Customer Reviews

Early Flying Machines (Discoveries & Inventions Series)

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This is a really neat little book for the young adult reader... and, let's face it, for any reader. It is very well illustrated, and has dozens of illustrations of early photographs, sketches, and illustrations of flying machines, representing people's dreams, desires, and plans to fly. Some of these, in hindsight, are really really funny looking.

This book includes most of the famous early flying machines -- everything from Leonardo daVinci's helicopter, to balloons, and the Wright Bros.

The text is at a good young reader's level, but was an enjoyable afternoon's read for any adult.

This is a great introduction to aviation for any young reader!

Young adults and other big kids will relish this well-illustrated little book on aviation's history and prehistory, that is flight before the first powered, controlled machine took to the air in 1903. The book opens with ancient dreams, as expressed by early inventors, as well as in mythology dating back to Ancient Greece. The following two chapters discuss balloons and airships, the latter differing from the former by virtue that they could be controlled by the pilot rather than the whims of prevailing winds. Ornithopters are next, those fanciful machines that tried to emulate birds but, unlike their avian inspirations, never left the ground. Otto Lillienthal and others quickly realized that fixed wings were the way to go, at least until the advent of helicopters. This little volume is profusely illustrated with original source material of flying machines that were built, as well as interesting examples of creations that never left the drawing board. Though this is far from a scholarly book, it is detailed and well written and will provide younger readers and adults with plenty of intresting and enjoyable material to read and peruse.