by Peter Leslie (Author)
John Leslie was Pan American Airways Division Engineer when the Pacific was crossed in 1935 by the "China CLipper." Juan Trippe, Pan Am's visionary aviator and founder, credited Leslie with developing the engineering techniques that made possible the historic transoceanic flight. Visit Pan Am Historical Foundation - www.panam.org for more information about this book. During WWII Leslie ran Pan Am's Atlantic Division whose flying boats played crucial roles. Leslie commanded the flight that took Roosevelt to Africa to meet Churchill, the first time a US president flew. The author uses hundreds of photos, documents, letters, memoirs and memorabilia to tell Leslie's story. It is a remarkable view of the early days of transoceanic aviation.
Author Biography
Peter Leslie, director of the Pan Am Historical Foundation, is a graduate of Princeton. He worked for Pan Am three summers while in college and flew Pan Am all over the world as an international banker. He spent a year sifting through his father's forty plus years of Pan Am papers, photos, documents, memoirs and memorabilia before writing "Aviation's Quiet Pioneer."