramatic story through the fictitious Shannon family, a father and two sons drawn to flight almost from birth. When the main narrative opens in 1941, former WWI flier Vance Shannon is a consulting engineer and troubleshooter extraordinaire; Lockheed, Boeing and other aviation giants keep his name atop their go-to lists for use whenever the problem is seriously sticky. Sons Tom and Harry are combat pilots; both survive to become test pilots, skilled, intrepid and committed to the great adventure of jet aviation. What are the implications of their quest for the wives and lovers sucked into the jet stream? As the story moves into the 1950s, the Shannon women have to scratch for attention and understanding, as their men establish a pattern of work-related satisfaction and dismal domestic relationships.

The characters are never more than stick figures, but aviation fans will eat up the history and put up with the fiction.