Taking Flight
Subtitle: Inventing the Aerial Age, from Antiquity through the First World War
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: May 8, 2003
Language: eng
Number of pages: 554
ISBN-13: 9780195160352
First sentence: In the winter of 328 B.C., passing through the rugged mountains of Sogdiana, deep in Central Asia, Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army approached the Rock of Arimazes, an impregnable fortress looming over icy, treacherous perpendicular cliffs, accessible only by a steep and easily defended trail.
Description: Uses extracts from journals, diaries, and memoirs, as well as rare photographs and drawings, to provide a history of humanity's attempts at flight, including kites, balloons, rockets, and steerable airships.