New Book Documents Life and Flights of Aviation Icon Clay Lacy

LOS ANGELES, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- From the time he was a young boy growing up in the farmland of Wichita, Kansas during the Great Depression, veteran aviator and recent National Aviation Hall of Fame inductee Clay Lacy experienced a natural fascination with flight. He first took to the air at age eight and at age 12 worked at a local airport in exchange for flight time. Captivated by the sense of adventure that air travel offered, Lacy embarked on a lifelong journey that propelled him from the wheat fields of the Midwest to the airfields of the world.

Lucky Me: The Life and Flights of Veteran Aviator Clay Lacy, a limited-edition biographical book, is the story of an aviation icon as revealed through rare photographs and the personal recollections of his friends and colleagues. Here you will find previously untold stories—punctuated by both drama and humor—shared by a fraternity of aviators bound by their mutual love of flight, from U.S. astronauts and military test pilots to world-famous inventors and Hollywood personalities.

With a foreword by U.S. astronaut and Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, Lucky Me features personal recollections from hotelier Barron Hilton, physician and inventor Dr. Forrest Bird, American automotive designer and racing champion Carroll Shelby, actor and director Cliff Robertson, U.S. astronaut Capt. Gene Cernan and other prominent figures in business, aviation and film. Most importantly, the book describes how a young boy from the Midwest helped revolutionize the general aviation industry by following his dreams with passion.

Lucky Me will be released at a book signing event on Tuesday, July 27 at 2:30 p.m. CDT at the Experimental Aircraft Association's (EAA) 2010 AirVenture Oshkosh air show in Wisconsin, touted as the world's largest aviation celebration. To launch the weeklong festivities, the day prior Lacy will pilot a rare Douglas DC-2 aircraft to join a group of 39 Douglas DC-3 aircraft arriving to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the DC-3. Owned by the Seattle Museum of Flight, the remarkably restored DC-2 is one of only two flying models of its type in the world.

Following the release of Lucky Me at AirVenture Oshkosh, the EAA will accept donations for a limited number of books available online at www.shopeaa.com to benefit nonprofit aviation scholarship programs. Although not for commercial sale, an electronic version of Lucky Me can be viewed at www.claylacy.com beginning on August 1, 2010.  The book is authored by Stacy Geere and published by The Donning Company Publishers.

About Clay Lacy

An airline captain, experimental test pilot, air race champion, aviation record-setter, aerial cinematographer and entrepreneur, Clay Lacy has touched upon more aspects of aviation than any other pilot.  Over the past six decades, he has flown more than 300 aircraft types, established twenty-nine world speed records, performed over 3,000 aerial photography missions and logged more than 50,000 flight hours. Known as the "pilot's pilot," he has accumulated more air miles flying jet aircraft than anyone on Earth.

In 1964 while working closely with Learjet inventor William "Bill" Powell Lear during the aircraft's early development, Lacy flew the first Learjet to be based at Van Nuys Airport in close proximity to Hollywood's burgeoning entertainment industry to launch a new era in corporate air transportation and mobility.

After flying F-86 jet fighters for the California Air National Guard and while still a United Airlines pilot, in 1968 Lacy founded Clay Lacy Aviation (CLA) as the first jet charter company on the West Coast. Now distinguished as the most experienced operator of private jets in the world, CLA serves business executives and CEOs, national and world leaders, athletes and sports teams, celebrities and dignitaries.

Lacy is the recipient of many distinguished awards and honors, and was inducted on July 17, 2010 into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio.

SOURCE Clay Lacy Aviation