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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

This volume was intended to be more than a mere proceedings of a rather remarkable historical venture. The table of contents outlines the scope of this day-long program held in the magnificient theater of the new National Air and Space Museum, one inmersed, as it were, in a giant building filled with glorious as well as the not well-known early artifacts and art documenting the sweep of man's history of flight from past dreams to realities and the future. It contains the full papers upon which each of the authors couched their oral presentations.

(Extracted from the preface, by Eugene M. Emme).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Foreword. Michael Collins.

-Preface. Eugene M. Emme.

-Table of Contents.

-Biographical Sketches of Participants.

-Introduction.

-I. Perspectives on Flight in America.

-Part One: Aerostatics.

-II. Ballooning, 1783-1976.
-III. The Airship, 1904-1976.

-Part Two: Aeronautics.

-IV. General Aviation, 1919-1976.
-V. Military Aviation, 1908-1976.
-VI. Commercial Aviation, 1919-1976.

-Part Three: Astronautics.

-VII. Instrumented Utilization of Space.
-VIII. Manned Space Flight.

-Part Four: Commentary.

-IX. Perspectives of a Historian of Technology.

-Appendices.

-A. U.S. Space Science Missions.
-B. U.S. Applications Satellites.
-C. U.S. Manned Space Flights.

-List of Illustrations.

-Index.

OUR REVIEW

First published in 1977 and with further editions in 1979 and 1981, this one is, in a way, an essential book, since it was the first one ever in the history series of the AAS, a collection that has continued up till our present days thus becoming an example of how an astronautical association must popularize and make little known aspects in the space adventure available to the general readership. As a starting volume, its publishers decided to thoroughly review the history of flight, both aeronautical and astronautical, in the USA, a task they developed with the collaboration of the -at the time- very recently opened National Air and Space Museum, the museum that, managed by ex-astronaut Michael Collins, has become the only one of its kind that has the most visitors all over the world.

Thus, the authors are the participants in the first symposium of history held at the NASM on November 4th., 1976, introducing us into a review of events that cover a period reaching up to two hundred years and including from ballooning flights to airplanes and space ships. The global vision of this work turns out to be a good summary as well as a wonderful opportunity to get to know which the American efforts in this field have been. It is obvious that there are many things to explain but the chosen focus gives us a very welcome general impression that will be useful both to those who are interested in this field and to those who wish to study the matter at hand in depth.