Aerial Toys: Adventures With Flying Machines (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781544609058)

John F. Hanson was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1947. He was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he attended public schools. He attended the University of Michigan, where he studied Aerospace Engineering. While an undergraduate at the university, he built his flying time as a flight instructor and charter pilot. At the conclusion of his college junior year, at the age of twenty, he was offered and accepted a position as pilot for North Central Airlines. He continued his college education at the University of Michigan part time while he flew as an airline pilot, first finishing his BSE in Aerospace Engineering. He then was admitted to graduate school at Michigan, again attending part time for 3 1/2 years, eventually obtaining his MSE in Aerospace. His airline career lasted almost 40 years, and included (through mergers) flying under the airline banners first of North Central Airlines, then Republic Airlines, and finally retiring from Northwest Airlines as a captain on the Boeing 747-400. He was the very bottom pilot on the seniority list at North Central on his hire date in 1968, and over the next 39 1/2 years gradually rose to the very top of the seniority list at Northwest Airlines. He spent 13 months as #1 before he eventually retired on October 29, 2007.