num_pages: 192
description: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum draws more visitors than any other museum in the world90000 a day in the summertimeand the exhibit of air travel posters featured in this unique companion volume combines arresting colorful art rare archival material and a unique approach to aeronautical history. The postersmost of them never before publishedfeature barnstormers gliders and flying boats the earliest passenger flights the first luxury-liners mail carriers jets and much more. Spanning a century and a half they combine the popular art and the commerce of their eras with both explored in the entertaining informative text by a longstanding National Air and Space Museum curator. From 19th-century circus impresarios offering rides in gaudy hot-air balloons to the sleek 21st-century airliners the posters provide a fascinating illustrated history of flight as it evolved from an exotic realm inhabited only by visionaries and daredevils into our modern world of speedy jets and frequent flyersno longer extraordinary perhaps but still echoing with the exhilarating thrill and glamorous excitement captured here.Countless visitors to the museums traveling poster exhibition and the permanent exhibition America by Air will delight in the gorgeous and wonderful graphics collected in this appealing affordable bookand so will aviation buffs armchair travelers and poster connoisseurs everywhere.
language: English
title: Fly Now!: The Poster Collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
publisher: National Geographic