Wolfgang Langewiesche

Wolfgang Langewiesche (1907–2002) aviator, author and journalist, is one of the most quoted authors in aviation writing. His book, Stick and Rudder (1944), is still in print, and is considered a primary reference on the art of flying fixed-wing aircraft.

Born in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1907, he migrated to America in 1929. He was a graduate of the London School of Economics and earned his master's degree from Columbia University. He was in a doctoral program in the University of Chicago when he decided to learn to fly and pursue a career in aviation.

Mr. Langewiesche wrote for Air Facts magazine, an aviation safety-related publication edited by Leighton Collins, and his articles were the basis for most of Stick and Rudder. The basic facts about flying that he emphasized in 1944 have withstood much criticism since then. Over 200,000 copies of the book had been printed as of 1990.

He taught ground school in the U.S. Army aviation school during World War II, and test flew F4U Corsairs for the Vought Corporation. He later worked for Cessna as a test pilot. In the 1950s he became Reader's Digest's roving editor, retiring in 1986.

His son, William Langewiesche is also a well-known author, journalist and pilot with an award-winning career with the Atlantic Monthly and Vanity Fair magazines.

References

• Article in Flying published in October 1976.
• An Article by Bruce Landsberg, Executive Director of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation [1]

Books authored

• I'll take the high road (1939)
• Stick and Rudder : An Explanation of the Art of Flying, McGraw-Hill, New York, Copyright 1944 & 1972, ISBN 0 07-036240-8
• A flier's world (1950)