Reaching for the Skies

London: BBC. Very Good/Very Good. 1988. First Edition. Hard Cover. Sm 4to 0563206802 Dust jacket complete, unclipped. Brown cloth with bright gilt titling on spine. Illustated end papers. No ownership inscription. Numerous Colour & b/w Photographs. 288 pages clean and tight. Heavy book no extra postage will be asked for despatch within UK. Reaching for the Skies is 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 aeroplane 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-15 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 patriotism, 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. Reaching for the Skies is a very readable and exciting account of the adventure of flight. .