The Flight Of Peto's Key

Some missions take a lifetime to finish.

In 1944, Captain Jack Whitaker and his crew flew a battered C-47 across the deadly Himalayan air route known as "the Hump." The aircraft was supposed to bear the name of Jack's Northern Michigan hometown-Petoskey-but a painter's mistake transformed it into PETO'S KEY.

The misspelled name became the crew's lucky charm.

When a violent storm brought the aircraft down in the Burmese jungle, the men escaped with their lives. Peto's Key-and the photograph of the woman Jack loved-was left behind.

Nearly forty years later, Jack is living quietly in a Northern Michigan retirement community when a television report stops him cold. A long-lost C-47 has been recovered from the jungle, restored, and brought to Michigan for one final Fourth of July airshow. Jack recognizes the damaged wing, the faded markings, and the photograph discovered behind the cockpit panel.

Peto's Key has finally come home.

Now Jack wants his crew back together for one last mission. Their objective is simple, reckless, and probably illegal: reclaim their old aircraft and take her into the sky one final time.

Armed with bad knees, worse jokes, an unreliable automobile, and the help of one sharp-witted granddaughter, the aging veterans set out to prove that courage does not disappear with age-and that some promises are worth waiting a lifetime to keep.

The Flight of Peto's Key is a heartfelt and humorous adventure about brotherhood, memory, second chances, and the enduring pull of home. Set against the beauty of Northern Michigan, it is a story for anyone who believes growing older does not mean surrendering the sky.