Wild about Flying!: Dreamers, Doers, and Daredevils

This large format book has two major appeals: the beautiful paintings that illustrate the planes - and the nicely written biographical pieces. Each section averages about 3 pages, some more, some less. Typically there are 2-3 small photos and 3-4 paintings (some large) per story. There are about 60 such sections, each on a famous flyer or flight. This a much more international selection than you're used to seeing. While the stories are fascinating, it's the paintings that will draw you back again and again to this book. They appear to be a mixture of oils and watercolors I think (I'm no artist!). Many are beautiful action scenes; all show great detail. This is the kind of book that will inspire you to go buy a cheap set of watercolors and see if you can capture some of this magic yourself! Highly recommended.

This well-illustrated and well-written book will fill in some of the interesting missing chapters from the story of flight. Any student of flight's first century will have developed a mental catalog of the famous fliers of the period. In this collection of refreshing biographies that Bruce Harris has woven together, most of those particular names will prove to be missing. In their place are over two hundred of the less recognized pioneers of flight. In reading this book, I will hazard to guess that you'll meet at least two dozen people for the first time. Fill in a few missing chapters from the story of flight from the pages of this well-researched and enjoyable book.