First Stirrings. In Lindbergh's Path. The Watershed. This New Fire. Like the Red Queen. A Rising of Eagles. A Time of Unreadiness. Toward New Horizons. Passage Through Gethsemane. Search for Safety. European Renaissance. Shake--Up and Shakeout. Afterword: A Look Ahead. Notes. Bibliography. Index.
T. A. HEPPENHEIMER, Ph.D., an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, has written extensively on aerospace, business, and the history of technology. He is a frequent contributor to magazines such as Discover, Forbes, Nature, Omni, and American Heritage, and has authored six previous books, including Countdown: A History of Space Flight (Wiley), Colonies in Space, and Toward Distant Suns.
Science writer Heppenheimer (The Coming Quake, Times Bks., 1988) details the history and development of the $200 billion-a-year commercial aviation industry from the aviation pioneers to the Boeing 777. Offering interesting vignettes of the aviation pioneers and company founders, he tracks the advances in aircraft design, aerodynamics, power plants, radar, and air traffic control that paralleled the growth of the airline industry. Of particular interest is coverage of the U.S. Air Force's influence on aircraft development and the federal government's regulation of the industry. The author's account of the advent of the jet in Nazi Germany and Britain is absorbing and notable. Considering the interwoven technological, economic, and political complexity of aviation, Heppenheimer's book is comprehensive enough for specialists yet readable enough for general readers, who might nevertheless have welcomed even more photos. For public libraries.‘William A. McIntyre, New Hampshire Technical Coll. Lib., Nashua
This third entry in the Sloan Technology series is an important addition to the history of technology as well as business. Heppenheimer (Colonies in Space) is as gifted at explaining the development of the jet engine in terms a nonspecialist can follow as he is at tracing the rise and triumph of the aircraft industry over ground transport. U.S. commercial flight got off the ground in the 1920s principally because Washington subsidized it for carrying airmail. Government assistance has continued up to the present as such major manufacturers as Boeing, Pratt and Whitney and GE have converted advances financed by the Air Force to building aircraft for the commercial market. Heppenheimer's accounts of the collapse of Pan Am, the demise of Eastern, the enormous gamble made by Boeing in the 1970s, the abandonment of plans for an American answer to the Concorde and the still-reverberating 1978 deregulation demonstrate some of the ``unintended consequences'' that are the focus of this informative study. Illustrations. (Sept.)
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