The Bell X-1 was extremely fast—it was the first plane to fly faster than the speed of sound. The B-29 was extremely dangerous—it carried 20,000 pounds of bombs. The Airbus A-380 is extremely long—twice as long as a basketball court. The space shuttle flies extremely high—it orbits the earth 250 miles above the ground.
Open Extreme Aircraft! Q&A to discover how far the first airplane flew, what a barnstormer did, and what keeps an airplane up in the air. From gliders and balloons to planes that can reach space, find out about the machines that made dreams of human flight come true.
About the Author
Sarah L. Thomson is the author of two previous novels for young readers. The Dragon's Son, a retelling of the King Arthur story, was a Junior Library Guild selection and was chosen as one of the Best Books of the Year by the Bank Street College of Education. The Washington Post described The Manny, a comedy about a boy nanny, as having "a plot worthy of Jane Austen." Sarah Thomson managed to graduate as an English major without ever taking a class on Shakespeare (or Marlowe, for that matter), but she did travel to London to research The Secret of the Rose, visiting the reconstructed Globe Theatre. A former editor with a major children's book publisher, she lives in Portland, Maine.
