UP, UP, AND AWAY

Fleets of sharply depicted early, modern, and theoretical gliders, balloons, jets, and other aircraft send this overview speeding down the runway.

“It started with Icarus.” Beginning with this mythical flight—and crash—a grizzled grandpa squires two grandchildren through a chronicle of airborne ups and downs, from ancient Chinese military kites and later European hot air balloons, past the Wright brothers and other early aviators successful and otherwise, to galleries of 20th-century war planes, modern passenger jets, and helicopters of diverse design. Pausing along the way for close-up examinations of the anatomy and aerodynamics of bird wings, how engines work, and other fundamentals, the tour concludes with an infographic timeline that, though it ends in 2007, memorably recaps most of the preceding content in one sweeping visual. Aside from briefly touting dirigibles as eco-friendly alternatives, the author glides silently past the environmental costs of conventional aircraft. Still, his gallery of notable figures does include ninth-century experimenter Abbas ibn Firnas (“Although he broke a few bones, he’s credited with making one of the first parachute jumps”) and other undersung innovators worldwide; for truly insatiable fans of flight, he recommends several more comprehensive histories. Human figures in the illustrations are predominantly male but racially diverse. The grandfather is tan-skinned; one grandchild is brown-skinned, while the other is pale-skinned.

Amiable glimpses of flights across the friendly, and not so friendly, skies.