The books in this section are usually hardcover and in decent condition, though we'll sometimes offer hard-to-find books in lesser condition at a reduced price. Though we often put images of the book with their original dust jackets, the copies here won't always (or even often) have them. If that is important to you, please call ahead or say so in the order comments!
One of the greatest adventures in the history of mankind has been his conquest of the air and it is especially exciting to us today for it is part of our own lives. The story of human flight unfolded here is the story of men of incredible courage and even greater vision and of the craft—sometimes ingenious and often fantastic—to which they entrusted their lives.
The story is brought to living presence by the author's accurate and vivid drawings illustrating the clear and concise text. For those who may never have flown, here is the very feel of flying and for everyone who has ever wondered about aviation, here is the fascinating inside story of the industry, science, sport, and military might that the airplane has created. With the author you can enter the tower of the world's greatest airport and hear the actual instructions to the planes of many nations landing and taking off. You can share the suspense of the Wright Brothers as they prepared to test their years of painstaking preparation in the winds of Kitty Hawk. You can thrill to the first air battles when such pilots as Rickenbacker, Richtofen, Bishop, Vaughn, and the author, himself, manned the controls of the rickety biplanes.
Of the years after the first war the author continues to write from first-hand experience. These were the romantic years of flying, when barnstormers thrilled carnival crowds and bush pilots opened impenetrable wildernesses. Then came the growth of the airlines and the historic milestones of flights such as Lindbergh's and Byrd's across ocean, continent and pole. Here too is the account—again firsthand—of the revolution in aviation during the Second World War and after the war, the development of the jet and its baptism of fire in Korea.
From the ancient legend of Icarus to the future of aviation here, then, is The Story of Flight.
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