The invention of the airplane redefined the way in which people travel, conduct commerce, spend their leisure time, and wage war. From the Wright brothers' wood-and-fabric Flyer to the modern jet aircraft, the airplane has evolved in countless ways as its many uses have unfolded. The development of safe and efficient air travel required solving multiple engineering riddles about aerodynamics, control, propulsion, and structures. This volume in the Greenwood Technographies series shows how the solutions to these riddles have helped spur dramatic changes in the world's social and cultural life. Airplanes: The Life Story of a Technology: Shows both students and general readers how the airplane has become such an integral part of daily life Shows how the airplane altered military doctrine, completely changing how modern wars are fought and won Demonstrates the importance of govenrment and society in the aeronautical revolution of the 1920s and 1930s Examines the new revolution of jet engines that required new ideas in airplane propulsion and design Discusses the commercial airlines and the effect of economic deregulation. The volume includes a glossary of terms, a timeline of important events, and a selected bibliography of useful resources for further information.

The airplane ranks as one of history's most ingenious and phenomenal inventions. It has surely been one of the most world changing. How ideas about aerodynamics first came together and how the science and technology evolved to forge the airplane into the revolutionary machine that it became is the epic story told in this six-volume series, The Wind and Beyond: A Documentary Journey through the History of Aerodynamics in America. This first volume covers the impact of aerodynamic development on the evolution of the airplane in America. Volume II explores the airplane design revolution of the 1920s and 1930s and the quest for improved airfoils. Subsequent volumes cover the aerodynamics of airships, flying boats, rotary-wing aircraft, breaking the sound barrier, and more.

This first volume, plus the succeeding five now in preparation, covers the impact of aerodynamic development on the evolution of the airplane in America. As the six-volume series will ultimately demonstrate, just as the airplane is a defining technology of the twentieth century, aerodynamics has been the defining element of the airplane. Volumes two through six will proceed in roughly chronological order, covering such developments as the biplane, the advent of commercial airliners, flying boats, rotary aircraft, supersonic flight, and hypersonic flight. This series is designed as an aeronautics companion to the Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program (NASA SP-4407) series of books. As with Exploring the Unknown, the documents collected during this research project were assembled from a diverse number of public and private sources. A major repository of primary source materials relative to the history of the civil space program is the NASA Historical Reference Collection in the NASA Headquarters History Office. Historical materials housed at NASA field centers, academic institutions, and Presidential libraries were other sources of documents considered for inclusion, as were papers in the archives of private individuals and corporations. SP-2003-4409

Alaskans were introduced to the airplane as early as 1913, when town officials in Fairbanks invited stunt flyers James and Lilly Martin to fly over the local baseball park on July 4. Because many areas are only accessible by air, this enormous state is still defined today by aviation so that aviation and Alaska have formed a very special symbiosis that is unique both in the world of geography and flying. This publication celebrates the 100th anniversary of this remarkable relationship. It looks at aviation through artifacts of flight, popular culture and other ephemera; objects that are unique to flying in Alaska and that impressively convey stories of the pioneering spirit, engineering and the North. In an extraordinary fashion, they foreground the changes flying brought to life on the ground, guiding the reader from the early days through times of war and industrialization, to the beginning of the second century in the air.