Robert Jerome Serling (March 28, 1918 — May 6, 2010) was an American novelist and aviation writer. Born in Cortland, New York, Serling graduated from Antioch College. He became full-time aviation editor for United Press International in 1960. His novel The President's Plane Is Missing was made into a 1973 made-for-TV film starring Buddy Ebsen. He was the older brother of screenwriter and The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling. He received the 1988 Lauren D. Lyman Award "for distinguished achievement in the field of aviation and aerospace journalism."He died in 2010 at age 92.
Was a United Press International, Washington, DC, reporter and manager of Radio News Division, 1945-60, aviation editor, 1960-66; air safety lecturer and consultant, beginning 1966.
Received numerous honors of his work throughout his career: Trans-World Airlines, seven awards, 1958-65, for aviation news reporting, Strebig-Dobben Memorial Award, 1960; special citations from Sherman Fairchild Foundation, 1963, Flight Safety Foundation, 1970, and Airline Pilots Association, 1970; Aviation/Space Writers Association, James Trebig Memorial Award, 1964, special citation, 1967, award in fiction, 1966, for The Left Seat, and in nonfiction, 1969, for Loud and Clear.
Collected commercial airline models (more than four hundred during his life) and material on aviation research.
Member of the Society of Air Safety Investigators and the Aviation/Space Writers Association
Brother Rod Serling hired him as a consultant for the airplane sequences in the episode "The Odyssey of Flight 33" of his hit TV-show The Twilight Zone.
Something's Alive on the Titanic and The President's Plane Is Missing are fantasy novels set in real life high-profile backdrops.
Was a reporter for the Washington Redskins. Travelled with the team and roomed with quarterback Eddie Lebaron.