MELBOURNE, Australia — A new history of aviation and spaceflight, “To The Skies: Aircraft, Rockets and the Fight to Fly,” has been released.
The book, written by Jason Wardle, traces the development of human flight from early experiments and ballooning through powered aircraft, general and commercial aviation, the jet age, rockets, satellites, and today’s reusable launch systems.
According to Wardle, the book looks beyond a simple chronology of famous aircraft and technical milestones and instead follows the engineers, pilots, inventors, companies, and enthusiasts who made flight possible while examining the industries and infrastructure that grew around aircraft, airports, airlines, aerospace, and orbital technology.
“Flight is usually told as a succession of brilliant machines and heroic breakthroughs,” Wardle said. “I wanted to keep that excitement, but also show how those machines became part of much larger systems — industries, airports, global transport networks and eventually an orbital infrastructure around the planet.”
The book also examines the culture of flying: The pilots, builders, experimenters, and communities who have kept aviation from becoming merely another transport industry, he added.
The book is available in Kindle, paperback and hardcover editions through Amazon.
For more information: mybook.to/TOTHESKIES
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