Fightin' Air Force #17

Lt. Cal Rawlins is a born pilot with a weakness for high-speed flying, but when he refuses to follow orders on a crucial ground-support mission in Korea, the Colonel grounds his beloved Sabre jet and assigns him to fly a slow training aircraft as an artillery spotter—work Rawlins initially views as beneath him. As he takes on this unglamorous job, Rawlins discovers that precise low-altitude flying and coordination with ground forces demand just as much skill and courage as dogfighting, and he begins to understand what it truly means to fight a war.

When an American pilot in a P-38 Lightning fighter takes catastrophic damage over the Pacific during a fierce dogfight, he faces an impossible choice: bail out over hostile territory or attempt the seemingly suicidal flight back to the distant base at Saipan with half his plane crippled and burning. This wartime tale showcases why the P-38 earned its fearsome reputation among both Allied and Japanese pilots, proving that sometimes the toughest battles aren't won in the air—they're won by sheer determination and a legendary machine.

Captain Kyle Abbot has survived more than his share of close calls—from his Thunderbolt being shot down over Japan in 1944 to a catastrophic flame-out during jet training—but when he's called back to active duty in 1950 and shipped to Korea, he begins to wonder if his worst luck is yet to come. Flying an F-86D Sabre in MiG Alley, Abbot proves himself a skilled and determined pilot, but a direct hit during a ground support run forces him to bail out over what he fears is enemy territory. What Abbot discovers about his fortune—and himself—when he hits the ground will change everything he thought he knew about luck.

Lt. Hap Allen flies a captured Fokker fighter with deadly success until designer Anthony G. Fokker unleashes an even more formidable triplane that outmaneuvers everything in the Allied arsenal. Shot down behind German lines once again, Allen hatches a daring plan to steal one of the new fighters and bring it back to his own side. This tale of aerial combat and wartime ingenuity captures the high stakes of World War I dogfighting, where piloting skill and machine capability were equally matched tests of nerve.