Hiram Bingham was a visionary, widely acknowledged in his own time for his talents as an academic, explorer and United States senator. Hailing from Hawaii, where his family before and since have provided much public service, and an expert in South American history, he became world famous for his 'discovery' of the Quecha capital, Machu Picchu. His amazing breadth of service also encompassed service in the national guard, and he became an aviator and organized the United States Schools of Military Aeronautics at eight universities to provide ground school training for aviation cadets. Head of the famed Third Aviation Instruction Center at Issoudun in France, he was responsible for the training of pilots from initial flying to advanced pursuit training. Accompanied by many notes and diagrams of the tactics, schemes and manoeuvres (many illustrated) used in the air war over France, these memoirs from his days as head of the Training school make for fascinating reading.
