INTO UNKNOWN SKIES An Unlikely Team, a Daring Race, and the First Flight Around the World

Adam Verner narrates the story of the 1924 attempt to fly around the world, which brought together American, British, French, Italian, and South American pilots. The Americans started in California and headed west--the others, east. Their goal: to circumnavigate the earth by air, hopscotching from landing fields over lakes and rivers, icy glaciers and deserts while battling rain, snow, sleet, and unbearable heat to set records. Heart-stopping crashes, terrifying landings, and innumerable pauses for repairs are all enumerated in Verner's soft, unemotional voice, which rarely waivers throughout the five-month race. Oddly sloppy pronunciation mars the performance of this history of "a century-old aerial feat," a breathtaking tale of flight that is interspersed with digressions about historical events and places. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2025]