Contains the very best writing about flight, in all its aspects. It evokes the lonely adventure of the early pioneers like Beryl Markham and Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and the horror of aerial bombardment during the Spanish Civil War and later in Vietnam. It includes classic aviators such as Guy Gibson of the Dambusters and Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier, alongside the musings of modern writers like Tom Wolfe, V.S. Naiaul and Julian Barnes. Above all, it seeks out writing that puts into words the exhilarating, alarming, always remarkable and sometimes sublimely mystical sensation of flight.
