Flight: One Hundred Years of Aviation in Photographs Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a large coffee table type of book.It manages very well in giving an overview of the accomplishes in flight without going into tremendous detail. It has 256 pages,most of which consist of an excellent choice of photographs.It is presented in 6 Chapters;
Beginnings
Exubernce
War
Blue Skies
Hot Wars and Cold Wars
and
Maturity
There is a substantial index,a list of Picture Credits and 7 Double Page Flight Blueprints , each with a detailed,cut-away illustration with each part identified by a number along with its name or description.To give an idea of the detail given;the Boeing B-52G bomber with cruise missile,has 200 parts identified. Even the Spitfire fighter has 134 parts detailed. In all there are Flight Blueprints for;
Spitfire fighter
Boeing B-17G bomber
Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter
Locheed Constellation airliner
Boeing B-52G bomber with cruise missile
and ,
Concorde supersonic airliner
There are over 300 photographs,all excellent,historical and stunning.As one would expect in a book such as this,the earlier photographs are B&W,and the more recent are in color.
With so much to choose from,it is an extremely difficult to make choices,and only a small sampling could be included.Don't be disappointed if some of your favorite machines have not been included, they can't all be there.
When you finish the book ,you can't be but amazed how much of an impact competition,be it for peaceful flight or for wartime advantage ,had in the development of flight machines;and how quickly it all happened.
This book is listed here in two versions.The one I have was published by Carlton Books,on August 1,2003.It is ISBN 1-84442-903-2,Hardcover glossy surface plus dustjacket,256 pages,4.29 pounds,11.5 X 11.6 inches,and a List Price of $45.
The other one listed is published by Firefly Books,on November 2,2004. Its ISBN is 978-1552979846,Softcover,3.19 pounds 11.2 X 10.3 inches and a List Price of $24.95.There is a review there that is less than enthusastic about its quality.Maybe the quality between the two is reflected in rhe prices.
As far as I anm concerned,the copy I have is excellent in quality and gives an excellent overview if the history of flight and some excellent photographs.


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Published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first successful flight, the stunningly illustrated Flight captures the excitement of a century of far-fetched dreams and equally remarkable innovation, from the defeat of Donald Douglas by Boeing's William Allen to Charles Lindberg along at night in his cockpit on his way to Paris, to British bomber crews over Hamburg, to Chuck Yeager's near disaster and miraculous recovery. What began as a death-defying spectacle turned into both the safest and fastest way to travel and a terrifying war machine. Drawing on the holdings of the National Air and Space Museum, the National Archives and the US Air Force, this is the story of an invention that began with two curious brothers on a chilly and windswept beach and went on to radically change the course of history.

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