The Boy Who Dreamed of Flying: The John W. Kiker Story - From Model Airplanes to the Space Shuttle - Hardcover

by Joel W. Kiker (Author)

When John Kiker was a boy in North Carolina, he didn't

just play with toys-he was an explorer of how things flew.

While others saw a hobby, John saw a future. His teachers

thought he was obsessed, but that childhood passion would

eventually save NASA tens of millions of dollars.

From training WWII pilots to designing the parachutes that

brought Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts safely

home, John's career was a series of "impossible" challenges.

But his greatest triumph came from the very thing he loved

as a grade-schooler: model airplanes.

Discover the inspiring true story of how one engineer used a

radio-controlled model to prove that a giant 747 could carry

the Space Shuttle on its back. This is more than a biogra-

phy-it's a reminder that no dream is too small, and no idea

is too "crazy" if you have the persistence to see it through.