Escape to the Sky

It is 1936, and BEN FINDLAY, a 16-year-old Michigan farm boy, wanders to a local airport to escape his abusive father. Ben meets BRICE, a crusty flight instructor and veteran pilot with the U. S. Army Air Corps in the 1914-1918 “Great War,” who teaches Ben to fly in a bi-wing, open-cockpit Stearman trainer. Ben quickly masters advanced maneuvers, including aerial combat tactics, and is recruited to fly for Spain’s Republican Air Force in that country’s bloody civil war. Ben slips away from home before his eighteenth birthday, and after additional combat training, sails for Barcelona, Spain. Thus begins an adventure filled odyssey that sweeps Ben from Spain to England and into the early days of World War 2 as a Spitfire pilot with Britain’s Royal Air Force. Following America’s entry into the war Ben transfers to the U. S. Army Air Force and opts to fly Boeing B-17 bombers to carry the war directly to Germany. Escape to the Sky ends with Ben’s thirtieth and final bombing raid over Regensburg, Germany.