Flight in America: From the Wrights to the Astronauts

Richly illustrated and splendidly written, "Flight in America" charts the transformation by the airplane of virtually every aspect of American life, tracing aviation from the earliest discoveries of the airplane's possibilities for entertainment, commerce, and war to the fantasies of science fiction and the realities of jet and space travel. New to this edition are discussions of airline mergers and deregulation, defense cutbacks, military operations, NASA restructuring, and the revamped space program. Throughout, 126 contemporary photographs show the machines and the people who invented them, built them, and flew them.