Roaring Thunder: A Novel of the Jet Age

Best known for his numerous first-class nonfiction aviation histories, Boyne has also produced aviation sagas (such as Roaring Thunder), and here inaugurates a trilogy with mixed success. Vance Shannon and his twin sons, Tom and Harry, are big shots in the American aircraft world: all three men do stints as flying aces and as brilliant engineers, working with the likes of Boeing and Lockheed to develop new jet technology. From 1955 to 1973, Vance and his sons participate in the development of the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes, supersonic transports and Learjets, as well as missile and satellite technology. Events like the Sputnik launching, the Cuban missile crisis, the invention of the Polaroid Land Camera and the Volkswagen car craze all play in, as do figures like a former Nazi thug, a mistress who spies for French intelligence and POWs in Vietnam.