Tom D. Crouch, Lighter Than Air: An Illustrated History of Balloons and Airships (2009), covers the development of lighter-than-air flight from Archimedes to modern sport ballooning. Harold G. Dick and Douglas H. Robinson, Golden Age of the Great Passenger Airships (1985), focuses on the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg. Balloon Flying Handbook, rev. ed. (2008), by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, is for student pilots learning to fly balloons as well as for experienced pilots seeking advanced profi ciency.
Tom D. Crouch, A Dream of Wings: Americans and the Airplane, 1875–1905 (1981, reissued 2002), is a study of the rise of a community of American engineers and scientists who laid the foundation for the invention of the airplane. Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith, The Rebirth of European Aviation, 1902–1908 (1974), describes the impact of the Wright brothers on European flight experimenters. Richard P. Hallion, Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age from Antiquity to the First World War (2003), provides a good survey of the early history of flight. Robert Wohl, A Passion for Wings: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1908–1918 (1994, reissued 1996), is a beautifully illustrated study of the social and cultural impact of early flight.
R.E.G. Davies, The World’s Airlines (1964; also published as A History of the World’s Airlines, 1964, reprinted 1983), is an indispensable encyclopaedic reference. Roger E. Bilstein, Flight in America: From the Wrights to the Astronauts, 3rd ed. (2001), includes social and cultural commentary on airline trends as well as developments in general aviation. Oliver E. Allen et al., The Airline Builders (1981), is a superbly illustrated book and a colourful narrative about international activities during the 1920s and ’30s. Terry Gwynn-Jones, Farther and Faster: Aviation’s Adventuring Years, 1909–1939 (1991), is an engrossing chronicle of record flights and personalities.
Walter J. Boyne and Donald S. Lopez (eds.), The Jet Age: Forty Years of Jet Aviation (1979), contains excellent articles by the principal engineers of the time. Bill Gunston, World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines, 5th ed. (2006), is an indispensable reference that charts the progress of all the main engine companies. Walter J. Boyne, Clash of Wings (1994), is a comprehensive overview of World War II aerial operations that includes the introduction of jet aircraft. John D. Anderson, Jr., A History of Aerodynamics and Its Impact on Flying Machines (1997), is a comprehensive, if demanding, history of aerodynamics. Bill Gunston, Avionics (1990), contains an in-depth history of the developments of modern avionics. Donald M. Patillo, Pushing the Envelope (1998), is an excellent review of the American aircraft industry, with insightful statistics.
Basic Helicopter Handbook, rev. ed. (1978), prepared by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, is a well-illustrated primer on the principles of helicopter flight and structure. Walter J. Boyne and Donald S. Lopez (eds.), Vertical Flight: The Age of the Helicopter (1984), surveys the history and technology of helicopters and other aircraft designed for vertical flight. Mike Rogers, VTOL Military Research Aircraft (1989), describes basic types of research and production vertical-takeoff aircraft.
Norman Ashford and Paul H. Wright, Airport Engineering, 3rd ed. (1992), comprehensively sets forth the planning, layout, and design of passenger and freight airports, including heliports and short takeoff and landing (STOL) facilities. Robert Horonjeff and Francis X. McKelvey, Planning and Design of Airports, 4th ed. (1993), is a comprehensive civil engineering text on the planning, layout, and design of airports with strong emphasis on aspects such as aircraft pavements and drainage. Christopher R. Blow, Airport Terminals, 2nd ed. (1995), provides an architectural view of the functioning of airport passenger terminals with extensive coverage of design case studies.
Norman Ashford, H.P. Martin Stanton, and Clifton A. Moore, Airport Operations, 2nd ed. (1996), extensively discusses many aspects of airport operation and management, including administrative structure, security, safety, environmental impact, performance indices, and passenger and aircraft handling. Norman Ashford and Clifton A. Moore, Airport Finance, 2nd ed. (1999), discusses the revenue and expenditure patterns of airport authorities, methods of financing, business planning, and project appraisal.