Page 207: Concorde prototype © Hulton-Deutsch Collection / CORBIS
Page 208: Tu-144LL © NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (NASA-DFRC)
Page 216: Ramjet model © NASA / GRC
Page 218: Skylon cutaway © Reaction Engines
Page 220: Goddard and rocket at Roswell © Bettmann / CORBIS
Page 223: V-2 missile © Science Museum / SSPL
Page 227: Piccard and Kipfer’s wicker-basket helmets © Bettmann / CORBIS
Page 231: Kittinger © Time & Life Pictures
Page 235: Goblin © aviation-images.com
Page 236: Chuck Yeager / Glamorous Glennis © Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images
Page 237: X-15 drops from B-52 © NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (NASA-DFRC)
Page 238: Joe Walker © Bettmann / CORBIS
Page 242: Pterodactyl Ascender © aviation-images.com
Page 249: Leo Valentin © Getty Images
Page 250: Daedalus © NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (NASA-DFRC)
Page 252: Paresev © NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (NASA-DFRC)
Page 253: Cierva C-30 © Getty Images
Page 255: Burt Rutan with model © Burt Rutan
Page 257: VariEze plane © Courtesy of Burt Rutan
Page 263 Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer © Thierry Boccon-Gibod
Page 271: Rotary Rocket © Getty Images
Page 272: Plaque placed on the moon © Mary Evans Picture Library / INTERFOTO AGENTUR
Page 279: © Ruth Murray, based on a drawing by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Page 281: WhiteKnightOne and SpaceShipOne © Jim Koepnick
Page 289: Transhab module © Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images
Page 296: New Mexico Spaceport © Jared Tarbell
Page 301: Photo of Earth as seen by Brian Binnie © Brian Binnie
Page 344: “DNA of Flight” © Virgin Galactic
Insert One
Page 1: top left, © Julian Nott; top right, © Mary Evans Picture Library; bottom, Blanchard and Jeffries crashing in the Channel in 1785 / The Bridgeman Art Library
Page 2: top, SSPL via Getty Images; bottom, © Hulton-Deutsch Collection / CORBIS
Page 3: top, © Rex Features; bottom, SSPL via Getty Images
Page 4: top, © Rex Features; bottom, © Bettmann / CORBIS
Page 5: top left, Cover of Le Petit Journal commemorating Roland Garros’s flight across the Mediterranean, 1913 / The Bridgeman Art Library; top right, © Getty Images; bottom, © STR / Keystone / CORBIS
Page 6: top, © Popperfoto / Getty Images; bottom, © Bettman / CORBIS
Page 7: top, © aviation-images.com; bottom left, © Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images; bottom right, © NASA
Page 8: top, © NASA; bottom, © SSPL via Getty Images
Insert Two
Page 1: top, Courtesy of Cameron Balloons Ltd., Bristol, UK, 1966; bottom, Sipa Press / Rex Features
Page 2: top, © Rex Features; bottom, © Jacques Langevin / Sygma / CORBIS
Page 3: top, © Thierry Boccon-Gibod; bottom, © U.S. Coast Guard Service
Page 4: top, © AFP / Getty Images; bottom, © Fabrice Coffrini / epa / CORBIS
Page 5: top, Thierry Boccon-Gibod; bottom, © AFP / Getty Images
Page 6: top, © Jim Koepnick / Virgin Galactic; bottom, © Claire Brown / Virgin Galactic
Page 7: top, © Mark Greenberg / Virgin Galactic; bottom, © Mark Greenberg / Virgin Galactic
Page 8: top, © Mark Greenberg / Virgin Galactic; bottom, photo by Nick Galante / PMRF © NASA
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank my colleague and friend Will Whitehorn for his encyclopedic knowledge of aerospace—and his terrifyingly good memory. Doug Millard at London’s Science Museum and Rhidian Davis at the British Film Institute sent me tumbling down some wild and wonderful aeronautical rabbit holes, while Simon Ings helped me pull my story out of all the other tens of thousands of others that have yet to be told about our dreams of flight. Thanks also to Ed Faulkner and Davina Russell at Virgin Books and Dave Unwin.
Index
Figures in italics indicate illustrations; “B” indicates the author.
