San Antonio College Library

A collection of writings by many of the pioneers of flight that discuss their ideas, scientific discoveries, and flight attempts.

"These pioneers were scientists, soldiers, or daredevils, whose names will echo down through the centuries. There are those, from Sir George Cayley to Wilbur and Orville Wright, who launched the air age. Aviators like Louis Bleriot, Charles Lindbergh, and Amelia Earhart bridged oceans to link nations and continents. Military pilots, from Manfred von Richthofen and Eddie Rickenbacker to Chuck Yeager and John Glenn, emerged as great national heroes....

In Reach for the Skies, Sir Richard Branson examines the history of aviation over the last two hundred years, putting the spotlight on trailblazers such as Tony Jannus, who made the first ever commercial flight over Tampa Bay, Florida, in 1914, Leo Valentin, the "bird man" who jumped from 9,000 feet wearing a pair of wooden wings in the 1950s, and Steve Fossett, who broke 130 world records in planes, balloons, and airships. The pioneers of flight...

"Until now, no one has told the story of aviation as one of frontier expansion. David T. Courtwright does so in Sky as Frontier. He has written an ambitious history of American aviation ranging from the patent fight between the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss through the tragedy of 9/11 and the Iraq War. Along the way, Courtwright stops to consider dogfighting, barnstorming, the first airmail pilots, the development of airlines, air power during...

A lavishly illustrated history of aviation retraces humankind's fascination with flight, from the Wright Brother's famous 1903 flight through the triumphs of technology manifest in the Stealth Bomber and beyond.

"A celebration of aviation's first 100 years. In 1903, the Wright Brothers achieved powered flight for the first time in history. Today, the wingspan length of commercial aircraft surpasses the distance of Orville Wright's first flight. Wild About Flying is the story of flight as told through the people who changed the world forever. The book tells the true-life adventures of the pioneers, inventors, aviators, designers, engineers, navigators, test-pilots...

Imagining Flight is a history of the air age as the rest of us have experienced it: on the pages of books, the screens of movie theaters, and the front pages of newspapers. It focuses on the United States, but also contrasts American ideas and attitudes with those of other air-minded nations, including Britain, France, Germany and Japan.