Spenser, Jay P.

The airplane : how ideas gave us wings / Jay Spenser. - New York : HarperCollins, c2008. - x, 340 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Smithsonian books.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [311]-317) and index.

Conception: the thinker and the dreamer -- Birth: Wilbur, Orville, and the world -- Configuration: shapes and ideas -- Fuselage: of drums and dragonflies -- Wings, part I : from box kites to bridges -- Wings, part II : cloud-cutting cantilevers -- Empennage: whale flukes and arrow feathers -- Flight controls: the chariot's reins -- Flight deck: cockpits for aerial ships -- Aero propulsion: Prometheus is pushing -- Landing gear: shoes, canoes, and carriage wheels -- Passenger cabin: voyaging aloft -- Systems integration: making flying safer -- Today's state of the art: the Boeing 787 Dreamliner -- Postscript: tomorrow's wings: future air travel technologies.

The inside story of how people invented and refined the airplane.

ISBN: 9780061259197 0061259195

LCCN: 2008023423

Subjects--Topical Terms:
Airplanes--Design and construction--History.
Aeronautics--Research--History.

LC Class. No.: TL671.2 / .S67 2008