norman malayney wrote:
I question the "dubious" process of selecting important warbird personages--especially authors. To list Martin W. Bowman in the author category is a travesty.
The intended criteria for inclusion here is the same one that Time uses for their Person of the Year - only that the person had a major "impact" on the warbird community. Nothing in this thread is intended to be a value judgement on whether they were a good or bad person.
I will be the first to admit plagiarism is unacceptable (you'll note that in my other threads - even in my previous posts in this thread - I am always careful to include references) and am glad that you brought up potential issues with Bowman's work, as it should indeed be mentioned. However, that does not detract from the fact that he had a large impact on the historiography of warbirds. (Indeed, one
Google Books page describes him as "one of Britain's best-known aviation historians and authors".) Martin Caidin is guilty of
straight up fabrication, and he is also included here. Some people
similarly objected to Ric Gillespie.
The criteria for determining impact was intentionally left broad to cast as large a net as possible. The goal here was to have as many suggestions as possible so that no one is missed, not develop an authoritative list.
norman malayney wrote:
There are more important intellectual issues in aviation history to address than this nonsense.
I see no reason there is not room for all issues. If you would like to discuss one, please feel free to start a different thread. I always look forward to in-depth discussions of warbird philosophy and wish there were more!
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