Character & Characters: The Spirit of Alaska Airlines

by Robert J. Serling

This is the history of Alaska s last legacy airline, Alaska Airlines. Aviation-history writer Robert Serling has documented Alaska Airlines unconventional past and titled it Character & Characters in recognition of those who flew the planes and marked the airline s transformation from a single-aircraft bush operator in 1932 to a major U.S. carrier. From Alaska Airlines fabled beginnings serving the far reaches of America s Last Frontier to its present-day network stretching from Barrow to Zihuatanejo and Boston to Honolulu . . . from creative promotions to its historic flights that linked the United States and the Russian Far East . . . from distinctive in-flight services to the first online ticket sales, Character & Characters chronicles the unusual stories and colorful people behind this uncommonly independent airline. Serling s seasoned perspective is based on his authorship of a long list of airline histories, an industry fascination that began not long after the Wright brothers first flight, and his love of a good story. His experience has resulted in a spirited telling of Alaska Airlines history of survival and success over unforgiving geographies in a remarkably competitive business. Character & Characters has a rhythm to it, based not so much on chronology as on Serling s innate sense of how a good story should be told. And like the airline that is the subject of his work, his book is a great aviation saga.

Genres: Aviation

492 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[George L. Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book and a must read for every aviation enthusiast.

I worked for American Airlines for 14 years and learned a great deal about this wonderful company.
I have read three of Robert Serling's other books and this was the best

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, how pertinent to finish this on Alaska Day!

It was . . . long. Overall, it was interesting. There were some sections where it got really muddled down with business schtuff. Since this is the airline I fly the most it's interesting to read about some of the history and how it became what it is today.

[Richard Natali · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wrong book

As with a few others, I downloaded this book, expecting to read about Alaska Airlines, and while the cover of the downloaded book is correct, the rest of the book is about TWA. Epic fail... Please upload the correct book to Amazon.

[Sam Maslow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sterling's Spirit of Alaska Airlines provides the reader with meaningful insight into the internal corporate operations of the Last Frontier's airliner. Character & Characters is tailored to aviation enthusiasts who do not mind reading 500 pages of detailed accounts of pivotal moments in Alaska' aviation history; From Bush pilots in Nome to the SeaTac - Anchorage routing, Sterling takes you back in time to the origins of the Airline. Reading the daily struggles and wins of CEOs Charlie Willis and Bruce Kennedy contributes to the plethora of detailed minutia. To his credit, Sterling conducted precise research on his subject and documented the trials and tribulations of an international airline still bearing its eskimo origins.

The initial funding for his research apparently was provided, in part, by Alaska Air Group and the Airline itself, bias is quite noticeable. Flight 261 and the horror of a failed horizontal "jackscrew", causing limited control of the Boeing, resulted in the death of over 85 passengers and crew. Sterling presents the corporate side of this tragedy, but limits mentioning the NTSB report alluding to poor corporate spending on proper lubrication of vital mechanical parts.

Looking past these biases, albeit Sterling prims the reader with transparency about the book's funding, the person who looks up in the sky and enjoys watching planes float across the endless blue sphere, will enjoy reading this book.