Wings of Change

Wings of Change

Author: Ron Dick

Publisher: Erin, Ont. : Boston Mills Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781550464283

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The gripping story of a rapid-fire period of change in aviation. The fourth volume in the Aviation Century series is the dramatic story of the worldshrinking developments in commercial aviation through the end of the twentieth century, in which airliners grew from frail biplanes to huge Jumbo jets. In the process, advanced air travel brought with it worldwide political, economic and social change. In 2004 commercial airlines carried an estimated 1.6 billion passengers. Each new generation of transport aircraft has brought greater reliability, economy and safety, and increased global commerce through technological advances. Each day millions of shipments now travel by air between continents via sophisticated air cargo and air express systems. Other chapters in Winds of Change examine: the wider world of aeronautics private aircraft (personal planes as well as ultralights, sailplanes, hang gliders and parasails) lighter-than-air flight (Zeppelins, blimps, hot-air balloons) rotary wings (helicopters and related craft) the challenges of research and development (from sketch pad to computers; designers, builders and test pilots).


The Flight of the Century

The Flight of the Century

Author: Thomas Kessner

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2010-07-20

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0199752648

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In late May 1927 an inexperienced and unassuming 25-year-old Air Mail pilot from rural Minnesota stunned the world by making the first non-stop transatlantic flight. A spectacular feat of individual daring and collective technological accomplishment, Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris ushered in the modern age of commercial aviation. In The Flight of the Century, Thomas Kessner takes a fresh look at one of America's greatest moments, explaining how what was essentially a publicity stunt became a turning point in history. Kessner vividly recreates the flight itself and the euphoric reaction to it on both sides of the Atlantic, and argues that Lindbergh's amazing feat occurred just when the world--still struggling with the disillusionment of WWI--desperately needed a hero to restore a sense of optimism and innocence. Kessner also shows how new forms of mass media made Lindbergh into the most famous international celebrity of his time, casting him in the role of a humble yet dashing American hero of rural origins and traditional values. Much has been made of Lindbergh's personal integrity and his refusal to cash in on his fame, but Kessner reveals that Lindbergh was closely allied with, and managed by, a group of powerful businessmen--Harry Guggenheim, Dwight Morrow, and Henry Breckenridge chief among them--who sought to exploit aviation for mass transport and massive profits. Their efforts paid off as commercial air traffic soared from 6,000 passengers in 1926 to 173,000 passengers in 1929. Kessner's book is the first to fully explore Lindbergh's central role in promoting the airline industry--the rise of which has influenced everything from where we live to how we wage war and do business.


Airline Maps

Airline Maps

Author: Mark Ovenden

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-10-29

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 0143134078

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A nostalgic and celebratory look back at one hundred years of passenger flight, featuring full-color reproductions of route maps and posters from the world's most iconic airlines, from the author of bestselling cult classic Transit Maps of the World. In this gorgeously illustrated collection of airline route maps, Mark Ovenden and Maxwell Roberts look to the skies and transport readers to another time. Hundreds of images span a century of passenger flight, from the rudimentary trajectory of routes to the most intricately detailed birds-eye views of the land to be flown over. Advertisements for the first scheduled commercial passenger flights featured only a few destinations, with stunning views of the countryside and graphics of biplanes. As aviation took off, speed and mileage were trumpeted on bold posters featuring busy routes. Major airlines produced highly stylized illustrations of their global presence, establishing now-classic brands. With trendy and forward-looking designs, cartographers celebrated the coming together of different cultures and made the earth look ever smaller. Eventually, fleets got bigger and routes multiplied, and graphic designers have found creative new ways to display huge amounts of information. Airline hubs bring their own cultural mark and advertise their plentiful destination options. Innovative maps depict our busy world with webs of overlapping routes and networks of low-cost city-to-city hopping. But though flying has become more commonplace, Ovenden and Roberts remind us that early air travel was a glamorous affair for good reason. Airline Maps is a celebration of graphic design, cartographic skills and clever marketing, and a visual feast that reminds us to enjoy the journey as much as the destination.


A Century of Triumph

A Century of Triumph

Author: Christopher Chant

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 0743234790

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On December 17, 1903, on the windswept beaches of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville Wright piloted the world's first powered flight, in one of the most famous moments in history. Within a few short years, airplanes of various designs were lifting into the air over Europe and America. Soon, the entire world was caught up in the fevered advance of flight and airplanes, Zeppelins, autogyros and helicopters were making the world a much smaller place. To celebrate the first full century of powered flight premier aviation historian Christopher Chant and world-famous illustrator John Batchelor have joined forces to showcase an astonishing march of progress. From the early experiments of gliderman Otto Lilienthal to the moon walk of Neil Armstrong, it has indeed been A Century of Triumph. From the golden age of Zeppelins to the extreme design experiments of World War II to the fierce modernism of supersonic fighter jets, A CENTURY OF TRIUMPH demonstrates the full richness of mankind's flying craft. In addition to Batchelor's illustrations, the book features never-before-published vintage watercolour posters of pre-World War I aviation races and a treasure trove of photographs. Chant's text combines full histories of the planes themselves with biographical essays on some of the great figures of the twentieth century: the Barnstormers, Igor Sikorsky, Amelia Earhart, Chuck Yeager, and the Apollo XVII astronauts, among others. A CENTURY OF TRUMPH is a visual and factual feast for anyone who marvels at the majesty of flying.


