Into the Air: An Illustrated Timeline of Flight

by Ryan Ann Hunter

Enhanced with a fact-filled timeline and colorful illustrations throughout, an informative tale provides a comprehensive overview of the history of aviation, from the first attempts made and first flight by the Wright Brothers through the fact-finding space missions of today.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Science, Picture Books

48 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2003

About the author

Ryan Ann Hunter is really two people writing together--Pamela D. Greenwood and Elizabeth G. Macalaster. We met at a writing group in New Jersey, though now we live on either side of the country. Award-winning picture books on technology and transportation led us to discover brave female pilots. In our latest book, we've pulled back the curtain on female spies. We share a common goal that girls not get left behind in exciting and daring opportunities.

Reviews

[Erin Buhr · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a history of flight for kids, this is the one. It is told as a narrative through time from dinosaurs to the present. The text is brief, but interesting and engaging. It captures the excitement of invention and air travel, while passing along the main points. Each page also has additional information shared in a timeline form if you want to go a little deeper. A great book to share the history of flight with a new generation.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great overview of the history of flight, though slightly dated at this point with a publication date of 2003 so the "future" discussed at the end of the book is already history. Still, it's a great timeline of flight, starting with dragonflies with two-foot wingspans 325 MYA up through the 2001 with the robotic Global Hawk plane that could "spy from 65,000 feet" and could take infrared and radar pictures. At first, I was puzzled as to the inclusion of flying insects, reptiles and mammals, but, of course, humans looked to these creatures as inspiration for their own flying machines so it makes sense to have them here. Includes legends such as Icarus, invention of kites, da Vinci's drawings of flying machines up to the first invention that could make a human airborne was the hot air balloon (most "history of aviation" books start here) credited to the Montgolfier brothers in 1783. I like the format of the book because there is a large illustration spanning two pages with a few sentences that could be share with younger audiences while the timeline aspect is set in squares on each page giving further details for older readers. The book concludes with the idea that the future holds even more great inventions while we also continue to enjoy some of the creations that paved the way, such as the hot air balloon and glider. There's an Endnote from Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, former NASA astronaut, as well as a list of Resources including Books and Websites.

[Turrean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrations and layout. Clean, crisp, uncluttered pictures are a joy. The text is sparse but gives all the information needed, with one curious exception: no mention is made of the space program in the timeline. How weird is that, for a book in which the endnote was written by a NASA astronaut?