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This is a book I picked up on my last visit to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum as it is my favorite museum to visit. What drew me to the book originally is the large collection of images of not only the exhibits, but also other historical images. Reading this book provides a great walk through man’s history of flight from the early steps into flight up through the Space Shuttle. Throughout this book makes sure to tie the history back to the exhibits as well as including interesting stories.
The book is broken up based on eras of flight. Beginning with early attempts framed around the Wright brothers. Then transitioning into the first world war, the golden interwar period, world war two. After world war two flight expands to not just in the air, but also beyond. Finally the book wraps up in the space shuttle era.
I would readily recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the history of flight. Not only is there a wealth of information, but also a wealth of images. If there was one complaint I could make it is the typesetting. On multiple occasions sentences and words are split over pages, or sometimes multiple pages. Besides that this is a great book.