Description
REACHING FOR THE SKIES
by Ivan Rendall
The dramatic and entertaining story of many
of this century’s most colourful adventurers.
It shows how, thanks to the dreams, courage and
inspiration of a few hundred people, the aero-
plane has developed from a Heath Robinson
contraption of wooden struts and fabric into a
machine of steel and aluminium that can circle
the Earth in 100 minutes or reach out into space.
From the first manned flight in a balloon in 1783
and Orville Wright’s first 12-second powered
flight in an aeroplane in 1903 to the X-IS and
Concorde in the 1960s and the Shuttle in the
1980s, it is a story of pilots and planemakers who
have taken up the challenge of flight and
conquered the skies. Brave men rub shoulders
with hucksters, greed competes with patriot-
ism, technical genius joins hands with the spirit
of adventure. War inevitably plays an important
part, as do luck and vision, as one technological
breakthrough gives way to another. This book,
which includes material from over 200 interviews
with pioneering aviators, is fully illustrated with
stunning colour and black and white photographs.
Reachingfor the Skies is a very readable and
exciting account of the adventure offlight.
In excellent preloved condition.
288 pages
Hardcover