Wings: A History of Aviation from Kites to the Space Age

by Tom D. Crouch

Overview

"A superb history of flying machines . . . the best one-volume analysis of the subject."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

The invention of the airplane ushered in the modern age—a new era of global commerce, revolutionary technologies, and total war. Whatever the practical consequences, the sheer exhilaration of flight captured the imagination. No longer bound to the surface of the earth, humans took the first steps on a journey that would eventually carry them to other worlds. Tom Crouch weaves the people, machines, and ideas of the air age into a compelling narrative. He tells how the enthusiasm of amateurs spawned an industry that determined the rise and fall of nations. Yet this is not a tale of unalloyed progress. Moments of exaltation were tempered by bitter disappointment and stark terror. Blind alleys were the price of technical progress. In the end, there is no more fascinating cast of characters than those who wrote history in the sky. Theirs is a fascinating story of realizing an extraordinary dream and riding it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393326208
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/17/2004
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	736
Sales rank:	623,813
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Tom D. Crouch, author of The Bishop's Boys and A Dream of Wings, is curator emeritus of the aeronautics division at the National Air & Space Museum. He lives in Fairfax, Virginia.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	vii
	Prologue: "Well Ned, It's Wonderful"	3
1	Foundation Stones	19
2	Taking to the Air	54
3	The World Takes Wing, 1904-1909	85
4	From Experiment to Industry, 1909-1914	119
5	Into the Fight: The Airplane at War, 1914-1918	151
6	Laying the Foundation, 1919-1927	195
7	Big Business, 1927-1935	239
8	The Roar of the Crowd, 1927-1939	277
9	Revolutions in the Sky, 1926-1941	316
10	Setting the Stage, 1929-1939	356
11	Battles in the Sky, 1939-1945	395
12	Toward New Horizons	443
13	From Aviation to Aerospace, 1945-2003	487
14	Cold War, Hot War	537
15	A World in the Air, 1945-2003	592
	Conclusion	633
	Glossary	641
	Notes	649
	Bibliography	677
	Credits	691
	Index	693

Editorial Reviews

National Air and Space Museum curator Crouch (A Dream of Wings; The Bishop's Boys) exuberantly surveys the entirety of aviation history. Wealthy aristocrat George Cayley progressed from a helicopter toy (1796) and model gliders (1804) to a glider capable of lifting a human (1849). After Cayley came a parade of pioneers, including John Joseph Montgomery, the "first American to leave the ground on wings of his own design" (1884). Otto Lilienthal made 2,000 glider flights, and his 1896 death during an airborne accident piqued the Wright Brothers' interest. At this point, Crouch carries the narrative aloft, taking note of the exhilarating exhibitions by barnstorming "aerial gypsies" after the WWI aircraft production boom. With the Air Mail Act of 1925, "Post Office officials realized that they were laying the foundation for commercial aviation in the United States." The Allies in WWII learned much from downed Messerschmitts and other Nazi rocket secrets, ushering in a new era of high-speed aerodynamics that cued a shift from aviation to aerospace (travel beyond earth's atmosphere). Computers brought change; in-flight movies were introduced in 1961; and weather-beaten hangars were replaced by gleaming terminals. With international tourism came the spread of American commercial culture. The book concludes with September 11 and the airline losses and layoffs that followed. Crouch notes that his history was "30 years in the making," and his exhaustive research is evident in 42 pages of notes and a vast array of sources. Capturing the romance of flight along with successes, failures and many memorable figures from Lindbergh to Yeager, this is a book that soars, a worthy celebration of the centennial of the Wright Brothers' first flight. 125 illus. (Nov.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Describing the development of aviation as a "punctuated equilibrium" process that resembles Stephen J. Gould's evolutionary mode, Crouch (senior curator, U.S. National Air & Space Museum, Aeronautics Division) has written a scholarly yet readable and enjoyable study. While not as photo-filled as other texts celebrating the centennial of the Wright Brothers' first flight, Crouch's book is a fine narrative history. Drawing on contemporary observations from Gutzon Borglum (the Mount Rushmore sculptor) and Pablo Picasso to Buckminster Fuller, Crouch explicates the impact of aviation on humanity without losing sight of the Wright Brothers, Jacqueline Cochran, Hugo Junkers, and other players in the development of winged flight. He notes human foibles like Charles Lindbergh's anti-Semitism and the Wright Brothers' patent paranoia but focuses on the breathtaking joy of flight that motivated engineers and pilots alike. Crouch has previously written on Lindbergh and other aviators, and his well-researched work is suited to academic and large public libraries.-Sara Tompson, Packer Engineering Lib., Naperville, IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A superb history of flying machines, by one who should know. Crouch, senior curator of the aeronautics division of the National Air and Space Museum, brings impeccable credentials to his task. He’s also a fine writer with an international outlook, which sets this apart from recent histories that take a US-centric view of aviation. His episodic, anecdotal narrative opens in 1908 with Orville Wright’s hour-long circling of a military parade ground outside Washington, an incident that prompted the assembled brass to wonder about the application of aircraft to warfare—and then, almost immediately, to dismiss the possibility. (Said the Secretary of War: "I just can’t see that these aeroplanes are going to be especially practical just yet.") The brothers Wright hoped, for their part, that the airplane would help bring about world peace, reducing the distance real and metaphorical between nations. Alas, Crouch observes, things didn’t quite work out that way. The author touches at many points on the relation between military and civilian developments in aircraft design and manufacture, and on the role of international figures in bringing air supremacy in both spheres to the US; the German inventor Hugo Junkers, of WWI fame, for example, designed both military and civilian aircraft, and his firm "inaugurated the age of commercial air transportation in Japan, China, Africa, and Australia" while selling plenty of its ultramodern (for the 1920s, at least) F13 aircraft to the US Post Office and military. Crouch’s pages are full of technical details and enough facts and factoids to satisfy the most demanding trivia buff. He closes on an international note, observing that by 1990 the EuropeanAirbus consortium was outselling its biggest competitor, Boeing, in "every class of airplane smaller than the 747." A real treat for aviation buffs, and by far the best one-volume analysis of the subject.

Kirkus Reviews