a broad-strokes account of the "big business'' aspect of U.S. aviation and its dependence on the military…
panoramic history of the rise of the American aerospace industry traces the careers of the men whose names became synonymous with today's military-industrial complex: Glenn Martin of Martin Marietta, Donald Douglas of McDonnell Douglas, Jack Northrop of Northrop, and Allan and Malcolm Loughead of Lockheed. Weaving together institutional history and individual biography, Wayne Biddle depicts the years of uncertainty after World War I, the bonanza of World War II, and the cutthroat postwar market. Unlike the automobile industry, the aircraft industry could never be sustained by the middle-class consumer economy, and these legendary founders had to depend on the federal government to keep their companies aloft. Barons of the Sky tells a thrilling story of obsessed men who, chasing their dreams of flight and success, created the modern aerospace weapons industry.

story of the aviation pioneers whose business interests resulted in mega-corporations such as Boeing, Lockheed, Martin Marietta, Northrup and McDonnell Douglas. The book describes how the American aircraft industry weathered the Depression by turning itself into an international munitions business. Operating under something of a cloud in prewar isolationist days, the industry profited grossly when "it became necessary for Washington to beg the merchants of death to become the saviors of civilization.'' (During World War II these manufacturers turned out 304,139 aircraft for the military)