Flying High: The Story of Boeing and the Rise of the Jetliner Industry

by Eugene Rodgers

An investigative history of one of the world's most influential corporations, the Boeing Company, offers an objective account of how the company developed jetliners that re-defined travel, shrank the world, and made America the international ruler of the aircraft industry.

502 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1996

About the author

Eugene Rodgers was named Virginia author of the year in 1991 by the Virginia College Store’s Assoc. for his first book, "Beyond the Barrier: The Story of Byrd’s First Expedition to Antarctica," published by the Naval Institute Press (byrdbook.wordpress.com—still in print as a quality paperback). His second book, "Flying High: The Story of Boeing and the Rise of the Jetliner Industry," was published in 1996 by Grove/Atlantic.

Rodgers is a retired speechwriter and public relations writer specializing in science and business. He was educated in science and writing, earning a B.S. in chemistry and being chosen for a grad school apprenticeship in science writing.

He spent most of his career in the electric power industry, working for Westinghouse Electric Corp. (where he was Director of Public Relations for the company’s research and development center), Virginia Power (one of the country’s largest electric utilities), the U.S. Department of Energy, the trade association of the nuclear power industry, and a huge financial institution, the Cooperative Finance Corporation or CFC, that lends money to electric co-ops. On his own, he launched and published a newsletter covering research and development in the electric power industry.

He has been a speechwriter for the top executives of IBM and United Technologies as well as organizations in the electric power industry. His freelanced projects include an op-ed solicited by the Wall Street Journal and a major address for the head of the Electric Power Research Institute.

Rodgers has an M.S. in finance and completed the coursework toward a Ph.D. in the history and philosophy of science. He served as Public Information Officer for the U.S. Antarctic Research Program.

Rodgers has been interviewed numerous times on local and network TV and radio news shows, talk shows, and documentaries.

Rodgers is married and has a son and daughter, both grown. He lived for eight years in Pittsburgh, the main setting for his novel, and now lives in suburban Richmond, Virginia.