America from the Air: A Guide to the Landscape Along Your Route [With CDROM]

Fabulous book with CD. A must have for the constant traveler or sighseeing buff.

Got this for my father-in-law and grandfather for Christmas - both of whom are former pilots. They especially enjoyed reading about things they had flown over but never known about. The entire family enjoyed the great photography, descriptions, and the CD-ROM in the back cover. We are all now taking turns looking at the CD-ROM - it's a great little perk!

I bought this book as a gift after a review in Wired. It has major routes, and large area pictures of main land features and discussion of the routes. I wish it had more pictures, more analysis, and and more blowups of the land features. Perhaps looking at the images by computer on the CD (which comes with the book, and which is a copy of the book) would allow zooming in on features in more detail (which I haven't tried). I was a little disappointed in the book expecting even more discussion and analysis of 'what one sees from air'. Most of what was pointed out I already knew. However, my spouse has taken the CD on several trips and hasn't complained. The pictures are still great.

I'm so surprised by the poor reviews. First, this book is definitely not meant for the coffee table. It is a travel guide of the very finest sort. It is designed to be used in-the-field (or, rather, above it) to orient air travelers to the views outside their window and it does so with aplomb. But it does so much more than that. The authors skilfully synthesize a history of earth's natural features with human history and demographic data. In addition to locating rivers and valleys and mountains and seas, it points out the contrast in urbanization and crop colors on the US/Mexico border, identifies Fermilab, windfarms, and the Atlantic City boardwalk. It also interprets the impact of forest fires and forest pests, and describes things like center pivot irrigation. It is well researched, well referenced, and well written and does an excellent job illustrating the remarkable relationship between humans and geography. I can't wait for my next flight.

America from the Air: A Guide to the Landscape Along Your Route This book is an entirely new approach to looking at the US from above. More than just pictures, the book provides a route-by-route description of the sights you'll see along the route, together with annotated photographs to show you where things are and what you're seeing. Detailed texts tell you what to look for as you pass over different parts of your route. The back of the book has indexes that plot out common airline routes and cross-references to points along those routes. Many of the photographs are straight-down shots taken by NASA from space, but many others are plane-level views that depict the scenes the way you are likely to encounter them.