This is another book celebrating the centenary of the first powered flight. It concentrates on the people concerned rather than the aircraft, and extends from the Wright brothers to the passengers on Flight 93 hijacked on 11 September 2001. Six Great War pilots are detailed, and their narratives are accompanied by amusing, rather inaccurate, pen and ink drawings of their aircraft. Quite a lot of the contents are open to dispute: for example Albert Ball ‘had fought and won 100 encounters’ at the time of his death, and Bishop is extensively written up as well.

However I still enjoyed this overview, and read about some heroes about whom I knew little, like Beryl Markham, and Alan Arnold McLeod from World War 1.