Air and Space: The National Air and Space Museum Story of Flight - Softcover

Chaikin, Andrew; National Museum Of Art Smithsonian Institution

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0821226703 ISBN 13: 9780821226704

Publisher: Bulfinch, 1997

Synopsis

This book is a landmark volume on the history of flight, as seen through the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum and its collections.

About this title

About the Author:

Andrew Chaikin is the author of the highly acclaimed A Man on the Moon, the definitive history of the Apollo space flights, on which Tom Hanks' HBO epic miniseries From the Earth to the Moon was based.

From Booklist:

Pitched to visitors, actual or potential, to the Smithsonian's aeronautics museum in D.C., this album connects the artifacts on display with a brief history of air and space flight. Chaikin, whose A Man on the Moon (1994) is a consuming account of the Apollo program, doesn't have quite as much writing room in this predominantly visual celebration, but his captions and narrative are laconically informative, playing up odd facts about the planes. He recounts the Wright brothers' success (to which the Smithsonian can lay minor claim, having given Wilbur some pamphlets on flying--following his assurance he wasn't a "crank"), the flamboyant deadliness of World War I dogfighters, the barnstorming and racing days of the 1920s and 1930s, and the infancy of commercial aviation, the famous DC-3 being its midwife. A few photos, as of the DC-3, show the vehicle in its exhibit hall, but most pictures depict planes or rockets in action, right up through the latest images of the space age--Mars as viewed from Pathfinder. An enthusiast's delight. Gilbert Taylor

About this edition

• Publisher: Bulfinch
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0821226703
• ISBN 13: 9780821226704
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 318