Customer Reviews

Flight: 100 Years of Aviation

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an amazing great big book. There are hundreds of big glossy books of planes and aviation history in bookstores, and with the 100 years of powered controlled flight anniversary, there will no doubt be a few more bowing the shelves. But if you want to buy just one, say for a present, then this is the one to buy. It is balanced, it is complete, it has pictures and text in harmony -- and it is not slapped together like some other slightly embarrassing flying tomes.

Over 400 pages perfect for a youngster, yet written well enough for any adult. Is it perfect? No. But 400 pages of perfection would be hard. I would have put in RJ's rather than the F-28 in the current small airliner section, but complaining about a couple of details should not hide the fact that this is one big cool book. Whatever more detailed specialized books about flying you get later, you will not need to get a great big glossy exciting celebration of flight book again. You'll already have one of the best.

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's "Flight: 100 Years of Aviation," by R.G. Grant and John R. Dailey LOOKS like a "coffee table book." It is SO much more than that - although at over 400 pages and approximately 1000 magnificent photographs, it certainly would fit the bill. It is worth every penny of it's cost.

As the female Vice-President of two small aviation restoration companies, I collect a lot of aviation books. This is absolutely the BEST historical view on aviation. The information and photographs that it provides on early aviation are the best that I have seen. It features memorabilla as well as photos of aviation's many pilots/inventors. Almost all of the photographs were new to me and not simply the same photos shown in all the other books.

Later models are glossed over a little more, but I imagine that the book would have been over 1000 pages if they had gone into much more detail. This book is meant to serve as an overview of aviation's history. Most aviation history books simply feature the planes. This book details so MUCH more. It discusses black boxes, ejection seats, posters, newspaper clippings and much more; truly giving a well-rounded view of aviation.

If you are a pilot or simply interested in aviation - or if you know a young person who is interested in aviation....THIS is the book to buy them. The photographs ALONE are worth purchasing this book!

I am 12 years old and I found this book to be very informative. Though it is written on an adult level, it is easy enough for a preteen to follow. It gives extensive history on planes from the birth of flight to the present. I highly recommend this book.

This book is a gem! Smithsonian did a wonderful job gathering all the photographs and facts about each and every airplane ever to grace the skies above. If you are an aviation buff or a pilot like me, you will appreciate having this book around.

I bought this for my husband as a Christmas gift, and when it came today and I saw the quality and beauty of this book in person, I immediately went back to Amazon and bought two more for my Father and Father-in-Law. This book is a steal at that price and it is huge! Jam packed with gorgeous photos and a LOT of reading to go with the pictures. The book would be treasured by anyone interested in the subject and by far the best one they will ever own. If I think of any more men they will probably get one too!!

There are many pictorial histories of flight available (I can't imagine an all-text history of the same subject), but this one has to be the jewel in the crown. True, there is not much on the pre-flight days of Leonardo and baloons and weird contraptions that crashed into the marshes. But the rest is a sheer delight for the eyes and compiles enough information to make it more than just a collection of pictures. Pretty much anything DK Publishing does is first rate, sometimes a bit too polished for my taste. But this is a perfect vehicle for the DK Publishing magic touch, and they pull it off extremely well. And that paper! Great gift material.

As an aviation aficionado, this book satisfies my aircraft cravings. What a wonderful book. Makes a charming gift for lovers of airliners and paper airplanes alike!

I first opened this book in a local bookstore and was glued to the stories and beautifully formatted sections. The sections are really well illustrated, with interesting facts, characters, and informative overviews of the key aircraft of the last hundred years. It is so complete, and full of information that it is a resource to come back to again and again. I've never owned any book about airplanes, but now I see why! This puts all aircraft history at your fingertips.

Had the editor done his or her job, I'd give his a 5 star rating. It's well put together, fairly well organized, and full of history, pictures, and things you normally only hear after watching five hours of a Discovery Channel show.

However, I have to point out a glaring issue with editing. When using the plural of radar (or more correctly, RADAR), it's either radar or radar systems, not radars. I expected some of the few typos I found, all books have them. But such a prominent aspect of the book, I expected to be done correctly.

My only other quibble, which is not unique to this book's organization, is how things are thrown in the middle of a paragraph, sometimes two to three pages of a "side article." I find it distracting and in this book, the delineation is not always clear (use of background colors, etc).

Aside from these two things, I recommend this book to anybody interested in the history of flight. Were there things left out? Sure, but you'd need many volumes to get into more detail than is presented here. The author does a fine job at covering both civilian and military aviation, even touching quite well on the space age.

wonderful product, great quality and content. the pictures are amazing and it's coffee table appeal is quite an eye catcher.