But did he learn to fly when he was only fourteen years old? Did he work as an aviation scout for Lawrence of Arabia during the Arab Revolt (1916–1918), create an air force for a Chinese warlord in the Gobi Desert, or work as a test pilot for Italian airplane designer Giovanni Battista Caproni, Karen Angel looks at the evidence to separate fact from fiction.

Angel’s Flight pieces together his fascinating life story using a blend of dedicated archival research, verified family history, the reminiscences of friends and acquaintances of Jimmie, his first wife Virginia, his second wife Marie − the mother of his children, and the research and essays of laypeople and scholars including an essay by Jorge M. González about Ruth Robertson’s 1949 overland expedition to measure the height of the waterfall.

Jimmie Angel was a gifted pilot who loved Central and South America, especially Venezuela. And while conflicting timelines make some of his legendary stories improbable, the verifiable history of Jimmie Angel is a compelling part of the history of aviation and world exploration.