A2 airliner
Adams, Mike
Ader, Clément
Aerial Experiment Association
Aerial Medical Service
Aerial Steam Carriage
Aerial Transit Company
Aeroflot
aerospace technologies
Aérospatiale
“affinity groups”
Africa, air-safety record in
Ahlstrom, Eric
ailerons
air brakes
Air Force One
Air France
Air France Flight 4590 disaster (2000)
Air Ministry
Air Ministry (France)
air pressure
air temperature
Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA)
Air Transport Command
air-safety record in Africa
air-sea rescue
Airboat Line
Airbus
airmail
airships
first full-scale steam-powered airship
golden age of
helium
hydrogen
long range and reliability in flight
Shenandoah (experimental airship)
used in advertising
zeppelins
Albuquerque balloon fiesta, New Mexico
Alcatraz
Alcock, Captain John
Aldrin, Buzz
Alexeev, Rostislav
Alice engine
alien invasion hoax (1989)
Allen, Paul
Allison V-12 engines
Alsbury, Mike
altitude
records
Amazon.com
American Airlines
American Civil War
Andes
Annonay, France
Ansari, Anousheh
Ansari family
Ansari X
Apollo 11 spacecraft
Apollo Command Module
Apollo program
Apollo spacecraft
Appleby, John
Archytas
Arlandes, François Laurent, Marquis d’
Armée de l’Air
Armstrong, Neil
Armstrong, William
Army Air Corps
Around the World in Eighty Days (film)
Arrhenius, Svante August
Worlds in the Making
Arup
Atlantic Ocean
Alcock and Brown’s achievement
B’s blue riband (1986)
B’s and Lindstrand’s successful balloon crossing (1987)
ditching a balloon in
Earhart’s flight (1928)
Earhart’s solo flight (1932)
Green’s view
Lindbergh’s solo flight (1927)
Per Lindstrand plans to cross by balloon
previous balloon teams’ failed attempts
atmosphere
Atmotic Airship
Attenborough, Richard
Australia
Australian Flying Corps
autogyro C-30
Aviation Company of the Americas (later Pan Am)
Avro Lancastrians
Avro Vulcans
Avro Yorks
B-29 Superfortress bomber
B-36 bomber
B-52 bomber
Bader, Douglas
Reach for the Sky
BAE Systems
Baghdad hostages, return of
ballast
Balloon Life (journal)
Balloon of Peace
balloons
ascents
ballast
cardinal rule of ballooning
map views
polyethylene
rozières
South American
venting
Woodman’s experiment
in Condor One
see also gas balloons; gas-and-hot-air balloons; hot-air balloons
Barnes, Reverend C. Rankin
Barnes, Florence “Pancho”
“barnstormers”
BASE jumping
Batchelor, Robin
Battle of Britain
BBC
Be-2500 Neptun
Belarus
Bell, Alexander Graham
Bell Aircraft Company
Bellanca Decathlon stunt plane
Bennett, James Gordon, Jr.
Beriev Aircraft Company
Berlin
airlift
ballooning over (1817)
Bernoulli, Daniel
Bevin, Ernest
Bièvre, valley of, France
Big Kill Devil Hill, Kitty Hawk
Bigelow, Robert
Bigelow Aerospace
bin Laden, Osama
Binnie, Brian
Biot, Jean-Baptiste
biplanes
B walks the wings
British pusher biplanes
Bird, Cory
bird studies
Black Arrow rocket project
Black Knight rocket project
Blackwell, Eric
Blanchard, Jean-Pierre-François
first airmail
first man to cross the Channel by air
first (solo) flight in the UK
flying-boat exhibit
insists on solo flights
interest in heavier-than-air flight
his “oars”
parachute experiments
and Pesch
seeks sponsorship
Bland, Dr. William
Blériot, Louis
BOAC Flight 781 accident (Rome, 1954)
Boeing
Boeing 377 Stratocruiser
Boeing 707
Boeing 747
Boeing Clipper B-314 flying boat
Dixie Clipper
Yankee Clipper
Boeing Pelican
Bogart, Humphrey
Bond, Alan
Bond Air Services
Borglum, Gutzon
Born, Max
Bosnia
bow waves
Branson, Eve
Branson, Lady Joan
Branson, Sir Richard
becomes a balloonist
dyslexia
final bid to circumnavigate the earth in a balloon (1998)
flies with the Red Arrows
and the GlobalFlyer
inspired by Bader
Pacific hot-air balloon record (1991)
parachuting
successful transatlantic crossing by balloon (1987)
wins Blue Riband with Virgin Atlantic Challenger II (1986)
Business Stripped Bare
Losing My Virginity
Braun, Magnus von
Braun, Wernher von
Breitling Orbiter
Breugel, Pieter
Brighton pier
Bristol Belle
British Aeroplane Company
British Aerospace
British Aircraft Corporation (BAC)
British Airways (BA)
British Association for the Advancement of Science
British European Airways
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC)
British South American Airways
Broadwick, Charles
Broadwick, Georgia Ann (“Tiny”; née Thompson)
Brompton Dale
Brougham single-engine plane
Brown, Lieutenant Arthur Whitten
Budget Suites of America
bullwhips
burners
Burroughs, Edgar Rice
Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri
Busemann, Adolf
Butlin, Billy
Cahuachi, Peru
Caldeira, Ken
Calder, Simon
Cameron, Don
Cameron Balloons
Canterbury Cathedral
Cantinflas
Capricorn: see Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer
carbon dioxide emissions
Casablanca conference (1943)
Case, Robert
Cassani, Barbara
Castrol
Cavendish, Henry
Cayley, Sir George
Cayley, George John
Cayley Flyer
CBS
Çelebi, Hezârfen Ahmed
Chambon, Dupont de
Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe
Chanute, Octave
Charles, Jacques
balloon designs
rivalry with the Montgolfiers
world’s first gas balloon
Charles Broadwick’s World Famous Aeronauts
Charlière, La (hydrogen balloon)
charlières
charter airlines
China
and balloon overflights
hang gliding
“one child” policy
China Clipper (film)
Churchill, Sir Winston
Civil Air Patrol
civil aviation
after Lindbergh’s Atlantic flight
Hughes’s contribution
start in Europe
Civil Aviation Authority
Clarke, Arthur C.
