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The only drawback to this book is it was written in 1995, leaving the most recent 30 years out.

The reader gets a comprehensive look at the progress of commercial aviation since the first mail runs were made in biplanes when flight after dark was out of the question. Gradually, haltingly passenger service becomes a money maker as airplanes increased in size and the distance they could fly. The classics of air flight such as the DC3 and the Constellation came and went and the reader finds out why they deserve their exalted places in aviation history.

Running as a theme through the book is the advance of engine design with simple drawings to illustrate milestones such as the turboprop and the fan-jet.

One reads of the competition by and eventual elimination of railroad passenger service of which AMTRAK is a pale shadow and of the intense competition among the airlines driven by the personalities who directed them. I was a bit disappointed that there was not more told about the one and only Howard Hughes.

Air traffic control is not overlooked, getting down to a simple description of the VOR and MLS systems and the problems they overcame. In the current rage to eliminate government, this book is a reminder of the chaos that was increasing in the skies before the government stepped in to create a network of air travel corridors allowing a multitude of aircraft to operate with safe separation in time and space. The safety we expect today came about through lessons taught by tragedies that the author relates.

It's worth pondering that less than 100 years have passed since Lindberg made his solo flight over the Atlantic. As we sit packed into an airliner today, it seems like it has always been as it is now. This book shows how much has happened to get us to where air travel is the routine thing it is for millions.