Customer Reviews

America from the Air: A Guide to the Landscape Along Your Route

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

America from the Air: A Guide to the Landscape Along Your Route

This book is an entirely new approach to looking at the US from above. More than just pictures, the book provides a route-by-route description of the sights you'll see along the route, together with annotated photographs to show you where things are and what you're seeing. Detailed texts tell you what to look for as you pass over different parts of your route. The back of the book has indexes that plot out common airline routes and cross-references to points along those routes. Many of the photographs are straight-down shots taken by NASA from space, but many others are plane-level views that depict the scenes the way you are likely to encounter them.

I'm so surprised by the poor reviews. First, this book is definitely not meant for the coffee table. It is a travel guide of the very finest sort. It is designed to be used in-the-field (or, rather, above it) to orient air travelers to the views outside their window and it does so with aplomb. But it does so much more than that. The authors skilfully synthesize a history of earth's natural features with human history and demographic data. In addition to locating rivers and valleys and mountains and seas, it points out the contrast in urbanization and crop colors on the US/Mexico border, identifies Fermilab, windfarms, and the Atlantic City boardwalk. It also interprets the impact of forest fires and forest pests, and describes things like center pivot irrigation. It is well researched, well referenced, and well written and does an excellent job illustrating the remarkable relationship between humans and geography. I can't wait for my next flight.

Got this for my father-in-law and grandfather for Christmas - both of whom are former pilots. They especially enjoyed reading about things they had flown over but never known about. The entire family enjoyed the great photography, descriptions, and the CD-ROM in the back cover. We are all now taking turns looking at the CD-ROM - it's a great little perk!

The idea is excellent - what, exactly, am I flying over right now? Selecting the most traveled air routes in the country is a great way to constrain the scope to a manageable effort. Unfortunately, this is a great idea that is very poorly executed.

For starters, the routes are very confusing to follow as they often have alternate paths. Just show me what LA to New York looks like, don't divert my attention by diverting me to Las Vegas or Phoenix or whatever.

Second, the pictures aren't very good. It is safe to say that very few of the pictures were taken from the window of a commercial jet. As a result, the view is not even close to what you would see from your window seat (unless you regularly fly in a satellite).

Again, a great idea. And kudos for making it a low-cost paperback. But the execution is poor.

I bought this book as a gift after a review in Wired. It has major routes, and large area pictures of main land features and discussion of the routes. I wish it had more pictures, more analysis, and and more blowups of the land features. Perhaps looking at the images by computer on the CD (which comes with the book, and which is a copy of the book) would allow zooming in on features in more detail (which I haven't tried). I was a little disappointed in the book expecting even more discussion and analysis of 'what one sees from air'. Most of what was pointed out I already knew. However, my spouse has taken the CD on several trips and hasn't complained.

The pictures are still great.

I like the book. But I will need to study it before I travel so I know exactly what to look for. However I knew that when I bought it, so no problem.

Great explanations of all those sites that you see from the window when flying across the USA.

Fabulous book with CD. A must have for the constant traveler or sighseeing buff.

The review I read on this book was that it was a Coffee Table book. I define a Coffee Table book as an oversize book with lots of excellent pictures and a little bit of writing. This book fails on all 3. It is half the size (no problem). The pictures are small and lack sharpness, and there are way more pages filled with writinig than pictures. It may be an interesting read, but that's not what I purchased it for.

There is a CD that comes woth it. I have not seen it, but it may be it's redeming grace.

I was disappointed by this book. I doubt that it will be very helpful. I don't think that the pictures will help you identify what is on the ground. I always sit in the window seat and really enjoy looking at the Earth below.

I really like the on-screen tracking of your plane on a map that some airlines provide. Although the one American Airlines uses for trans-Atlantic flights could use some improvement, it is much more useful and fun than this book. Maybe not a fair comparison.

I was expecting something much better. I returned the book even though the return mail cost greatly reduces the small refund.