AIRPLANES, WOMEN AND SONGS: BORIS SERGIEVSKY . EDS020

Sergeivsky dictated this lively and personal memoir in 1934 when he and Charles Lindbergh were about to set eight world records in a giant Pan American Clipper. It also details many exciting and historic events of his life from his time as a Russian infantry fighter to his worldwide pioneering flights.

Boris Sergievsky was one of the most colorful of the early aviators. He made his first flight less than ten years after the Wright brothers made theirs; he made his last only four years before the first Concorde took off. Born in Russia, Sergievsky learned to fly in 1912. In World War I, he became a much-decorated infantry officer and then a fighter pilot. During the Russian Civil War that followed, he fought on three fronts against the Bolsheviks. Coming to America in 1923, the first job he could find in New York was with a pick and shovel, digging the Holland Tunnel, but he soon joined Igor Sikorsky's airplane company. He became chief test pilot for the Sikorsky flying boats that Pan American Airways used worldwide, setting seventeen world aviation records along the way. Sergievsky also flew pioneering flights across uncharted African and Latin American jungles, flew with Lindbergh, and tested early helicopters and jets. Through it all, his sense of humor remained intact, as did his passion for beautiful women. His story is illustrated with more than 40 rare photographs.