author
Roy Franklin
A bush pilot, airline founder, and memoirist, he wrote with the firsthand grit of someone who had truly lived the adventure. His best-known book brings readers into the early days of flying in Washington's San Juan Islands, where weather, risk, and stubborn determination shaped everyday life.
2 Audiobooks
Bound to get there : or, A boy who could not be downed
by Roy Franklin
Fighting for fortune : or, Making a place for himself
by Roy Franklin
About the author
Born in 1924, Roy Franklin became known in the Pacific Northwest as a pioneering aviator who helped build commercial air service in Washington's San Juan Islands. After serving as a Navy carrier fighter pilot during World War II, he returned home and went on to play a central role in the region's early island aviation.
He is best known as the author of Island Bush Pilot: Founder of San Juan Airlines, a memoir drawn from decades of experience flying in difficult conditions and helping connect isolated communities. The book's appeal comes from its direct, practical voice and its close view of a world where flying was both a livelihood and a daily test of judgment.
Franklin died in 2011. Reliable sources about him focus mainly on his aviation life, so biographical details outside that story are limited, but his writing remains closely tied to the history of bush flying and regional air travel in the American Northwest.