My great-great-uncle CEL "Lloyd" Skedden was a fighter pilot killed in WWI, and my dad inherited his diary, letters, notes, etc. He also left some incredibly detailed technical drawings in his notes that may be of interest to some. They've been sitting around in a box for a while, and we'll take them out every so often, but haven't done much with them since we got them 20 years ago.

My dad has been photographing/scanning the documents and pictures Lloyd left, and he had someone transcribe the letters and diary, so it's slowly becoming digital, but we'd like to do more. He likes the idea of putting it together in a book, which I also think would be great, but I'd love to hear if there's anything more that could be done to preserve and even promulgate Lloyd's story. We'd be open to donating them somewhere that could properly preserve them, if that was the best option. I'd also love to find out if anyone from his squadron left similar diaries or letters behind, to try to piece together the rest of my ancestor's life.

The letters start when he enlisted in 1916, and include an aborted attempt at a diary he started while on a boat across the Atlantic (he was Canadian-American and enlisted in Canada before the US joined the war). The main diary isn't long (April-May of 1918), and is mostly mundane stuff, but Lloyd was a good writer and has some neat stories, like this one:

About ten minutes later, Cairns noticed some more and started to attack. I followed and engaged one chap when a couple came out of a cloud above me and started firing. One bullet hit the oil system and that went dud-wonk! Three Huns on you is no bon. I spiraled, turned, dived, climbed, everything-and I could see the tracers passing me-when slap I felt one on the top of my head. A second later a cloud offered refuge and with the engine full on I dived into it and so got away. My engine wonky and bullet holes in the bus-centre section strut shot through, engine seized, oil all over, I headed west. I was at about 5000 ft as I crossed the line and I headed for a field. Then I saw an aerodrome and headed for it, landed at Marie Capelle. I phone the squadron and came back in a side car. [This was most remarkable escape I ever saw with 3 1⁄2 years war experience. “Taffy” Jones]

That last bit is a note from Lloyd's roommate/best friend, "Taffy" Jones, who seems to have been a pretty prominent pilot. He ended up writing a book that mentions Lloyd as a great stunt pilot. Taffy also wrote a short notice at the end of the diary when Lloyd was killed on May 8th, 1918 at the age of 23.