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Martin Caidin (September 14, 1927 – March 24, 1997) was an American author, screenwriter, and an authority on aeronautics and aviation.
Caidin began writing fiction in 1957. In his career he authored more than 50 fiction and nonfiction booksIt has been claimed that Caidin authored a total of eighty books. Martin Caidin, The Tigers Are Burning, Pinnacle Books, Los Angeles, 1975, 1980, p. i. as well as more than 1,000 magazine articles. His best-known novel is Cyborg, which was the basis for The Six Million Dollar Man franchise. He also wrote numerous works of military history, especially concerning aviation.
Caidin was also an airplane pilot. He bought and restored a 1936 Junkers Ju 52 airplane.
Caidin was credited in episodes of the original Bionic Woman series, a Six Million Dollar Man spinoff, but not in the 2007 remake of The Bionic Woman.
Years later, Caidin would reference bionics in a satirical manner in his novel , an adaptation of the pulp fiction and comic strip character Buck Rogers in which Rogers is given bionic parts after being revived from his centuries-long coma.
Caidin's 1964 novel Marooned, about American astronauts who become stranded in space and NASA's subsequent attempt to rescue them, is based on Project Mercury. The book was adapted into a 1969 movie of the same name starring Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus and Gene Hackman, with Caidin making a brief appearance as a reporter describing the arrival of the rescue vehicle at Cape Canaveral. The movie was based on Project Apollo and Caidin revised his novel in 1969, as a movie novelization, to reflect the change.
World War Two books written by Caidin include Samurai!; Black Thursday; Thunderbolt!; Fork-Tailed Devil: The P-38; Flying Forts; Zero!; The Ragged, Rugged Warriors; A Torch to the Enemy; and The Last Dogfight. Caidin's books about space travel include No Man's World, in which the Soviets beat the Americans to the moon, and Four Came Back, about an ill-fated space station for eight crew members. Caidin's other books with movie tie-ins include The Final Countdown and novels featuring adventurer-archaeologist Indiana Jones. He also wrote the book Exit Earth, which was a Noah's Ark in space story; he said it was one of his favorite books and he always felt it would be an amazing motion picture.
During 1961, Caidin was one of the pilots of a formation flight of B-17s across the Atlantic Ocean, likely the last such flight, from the United States to England via Canada, the Azores, and Portugal. During the voyage, the pilots had a near-miss with a submarine. Caidin recounted this journey in his book Everything But The Flak.
Caidin also worked as a pilot for the movie The War Lover, flew with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration squadron for several months, and was made an honorary member of the U.S. Army's Golden Knights parachute demonstration team.
Additionally, Caidin wrote an aircraft manual for the Messerschmitt Bf 108, which has been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration as the standard manual for the plane, and twice won the Aviation/Space Writers Association award for the outstanding author on aviation.
Caidin also established a company with the purpose of promoting aeronautics to young people.
Caidin also taught a progressive journalism course at the University of Florida in Gainesville, titled Caidin's Law.
The magician James Randi offered to test Caidin's claimed abilities during 1994. Online newsletter of the James Randi Educational Foundation.
During September 2004, Randi wrote: "He frantically avoided accepting my challenge by refusing even the simplest of proposed control protocols, but he never tired of running on about how I would not test him."
Personal life
Caidin died of thyroid cancer on March 25, 1997 at the age of 69.
External links
Categories: 1927 Births, 1997 Deaths, 20th-century American Novelists, American Male Novelists, American Military Writers, American Technology Writers, American Science Fiction Writers, American Male Screenwriters, Writers From New York City, Telekinetics, American Male Short Story Writers, 20th-century American Short Story Writers, 20th-century American Male Writers, Novelists From New York, 20th-century American Non-fiction Writers, American Male Non-fiction Writers, American Historians, American Aviation Writers, American Aviation Historians, The Bionic Woman, Screenwriters From New York, 20th-century American Screenwriters, Deaths From Thyroid Cancer, Deaths From Cancer In Florida
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