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TURBULENT SKIES

Name: TURBULENT SKIES
Author: T.A. Heppenheimer
ISBN: 0-471-10961-4

COMMERICAL AVIATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

by T.A. Heppenheimer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 1995

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An informative overview of the Western world's airline industry from the end of WW I through the recent past. Drawing on a voluminous public record and interviews with contemporary sources, Heppenheimer (The Coming Quake, 1988, etc.) offers a down-to-earth account of who and what shaped commercial aviation over the past 75 years. While the feats of Charles Lindbergh captured the public's imagination, he observes, the efforts of pioneering airframe manufacturers to develop better bombers for the US military were of greater significance to fledgling carriers. The author goes on to review concurrent advances in engine design, focusing on the jet-propulsion work done in Nazi Germany as well as the UK, which paved the way for the workhorse airliners and showcase SSTs now in service. Heppenheimer examines the roles played by American suppliers (Boeing, Douglas, GE, Lockheed, Pratt & Whitney, et al.) and the US government in the evolution of the global airline industry. He does the same for such foreign vendors as the state-owned Airbus Industrie, de Havilland, and Rolls-Royce. Covered as well are the instrumentation gains that allow foul-weather as well as night flights, the unintended consequences of deregulation in the US, the state of the art in air traffic control, and what the future might hold for stateside survivors (American, Continental, Delta, United) in an archetypally cyclic business whose costs consistently exceed its revenues. An airworthy briefing firmly grounded in the applied science and allied realities that permit the air transport of passengers and cargo over long distances and high speeds. (8 pages photos, line drawings)

Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1995

ISBN: 0-471-10961-4

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Wiley

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.