Milestones of Flight: From Hot-Air Balloons to SpaceShipOne

Grove, chief of museum learning at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, follows First Flight Around the World with a tour of aeronautical history that cites 27 milestones. Grove begins with the launch of the first “manned” flight of a hot-air balloon at Versailles in 1783 (the balloon’s occupants were a sheep, duck, and rooster), continuing on to the Wright brothers’ Flyer, Robert Goddard’s rocket, the 1947 breaking of the sound barrier, and numerous space missions. (Grove even gives a spot to Star Trek’s starship Enterprise, noting that “[Gene] Roddenberry’s vision of men and women of difference races, nationalities, and even species working together... influenced real spaceflight.” Period photographs, illustrations, and documents complement a crisply written and informative look at the past and present of flight, with glimpses of its future. Ages 10–14. (June)