climate change
Club
Coandă, Henri
Cohen, Peter
cold war
Colditz Castle, Germany
Coleman, Bessie
Collier’s magazine
Colonial Air Transport
Comets
composites
Concorde
Condor One
Continental Dusters
Convention on International Civil Aviation (1944) (Chicago Convention)
Cooper, Gordon
Coral Sea
Coriolis effect
Cosmopolitan magazine
Coxwell, Henry Tracey
Cripps, Stafford
Croydon Airport
Curtiss, Glenn
Curtiss K flying boat
Cyclone Nargis
Daedalus
Daedalus human-powered airplane
Daedalus spacecraft design
daguerreotypes
Daily Mail prize
Darling Harbour, Sydney
Dayton, Ohio
DC-6s
DC-8s
DC-10s
de Havilland
Gypsy Moth biplane
de la Cierva, Juan
“deadly curl-over”
Delore, Terry
Delta Air Lines
delta wings
Deroche, Elise Raymonde
Diamandis, Dr. Peter
diffraction
Discovery Channel
Disney
Disney, Walt
Doetsch, Karl
Dornier flying boat
Douglas
Douhet, General Giulio
Air Power
Dover Castle
Draeger apparatus
Dresden firestorm
Dudley-Williams, Rolf
Dutrieu, Hélène (“Girl Hawk”)
Earhart, Amelia
Earth
B’s final bid to circumnavigate in a balloon (1998)
curvature of
gravity
Piccard and Jones become first to circumnavigate (1999)
spinning
and winds
Earthwinds balloon project
easyJet
Edward VII, King
Edwards Air Force Base, California
Eglin, Roger, and Ritchie, Barry: Fly Me, I’m Freddie!
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
ekranoplans
El Centro, California
Elegant Resorts
Ellis, Richard
“Empire” flying boats
English Channel
Blanchard’s first crossing by air
Blériot wins Daily Mail prize (1
909)
Fossett swims the Channel
English Electric Lightning supersonic jet
envelopes
gas balloon
hot-air balloon
polyethylene
European Space Agency
Excelsior III
Excelsior project
exhibition pilots
F-4 Phantom fighter-bomber
Falcon rockets
Falcon 9 rocket
Faure, Jacques
Favorinus
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
Filton, Bristol
firebombs
First World War
Flammarion, Nicolas Camille: see Marion, Fulgence
Flesselles, Le (large hot-air balloon)
Flight of the Phoenix, The (film)
Flying Flea (Pou du Ciel)
Flying-M Ranch, Nevada
Flynn, John
Fokker, Tony
Fokker Eindecker fighters
Forlanini, Enrico: steam-driven helicopter
Fort Myer, Virginia
Fossett, Steve
attempted solo circumnavigation of the world by balloon (1997)
becomes an adventurer in his mid-fifties
career as a Chicago floor trader
Chasing the Wind
disappears in the High Sierra (2007)
discovery of the wreckage of his plane
final bid to circumnavigate the earth in a balloon (1998)
and the GlobalFlyer
prepares for new land-speed record attempt (2007)
record-breaking
the search for his plane
unfinished projects
fossil fuels
Fraenkel, Alan
Franklin, Benjamin
Franklin, Temple
free-falling
“freedoms of the air”
G-suits
Gaddafi, Colonel Muammar
Gagarin, Yuri
Garnerin, André-Jacques
Garros, Roland
gas balloons
envelopes
helium-filled
hydrogen-filled
hydrogen-filled cellophane
as a sport
world’s first gas balloon
gas-and-hot-air balloons
Gatow airport, Berlin
Gatty, Harold
Gatwick Airport
GE Aviation
Géant, Le (largest balloon ever constructed)
Gellius, Aulus
Gemini 8 spacecraft
Gemini 12 spacecraft
General Electric
Genesis I test module
Genesis II test module
George IV, King
Germany: rocket fever (1920s)
Giffard, Henri
Glaisher, Dr. James
Glenn L. Martin Company
gliders
fixed-wing
in Germany
Lilienthal
Pilcher
Rutan-designed
Global Aerospace Corporation
global warming
Gloster E-28 airframe
Go budget carrier
Reach for the Skies Page 27