Artifacts of Flight

A century ago, the Wright brothers' remarkable flight ushered in a new age and a new world. Artifacts of Flight celebrates the history of air travel--and space travel--by presenting not only some of the most famous but also some of the most intriguing objects in the National Air and Space Museum collection. These relics--ranging from a hand-written letter from George Washington on American ballooning, to personal belongings of Amelia Earhart, to lunar-dust-covered boots worn on the Moon--create an intimate, revealing, and entertaining take on airborne history. Other artifacts of flight include an unbroken teacup and saucer salvaged from the wreckage of the Hindenburg, Waldo Waterman's Aerobile flying car, and the NASA Space Shuttle Enterprise. Carolyn Russo's precise black-and-white photographs describe the objects with startling clarity, elevating the images to the status of portraits. Each photograph is complemented by the story of the object, bringing to life the history of the flight. The book's crisp, cutting-edge design makes reading Artifacts of Flight a lively and satisfying voyage in itself.