Exploring the World of Flight Where can you walk in the door and see a collection of history's most famous airplanes and spacecraft hanging from the ceiling and displayed all around you? Here, in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Opened in 1976, it is one of the most popular museums in the world, with over nine million visitors a year. In its displays, the museum traces the history of flight. Today, we see jetliners, helicopters, and spacecraft zoom through the air routinely. These flying machines are a normal part of our lives. Can you imagine a world without them? Yet the very first powered airplane, flown by Wilbur and Orville Wright, took off in 1903, only a century ago! Just a few generations ago, perhaps when your great grandparents were young, it was rare and astonishing to see an airplane in the sky. The story of flight is a story of dreams and the people who made them come true -- ingenious inventors and courageous pilots. In this book, you'll stroll through the museum and travel through time. You'll see how hot-air balloons of the 1700s carried the first humans to fly, and soar with early glider pilot Otto Lilienthal. Then, you'll meet the Wright brothers and discover how they built and flew their famous plane, the Flyer . You'll see it in the Milestones of Flight gallery. There, you'll also see the Spirit of St. Louis . In this small, silver-colored plane, Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean nonstop from New York to Paris in 1927. In 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to make a solo Atlantic flight. Her bright red Lockheed Vega is now in the Pioneers of Flight gallery. You'll ride with these pilots on their daring journeys. Looking at aircraft in war, you'll see how fighter planes and bombers changed from flimsy wood-and-fabric biplanes of World War I to the sleek stealth fighter and bomber of today. You'll meet flying aces, like Germany's "Red Baron." In other pages, you'll read about the first airmail pilots, peek inside a 1930s "flying boat," and watch daredevil pilots -- barnstormers of the 1920s. You'll meet African American pioneers, Col. Benjamin Davis, who commanded the first black fighter pilots in World War II, and Bessie Coleman, a famous barnstormer. And you'll fly with test pilot Chuck Yeager in a rocket-powered plane to break the sound barrier for the first time. In the space age, you'll discover how rockets work and join the Apollo astronauts as they step onto the moon. Then you'll blast off aboard a space shuttle, and see how astronauts live and work in space today. You'll also visit the International Space Station and learn about a future mission to Mars. In just a short time, flight has come a long way. The story is still continuing. Who knows? One day, you may create a part of it. Let your dreams soar! Excerpted from The Story of Flight: From the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum by Judith Rinard All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
