The Airplane: How Ideas Gave Us Wings

The Airplane by aerospace industry writer Jay Spencer, former assistant curator of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum and the Museum of Flight in Seattle, is the definitive history of how we invented and refined the amazing flying machines that enabled humankind to defy gravity. A fascinating true account certain to enthrall and delight aviation and technology buffs, The Airplane is lavishly illustrated with more than 100 photographs and is the first book ever to explore the development of the jetliner through a fascinating piece-by-piece analysis of the machinery of flight.

This comprehensive book explores one of humanity’s greatest adventures, from the earliest concepts to modern air travel:

• Pioneers of Aviation: Trace the story from Sir George Cayley’s first scientific imaginings of an airplane to the groundbreaking experiments of Otto Lilienthal and beyond.
• The Wright Brothers: Go behind the scenes at Kitty Hawk to discover how two bicycle-shop owners solved the complex problems of lift, propulsion, and control to invent the world’s first practical airplane.
• Aeronautical Engineering: Discover how flying machines evolved with a piece-by-piece analysis of fuselages, wings, and engines, lavishly illustrated with over 100 photographs from museum archives.
• The Jet Age: Follow the development of the modern jetliner from early concepts through the game-changing Boeing 707 all the way to the state-of-the-art systems of today’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

In this entertaining history of the jetliner, Jay Spenser traces aviation's challenges from the outset, and follows the flow of the simple yet powerful ideas that led us to defy gravity. Here are the pioneers—innovators such as Otto Lilienthal, Igor Sikorsky, Louis Blériot, Hugo Junkers, and Jack Northrop—whose amazing contributions collectively solved the puzzle of flight. Along the way, Spenser demystifies the modern jetliner, examining the airplane from wings to flight controls to fuselages to landing gear, to show how each part came into being and evolved over time. And finally The Airplane addresses the future of aviation, outlining the breathtaking possibilities that await us tomorrow, many miles above the earth.

• Who were aviation's dreamers, and where did they get their inspiration?
• How did birds, insects, marine mammals, and fish help us to fly?
• How did the bicycle beget the airplane, and hot water heaters lead to metal fuselages?
• Who figured out how to fly without seeing the ground, enabling airline travel in all weather conditions?

“Well-written and intelligent: a must for aviation buffs, and convincing back-up for Charles Lindbergh’s appreciative comment that the 747 was ‘one of the great ones.’” - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A story with a new character and a new engineering problem on every other page, each served with a sense of delight in ideas that sent humanity aloft.” - Seattle Times

“This is a written like an episode of the old TV show Connections, and is just as entertaining.” - Sacramento Book Review

“A smart …history of a thrilling machine all too often taken for granted.” - Publishers Weekly

“An engaging text…The lively writing and the number of photographs set it above many of its competitors.” - Library Journal