Transforming the Twentieth Century

Transforming the Twentieth Century

Author: Vaclav Smil

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2006-04-13

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0199883424

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This inquiry into the technical advances that shaped the 20th century follows the evolutions of all the principal innovations introduced before 1913 (as detailed in the first volume) as well as the origins and elaborations of all fundamental 20th century advances. The history of the 20th century is rooted in amazing technical advances of 1871-1913, but the century differs so remarkably from the preceding 100 years because of several unprecedented combinations. The 20th century had followed on the path defined during the half century preceding the beginning of World War I, but it has traveled along that path at a very different pace, with different ambitions and intents. The new century's developments elevated both the magnitudes of output and the spatial distribution of mass industrial production and to new and, in many ways, virtually incomparable levels. Twentieth century science and engineering conquered and perfected a number of fundamental challenges which remained unresolved before 1913, and which to many critics appeared insoluble. This book is organized in topical chapters dealing with electricity, engines, materials and syntheses, and information techniques. It concludes with an extended examination of contradictory consequences of our admirable technical progress by confronting the accomplishments and perils of systems that brought liberating simplicity as well as overwhelming complexity, that created unprecedented affluence and equally unprecedented economic gaps, that greatly increased both our security and fears as well as our understanding and ignorance, and that provided the means for greater protection of the biosphere while concurrently undermining some of the key biophysical foundations of life on Earth. Transforming the Twentieth Century will offer a wide-ranging interdisciplinary appreciation of the undeniable technical foundations of the modern world as well as a multitude of welcome and worrisome consequences of these developments. It will combine scientific rigor with accessible writing, thoroughly illustrated by a large number of appropriate images that will include historical photographs and revealing charts of long-term trends.


Creating the Twentieth Century

Creating the Twentieth Century

Author: Vaclav Smil

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2005-08-25

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0199883416

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The period between 1867 and 1914 remains the greatest watershed in human history since the emergence of settled agricultural societies: the time when an expansive civilization based on synergy of fuels, science, and technical innovation was born. At its beginnings in the 1870s were dynamite, the telephone, photographic film, and the first light bulbs. Its peak decade - the astonishing 1880s - brought electricity - generating plants, electric motors, steam turbines, the gramophone, cars, aluminum production, air-filled rubber tires, and prestressed concrete. And its post-1900 period saw the first airplanes, tractors, radio signals and plastics, neon lights and assembly line production. This book is a systematic interdisciplinary account of the history of this outpouring of European and American intellect and of its truly epochal consequences. It takes a close look at four fundamental classes of these epoch-making innovations: formation, diffusion, and standardization of electric systems; invention and rapid adoption of internal combustion engines; the unprecedented pace of new chemical syntheses and material substitutions; and the birth of a new information age. These chapters are followed by an evaluation of the lasting impact these advances had on the 20th century, that is, the creation of high-energy societies engaged in mass production aimed at improving standards of living.


A Century of Innovation

A Century of Innovation

Author: George Constable

Publisher: Joseph Henry Press

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0309089085

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A Century of Innovation: The Engineering that Transformed Our Lives is a full-color coffee table book that details the greatest achievements of 20th-century engineering. Each chapter details one specific engineering "feat" with a discussion of the discovery's impact on society and descriptions and illustrations of how that discovery "works."


The Global Commercial Aviation Industry

The Global Commercial Aviation Industry

Author: Sören Eriksson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-07-16

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 1136672397

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This book provides a state-of-the-art overview of the changes and development of the civil international aircraft/aviation industry. It offers a fully up-to-date account of the international developments and structure in the aircraft and aviation industries from a number of perspectives, which include economic, geographical, political and technological points of view. The aircraft industry is characterized by very complex, high technology products produced in relatively small quantities. The high-technology requirements necessitate a high level of R&D. In no other industry is it more of inter-dependence and cross-fertilisation of advanced technology. Consequently, most of the world’s large aircraft companies and technology leaders have been located in Europe and North America. During the last few decades many developing countries have tried to build up an internationally competitive aircraft industry. The authors study a number of important issues including the political economy of the aircraft industry, globalization in this industry, innovation, newly industrializing economies and the aircraft industry. This book also explores regional and large aircraft, transformation of the aviation industry in Central and Eastern Europe, including engines, airlines, airports and airline safety. It will be of great value to students and to researchers seeking information on the aircraft industry and its development in different regions.


The Corporation and the Twentieth Century

The Corporation and the Twentieth Century

Author: Richard N. Langlois

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2023-06-27

Total Pages: 816

ISBN-13: 0691247528

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A definitive reframing of the economic, institutional, and intellectual history of the managerial era The twentieth century was the managerial century in the United States. An organizational transformation, from entrepreneurial to managerial capitalism, brought forth what became a dominant narrative: that administrative coordination by trained professional managers is essential to the efficient running of organizations both public and private. And yet if managerialism was the apotheosis of administrative efficiency, why did both its practice and the accompanying narrative lie in ruins by the end of the century? In The Corporation and the Twentieth Century, Richard Langlois offers an alternative version: a comprehensive and nuanced reframing and reassessment of the economic, institutional, and intellectual history of the managerial era. Langlois argues that managerialism rose to prominence not because of its inherent superiority but because of its contingent value in a young and rapidly developing American economy. The structures of managerialism solidified their dominance only because the century’s great catastrophes of war, depression, and war again superseded markets, scrambled relative prices, and weakened market-supporting institutions. By the end of the twentieth century, Langlois writes, these market-supporting institutions had reemerged to shift advantage toward entrepreneurial and market-driven modes of organization. This magisterial new account of the rise and fall of managerialism holds significant implications for contemporary debates about industrial and antitrust policies and the role of the corporation in the twenty-first century.