Customer Reviews

Fly Now!: The Poster Collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

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

 

 

I've been a fan of vintage flying and travel posters for many years. This book is one of the best I've seen. There is a poster on every page describing a little about each one. Some of I've seen before, but most I've never seen before. The printing and colors in the book are very well done.
If anyone is interested in travel or retro posters, this is a good book to start.

This book is a wonderful combination of eye-catching graphics and insightful commentary. It really transported me back to an era when flying was special, elegant and exciting. Anyone interesting in the history of transportation will enjoy this book.

I saw this book at the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum gift shop but didn't buy it at the time. Kind of pricey there, but I found it for cheap from an Amazon seller. It's a nice selection of posters from 18th Century balloons to the 1980's in the Smithsonian's collection. However, if you're a serious fan of nostalia, or retro graphics, I'd suggest both "Looping the Loop - Posters of Flight (Villard & Allen) and The Art of the Airways (Szurovy). I said "both" because the books aren't redundant. The first is more about (largely European) poster art through WW2, and the second focuses on Airline promotional posters from the "teens" through the '90's.

Fly Now! is a collection of the air and space museum but a wonderful invitation into the world of flight. I found the posters fascinating. The stories with each of them brought me into the time of which they were speaking. We take flying so for granted today. this books reveals the wonder, the danger, and the passion that brought us to this day. Bravo! Great work!

Great posters throughout, that is without a doubt. However, the writing is largely about the industry, not the posters, which baffles me. The biggest downer is the fact that there are NO ARTIST CREDITS. Not in the index, nowhere! Where are they?

A poor design, bad editing, and incredibly lackluster. A purchase I regret making.

The writer seems content in believing that her words are more important than the very subject she's supposed to be covering - Airline Posters. What's with the 3rd grade point size? Are we all that far-sighted that we need 18 point text to deliver the message? Some of the nicest images - and there aren't nearly enough - are reduced to the point of being worthless. Or worse - they're enlarged so big that they're cropped. What? Is centering that difficult a concept for The Smithsonian? And explain why one would double-page through the gutter? Fully one-fifth of the image is stuck in between the binding!

Virtually worthless. The only saving grace is that there are a handful of nice images that are: Centered, not cropped, not cluttered or crowded off the page with text, and of decent quality. But not nearly enough to justify the purchase price.

I wonder how good this could have been had Chronicle Books handled the book?

Wow this book was a major disappointment! The selection of posters is really poor compared to others on this subject. As an avid collector of aviation art and as an artist myself give this book a miss.