Collection of fiction, nonfiction and poetry on the topic of air travel.

On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright soared into history during a twelve-second flight on a secluded North Carolina beach. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first flight, these essays chart the central role that aviation played in twentieth-century history and capture the spirit of innovation and adventure that has characterized the history of flight. The contributors, all leading aerospace historians, consider four broad themes relating to the development of flight technology: innovation and the technology of flight, civil aeronautics and government policy, aerial warfare, and aviation in the American imagination. Through their attention to the political, economic, military, and cultural history of flight, the authors establish that the Wrights' invention--and all that followed in both air and space--was one of the most significant technologies of the twentieth century, fundamentally reshaping our world. Supported by the First Flight Centennial Commission The contributors are Janet R. Daly Bednarek, Tami Davis Biddle, Roger E. Bilstein, Hans-Joachim Braun, David T. Courtwright, Anne Collins Goodyear, Roger D. Launius, William M. Leary, David D. Lee, W. David Lewis, John H. Morrow, Dominick A. Pisano, and A. Timothy Warnock.

Since their emergence at the start of the 20th century, airports have become one of the most distinctive and important of architectural building types. Often used to symbolize progress, freedom and trade, they offer architects the chance to design on a grand scale. At the beginning of the 21st century, airports are experiencing a new and exciting renaissance as they adapt and evolve into a new type of building; one that is complete, adaptable and catering to a new range of demands. As passengers are held in airports far longer than they used to be, they have also now become destinations in their own right. Airports celebrates the most important airport designs in the world. Beginning with an exploration of the first structures of aviation, and early designs such as the Berlin Tempelhof, the book explores the key airports of the century up to the present day, including Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal in New York, Renzo Piano's Kansai Airport and Norman Foster's Chek Lap Kok in Hong Kong.

Tracing the hundred-year history of aviation in Texas, aviator and historian Barbara Ganson brings to life the colorful personalities that shaped the phenomenally successful development of this industry in the state. Weaving stories and profiles of aviators, designers, manufacturers, and those in related services, Texas Takes Wing covers the major trends that propelled Texas to the forefront of the field. Covering institutions from San Antonio’s Randolph Air Force Base (the West Point of this branch of service) to Brownsville’s airport with its Pan American Airlines instrument flight school (which served as an international gateway to Latin America as early as the 1920s) to Houston’s Johnson Space Center, home of Mission Control for the U.S. space program, the book provides an exhilarating timeline and engaging history of dozens of unsung pioneers as well as their more widely celebrated peers. Drawn from personal interviews as well as major archives and the collections of several commercial airlines, including American, Southwest, Braniff, Pan American Airways, and Continental, this sweeping history captures the story of powered flight in Texas since 1910. With its generally favorable flying weather, flat terrain, and wide open spaces, Texas has more airports than any other state and is often considered one of America’s most aviation-friendly places. Texas Takes Wing also explores the men and women who made the region pivotal in military training, aircraft manufacturing during wartime, general aviation, and air servicing of the agricultural industry. The result is a soaring history that will delight aviators and passengers alike.

Describes various aircrafts, from enormous planes that carry hundreds of passengers to personal planes.

The gripping story of a rapid-fire period of change in aviation. The fourth volume in the Aviation Century series is the dramatic story of the worldshrinking developments in commercial aviation through the end of the twentieth century, in which airliners grew from frail biplanes to huge Jumbo jets. In the process, advanced air travel brought with it worldwide political, economic and social change. In 2004 commercial airlines carried an estimated 1.6 billion passengers. Each new generation of transport aircraft has brought greater reliability, economy and safety, and increased global commerce through technological advances. Each day millions of shipments now travel by air between continents via sophisticated air cargo and air express systems. Other chapters in Winds of Change examine: the wider world of aeronautics private aircraft (personal planes as well as ultralights, sailplanes, hang gliders and parasails) lighter-than-air flight (Zeppelins, blimps, hot-air balloons) rotary wings (helicopters and related craft) the challenges of research and development (from sketch pad to computers; designers, builders and test pilots).

Measures how the world has been changed by the first human flight, examining military aviation after World War II, the safety of flight, the future of aviation, and centenary attempts to recreate the Wright brothers' first flights.

100 Planes 100 Years unfolds the evolution of aviation in a way never before seen. A stunning photograph of a plane for each year from 1900-2000 is portrayed through unique graphics showing silhouettes, multiple views, and action collages. Accompanying each of these never-before-published, full-color photos, you'll discover fascinating anecdotes about the plane's design, its daring pilots, and its final fate. From photos of the Wright brothers' first plane in 1900 to the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927 to the planned super-jet of 2000, aviation history is made active and animated before your eyes.

In late May 1927 an inexperienced and unassuming 25-year-old Air Mail pilot from rural Minnesota stunned the world by making the first non-stop transatlantic flight. A spectacular feat of individual daring and collective technological accomplishment, Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris ushered in the modern age of commercial aviation. In The Flight of the Century, Thomas Kessner takes a fresh look at one of America's greatest moments, explaining how what was essentially a publicity stunt became a turning point in history. Kessner vividly recreates the flight itself and the euphoric reaction to it on both sides of the Atlantic, and argues that Lindbergh's amazing feat occurred just when the world--still struggling with the disillusionment of WWI--desperately needed a hero to restore a sense of optimism and innocence. Kessner also shows how new forms of mass media made Lindbergh into the most famous international celebrity of his time, casting him in the role of a humble yet dashing American hero of rural origins and traditional values. Much has been made of Lindbergh's personal integrity and his refusal to cash in on his fame, but Kessner reveals that Lindbergh was closely allied with, and managed by, a group of powerful businessmen--Harry Guggenheim, Dwight Morrow, and Henry Breckenridge chief among them--who sought to exploit aviation for mass transport and massive profits. Their efforts paid off as commercial air traffic soared from 6,000 passengers in 1926 to 173,000 passengers in 1929. Kessner's book is the first to fully explore Lindbergh's central role in promoting the airline industry--the rise of which has influenced everything from where we live to how we wage war and do business.

"Like citrus, oil, movies, radio, and television, aerospace helped create Southern California and embody its values. Blue Sky Metropolis launches an entirely fresh consideration of an iconic industry that answered the immemorial hunger of the human race for flight and the future."--Kevin Starr, University of Southern California "Blue Sky Metropolis presents an intriguing survey of a unique time in Southern California history, when cheap land and benign weather lured massive aerospace enterprises to the region—eventually serving as home to nearly half of the nation’s defense and space fabricators. Before there was a Silicon Valley, high-tech dreamers were on the loose in the Southland, creating inventions as diverse as the Voyager planetary spacecraft and the Stealth bomber. These highly readable essays help us understand how it happened—how Southern California shaped aerospace, and vice versa."—Charles Elachi, Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory "Peter Westwick has assembled a rich collection of essays that tell a wonderful story about the importance of the aerospace industry to Southern California and the importance of Southern California to the aerospace industry. There's technology, sociology, economics, geography, anthropology, and much more woven through the chapters. It's an ambitious project, but it succeeds in being interesting, informative, and entertaining."—Michael Rich, President and CEO, The RAND Corporation