From Wax Wings to Flying Drones

A Very Unreliable History of Aviation

Norman Ferguson

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9780750968386
• eBook ISBN:
  9781803991405
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Transportation Industry
• Index: Business

Was Keith Harris's Orville really named after the first-ever flyer?

What exactly is a 'Spitfire'?

Why did Richard Branson try to cross the Atlantic in a balloon when he owned an airline?

These are the questions that fail to keep proper aeronautical historians awake – but no matter, From Wax Wings to Flying Drones is here to answer them. Chock-full of important stuff like planes, pilots and pioneers such as the Wright brothers, Amelia Earhart and that man off the telly who used to fly on Concorde, this is a book for everyone who's ever watched a plane in the sky and thought, 'I wonder what its registration is?'

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• One: The Very Early Pioneers or I Should Have Paid More Attention in Wax-Heating Class
• Two: Ballooning or Are You Sure They Haven’t Invented Parachutes Yet?
• Three: Powered Aeroplanes or The Wright Persons for the Job
• Four: Those Magnificent Persons in Their Flying Machines or A Leather Cap Doesn’t Offer Much Protection, Does It?
• Five: The First World War or When Are Those Parachutes Arriving?
• Picture Section
• Six: The Golden Age or GPS Would Be a Great Thing Right Now
• Seven: Civil Transportation or I Say, Jeeves, Have You Seen My Boarding Pass?
• Eight: The Second World War or This Is Getting Serious Now
• Nine: The Jet Age or Those Ejector Seats Sound a Good Idea
• Ten: Modern Wars or All You Need Is Live Precision-Guided Munitions
• Eleven: Civilian Aviation or Why Don’t We Get Parachutes?
• Twelve: Things We Almost Forgot or Droning On and On
• Acknowledgements and Sources