author
Hank Searls
1922–2017
A former naval officer who turned firsthand technical know-how into brisk, high-stakes fiction, he wrote stories of crowded skies, moon-race pressure, and ocean danger. Several of his books reached the screen, including works that became The Crowded Sky and Countdown.
1 Audiobook
Martyr's Flight
by Hank Searls
About the author
Born in San Francisco in 1922, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy during World War II and served as a naval officer before moving into full-time writing. That background gave his fiction a grounded, practical feel, especially in stories about aviation, the military, and technology.
His best-known novels include The Crowded Sky and The Pilgrim Project, both adapted for film, and he also worked as a screenwriter. He wrote across genres, from suspense and science fiction to sea-going adventure, and later contributed the novelizations for Jaws 2 and Jaws: The Revenge.
He died in 2017 at age 94. His work is remembered for its fast pace, strong sense of setting, and the confidence of a writer who understood the worlds he described from the inside.