Alan Biermann

With a father in the airplane propeller business, Alan Biermann spent a lot of time around airplanes in his early years. During high school and college, he worked in the factory each summer assembling propellers for single and twin engine aircraft. Later he became a sailplane pilot and flew many flights over the Mojave Desert near where Captain Yeager had broken the sound barrier. Then he spent his career as a professor of computer science, mostly at Duke University, and wrote a textbook that...See more

With a father in the airplane propeller business, Alan Biermann spent a lot of time around airplanes in his early years. During high school and college, he worked in the factory each summer assembling propellers for single and twin engine aircraft. Later he became a sailplane pilot and flew many flights over the Mojave Desert near where Captain Yeager had broken the sound barrier. Then he spent his career as a professor of computer science, mostly at Duke University, and wrote a textbook that has been used widely throughout the United States and abroad. When his children, especially his son, reached the early-reader stage, they very badly wanted to read real stories about real heroes and few if any could be found at their reading level. He wrote this book to give modern-day early readers a story that his own children would have loved if they had been given the chance. Alan lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with his wife, Alice Gordon. They enjoy very much their two granddaughters, Isabel and Sophia, and their parents who live nearby. See less