Billy Mitchell had a problem. His experience as a pilot in the first world war convinced him that airplanes were the way of the future, but no one believed him. Most people thought that airplanes were simply military tools or toys for the rich, so Billy decided to show people what airplanes could do. In 1919 he organized a transcontinental air race. However, it was not as simple as it sounds. The first problem was that the military surplus airplanes did not carry a lot of fuel, so Billy had to organize makeshift airports every two hundred miles. None of the aircraft had reliable navigational or flight aids such as compasses or altimeters. Therefore, Billy decided that the pilots would find their way across the country by following the railroad tracks. Also,...