Flight: 100 Greatest Aircraft

by Mark Phelps, Robert Goyer (Editor)

Facts, photos, stories, and specs of one hundred remarkable flying machines, from the Sopwith Camel to the 747 to the supersonic F-22 Raptor. Of all humanity’s dazzling innovations, perhaps none captures our imaginations or fuels our inventive spirits as much as flight. In our quest to soar higher, faster, and farther, we’ve dreamed up airborne wonders that are a sight to behold—like the supersonic F-22 Raptor, stealthily soaring above the clouds, or the Boeing-Stearman PT-17 Biplane, the beautiful starter model that helped a generation earn their wings, or the deluxe Concorde—the first passenger jet to cruise at the speed of sound. These iconic aircraft—and ninety-seven more stunning feats of aeronautical engineering—make up the world’s most groundbreaking contributions to flight, all curated and collected here by the experts at Flying magazine. In 100 Greatest Aircraft, there’s something for every aviation aficionado—from brazen stunt planes to far-from-pedestrian commercial jets, from military marvels to spacecraft that reached dazzling new heights. With its spectacular full-color photographs, fascinating and informative text, and a detailed specifications section, Flight is the essential book for pilots and plane-lovers everywhere.

Genres: Aviation

243 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 29, 2013

Reviews

[Ivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The photography is great, but the selection is somehow biased toward american planes. While the US has undoubtedly played a major role in the advancement of flying machines, the handful of non-US airplanes can't be representative of what the rest of the world did for more that a hundred years from the start of mass aircraft development efforts. Some other minor "inaccuracies" in the book can be found which just takes away a bit from the general experience.
A good book to browse and admire the photographs which is basically is what its intended purpose is.

[Luis Arturo Mantilla Lopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a historical one side story, but beautifully explained

This is an all American story of flight and showed the most iconic airplanes since 1903 onwards, there were some other airplanes left outside of the research like the Arado bomber and the first rocket interceptor ME163, the Y16 mosca, among others. But this was a high quality book, with excellent photos, and very agreeable story in each of the planes selected. Totally worth the money.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice pictures. Smart collection of the top 100 airplanes. Easy book to browse. Short spec/silhouettes in appendix.

[Caz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Planes for plane people!

Airplane books are always great to airplane lovers!! I was saddened that Stinson was skipped over, but can’t have everyone.

[Cam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is all air planes. The book has WWII planes and WWI planes and have biplane, jets historic aircraft and many more. The book has 100 aircraft in book and the book tell you about the planes and the speed the guns it haves and the hight and wing spanned and everything else about air plane. The Book tells you about the first aircraft that flys and the book got some modern day aircraft. The book also tells you about the person who build it and flu. The plane i like is the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, the book has that plane in the book and many more planes that i like. I recommend this book to who ever like airplanes.