A remarkable story filled with dreamers, inventors, scoundrels, and pioneering pilots, First to Fly recounts North Carolina's significant role in the early history of aviation. Beginning well before the Wright brothers' first powered flight at Kill

This funny and insightful science fiction classic introduces Shoogar, the greatest wizard ever known in his village. His spells can strike terror in the hearts of even his most powerful enemies. But the enemy he faces now is like none he has ever seen before. The stranger has come from nowhere and is ignorant of even the most basic principles of magic. But the stranger has an incredibly powerful magic of his own. There is no room in Shoogar's world for an intruder whose powers match his own, let alone one whose powers might exceed his. So before the blue sun can cross the face of the red sun once more, Shoogar will show this stranger just who is boss.

How can one pilot cram so much into a single lifetime? Climb into Captain Terry Reece's cockpit, fasten your seatbelt, and hold on for an exciting journey into the world of aviation. Born to a family of transplanted North Carolinians who moved to Washington State, a young Reece explored the hills of the Pacific Northwest. Hiking in the mountains and being a fire lookout gave him a taste of adventure, but he craved more-and he got it. Reece's first flying lesson ended in a cloud of billowing dust, ripped metal, and broken Plexiglas. But that didn't keep him grounded. Over the next few years, he navigated his Lockheed C-130 to steamy nights in Rangoon, risky undercover aircraft deliveries to Libya, icy Arctic expeditions, and desperate flights out of the desert with machine guns pointed at his gut, to landing Boeing jets on short, icy runways on Alaska's Aleutian Chain. Reece's entertaining biography delves into the fast-paced world of aviation and is filled with compassion, danger, bits of humor, and the follies of youth. It's also the remarkable tale of how Reece and his wife, Nancy, sought to keep his dream of flying alive through the years. From the freezing, isolated North Pole to the heat and heart of Africa, "Flying North South East and West" takes you to every direction on the compass and leads you to the adventure of a lifetime.

Whether you fear, thrill at, or, like many, have never bothered to stop and think about the wonder of commercial flight, The Flying Book will inform, surprise, reassure, and entertain. David Blatner takes readers from the cockpit to the runway, the control tower, the baggage and security systems, the airplane manufacturing plant, and beyond, explaining the many factors that make airline travel possible. There are stops along the way to examine airplane maintenance, pilot training, the effects of weather, safety statistics, tips for staying healthy, oddball aviation inventions such as the air car, and what aerodynamicists have learned from birds and bugs. With a brief history of aviation just to put it all in perspective, as well as minibiographies of some of history's great aviators, The Flying Book is a treasure trove of fascinating aviation facts. A delight for travelers-business, pleasure, or armchair-or any readers who like to indulge their sense of curiosity, The Flying Book captures the spirit, illuminates the science, and reveals the magic of flight.