AMERICAN ACE: Captain Eddie Rickenbacker (1890Ð1973), America's top flying ace, was a former auto mechanic and Indianapolis 500 racing driver. He racked up 26 "kills" in the few months he was in action. After the war he became a pioneer in civil aviation, building Eastern Air Lines. In World War II, when he was a consultant, his plane was forced down in the Pacific, but he survived 23 days in the ocean in a rubber raft.
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