Richard David Bach ( June 23rd, 1936 ) was born in Oak Park ( Illinois, United States ). He attended Long Beach State College ( California, United States ) in 1955.
Richard Bach's first airplane flight occurred at the age of 14, when his mother was campaigning for a seat on the council of Long Beach. Her campaign manager, Paul Marcus, mentioned that he flew airplanes and invited Richard on a flight in his Globe Swift.
Richard Bach served in the United States Navy Reserve, then in the New Jersey Air National Guard's 108th Fighter Wing, 141st Fighter Squadron ( U.S.A.F. ), as a Republic F - 84F Thunderstreak fighter pilot.
He then worked at a variety of jobs, including as a technical writer for Douglas Aircraft and as a contributing editor for Flying magazine. He served in the U.S.A.F. Reserve and was deployed in France in 1960. He later became a barnstormer.
During the summer of 1970, Bach and his friend Chris Cagle traveled to Ireland, where they participated in flying sequences for Roger Corman's film, Von Richthofen and Brown ( 1971 ).
Richard Bach's first book, the autobiographical Stranger to the Ground ( 1963 ) described the deployment to France of his Air National Guard unit, and was received favorably, for example, by Edmund Fuller in the Wall Street Journal.
Richard Bach is the author of several books, such as : Biplane ( 1966 ), A Gift of Wings ( 1974 ), The Bridge Across Forever : A Love Story ( 1984 ), Running from Safety ( 1995 ), Flying : The Aviation Trilogy ( 2003 ), Travels with Puff : A Gentle Game of Life and Death ( 2013 ).
( source : Wikipedia )