The Lost Pilots: The Spectacular Rise and Scandalous Fall of Aviation's Golden Couple

Mead (English, Baruch Coll.; Angelic Music) chronicles the intertwining lives of two pilots from the golden age of aviation: Bill Lancaster and Jesse Keith-Miller. In October 1927, they flew from England to Australia in a light plane, losing out by days from being "first," though Keith-Miller was the first female pilot to make the trip. Married to other people but wildly in love, the pair sought out new flying adventures in America. Following the Great Depression, flying work was spotty, and tensions within their relationship mounted. In 1932, Lancaster was arrested for murdering Hayden Clark, Keith-Miller's new lover who was allegedly helping to write her autobiography. The sensational trial exposed Lancaster and Keith-Miller's affair, along with a human trafficking and drug smuggling scheme. Lancaster was acquitted, and he and Keith-Miller left America. In 1933, Lancaster attempted to break the England to South Africa flying record but died in the Sahara. Mead makes excellent use of trial documents, family archival material, and previously published work on Lancaster (Ralph Barker's VERDICT on a Lost Flyer) and Keith-Miller (Chrystopher J. Spicer's The Flying Adventures of Jessie Keith "Chubbie" Miller).