Cover of The Airplane: How Ideas Gave Us Wings

The Airplane: How Ideas Gave Us Wings

The inside story of how people invented and refined the airplane.

Who were aviation's dreamers and from where did they draw their inspiration? What lessons did inventors learn from birds, insects, marine mammals, and fish that helped us fly? How did the bicycle lead to the airplane, and hot water heaters to metal fuselages?And who figured out how to fly without seeing the ground, setting the stage for scheduled airline services in all weather conditions?

Read more

In this entertaining history of the jetliner, Jay Spenser follows the flow of simple yet powerful ideas to trace aviation's challenges. He introduces us to pioneers across continents and centuries, sheds new insights on their contributions, and evokes those key moments in history when, piece by piece, such innovators as Otto Lilienthal, Igor Sikorsky, Louis Bleriot, Hugo Junkers, and Jack Northrop collectively solved the puzzle of flight.

Along the way, Spenser demystifies the modern jetliner. From wings to flight controls to fuselages to landing gear, he examines the parts of the airplane to show how they came into being and have evolved over time. The Airplaneculminates in a discussion of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and explores the possibilities for aviation's future.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 352 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked The Airplane: How Ideas Gave Us Wings? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Airplane: How Ideas Gave Us Wings. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The Complete Guide To Fighters & Bombers of World Shares aviation, science, nonfiction
  2. To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight Shares aviation, nonfiction, history
  3. The Rocket Man: And Other Extraordinary Characters in the History of Flight Shares aviation, nonfiction, science
  4. Skygods, The Fall of Pan Am Shares aviation, nonfiction, history

“If you want more of the same (history about technology), start with these.”

  1. Wheels, Clocks, and Rockets: A History of Technology
  2. Chilled: How Refrigeration Changed the World and Might Do So Again
  3. AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War
  4. The Substance of Civilization: Materials and Human History from the Stone Age to the Age of Silicon

“If it was the aviation that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Jane's Aircraft Recognition Guide
  2. Black Box: Inside the World's Worst Air Crashes
  3. Flight: 100 Years of Aviation
  4. Open Cockpit

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. The Flying Book
  2. Quest for Flight: John J. Montgomery and the Dawn of Aviation in the West
  3. The Daring Miss Quimby
  4. Who Were the Wright Brothers?