From the first flights using balloons and gliders, to the successful launch of spacecraft by the United States and the former USSR, man has been fascinated by the challenge of air travel. In this beautifully illustrated book, the history of flight is given a global perspective. The pioneers such as the Wrights, Alcock & Brown and Bleriot, along with the skilled technicians that brought the world Concorde, are woven into a story that tells of daring and life-threatening episodes which form the long arc of development from the Montgolfiers' hot-air balloons to the intricate military jets and high-tech wizardry that has seen man pass out of the earth's atmosphere and into space. The Story of Flight looks at the spread of aviation throughout the world, how it developed significantly as a new means of military combat and how it became the leading form of international travel all in the space of less than 60 years. This book contains 20 facsimile items ranging from George Cayley's 1849 design for a glider, to Arthur Whitten Brown's log book kept during the first ever transatlantic flight in 1919, to the report for the Apollo 11 mission which saw man land on the moon.