Reach For The Skies

Product Description

As far back as stories go pioneers have reached for the skies. In the last two hundred years they have mastered the air & made the modern world possible. Today they are bringing outer space within our reach. Theyre inventors & toymakers amateurs & adventurers visionaries dreamers & yes crackpots. Some have called them irresponsible even dangerous. But Richard Branson has met many of them. He has worked with them funded them & flown with them. He admires them & trusts them & thinks they & their kind are our future. In this book Richard Branson looks at the history of flight through the stories & people who have inspired him throughout his life. In these pages you will find tales of miraculous rescues; of records made & broken; of surprising feats of endurance & survival including some of his own adventures as well as developments in the future of air travel (and space travel). It is a story of pioneers & of course it

Includes:: the world famous Montgolfiers & the Wright brothers but he also wants to describe some of the lesser-known trailblazers. People like Tony Jannus who in 1914 created the first scheduled commercial flight in the world flying his passengers over the waters of Tampa Bay at an altitude of just fifty feet! The bird man Leo Valentin who in the 1950s jumped from 9 000 feet with wooden wings attached to his shoulders. & Bransons friend Steve Fossett who dedicated his life to breaking records & having adventures. This is their story. It is also in a small way his own.