The Aeronauts

The Epic of Flight

by Donald Dale Jackson

Chronicles the history of ballooning from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, describing the principles of balloon flight and looking at the uses of balloons for travel, warfare, and recreation

Genres: Aviation, History, Nonfiction

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Professor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again reading through the Time/Life books I bought as an aviation obsessed kid but mostly skimmed/read the sidebars. This one I shunned as a kid because, hey, balloons, not warplanes. But reading it now it was one of the more interesting entries in the series, especially having seen some of the "weather balloons" that UFO sightings were blamed on-they're actually pretty funky looking, probably are responsible for many of them. The varied eras covered make this one of the more interesting "Epic of Flight" books.

[spike marlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book about the history of ballooning. It starts with the first attempts at ballooning in France in 1873, the development of ballooning technology and the major players and personalities in balloon history. It looks at early military use of ballooning, the start of balloon use in science and exploration and finishes with the flight of Double Eagle II’s epic record setting flight across the Atlantic Ocean. The only fault is that this book and series of books only deals with ballooning up to 1979 as that is when the book was published.