Balloons to Jets: A Century of Aviation in Illinois, 1855–1955, written by historian Howard L. Scamehorn, was originally published in 1957 by the Illinois State Historical Society and distributed only to the society’s membership and to select libraries in the state. Scamehorn offers a wealth of information not only on one hundred years of aviation in Illinois but also on events leading up to the Wright Brothers’ initial flight in 1903. Scamehorn’s history of aviation in Illinois covers such topics as amateur pilots, aviation contests and meets, the development of airmail, military aeronautics, commercial air transport, the expansion of airports, flyers and flying achievements, and state and federal regulation of aeronautics. But Balloons to Jets is not just a history of aviation in one state. Scamehorn also traces national and international aviation progress from the free balloon to the dirigible. He then describes aeronautical activities and experiments by such people as Octave Chanute, Glenn Curtiss, Thomas Scott Baldwin, Otto Lilienthal, Samuel Pierpont Langley, and others that lent support to the Wrights’ flight at Kitty Hawk. Of interest to both armchair aviation enthusiasts and professionals, Scamehorn’s study illustrates the evolution of commercial aviation from its origins with the military and the itinerant flyer to Charles Lindbergh’s successful transatlantic trip in 1927 and the subsequent explosion in public interest in flight. Balloons to Jets is lavishly illustrated with eighty-six black-and-white historic photographs of early aviators and a range of flying craft, including hot-air balloons, dirigibles, gliders, biplanes, monoplanes, bombers, and early luxury transports. This reprint features a new foreword by Gene Abney, the former director of the Illinois Department of Aeronautics.

Hot air balloons are huge and colorful. They're lots of fun to watch. But how do they fly? And how do people control where the hot air balloon goes? Read this book to find out!

A Newbery Medal Winner Professor William Waterman Sherman intends to fly across the Pacific Ocean. But through a twist of fate, he lands on Krakatoa, and discovers a world of unimaginable wealth, eccentric inhabitants, and incredible balloon inventions.Winner of the 1948 Newbery Medal, this classic fantasy-adventure is now available in a handsome new edition. "William Pene du Bois combines his rich imagination, scientific tastes, and brilliant artistry to tell astory that has no age limit."—The Horn Book

More than a century before the Wright brothers’ first flight, humans were taking to the skies in hot air balloons. Today, with basic craft skills, you can build and safely launch your own balloons using inexpensive, readily available materials. Author and inventor Clive Catterall provides illustrated, step-by-step instructions for eight different homemade models, as well as the science and history behind them. Some, like the Solar Tetroon or the Trash Bag Sausage, are made from plastic bags and tape. Others, like the Khom Loi or the Kongming Lantern, are built using tissue paper and wire. The Hot Air Balloon Book also shows readers ways to heat the interior air that lifts these balloons, from tea candles to hair dryers, kitchen toasters to the sun’s warming rays. Always keeping safety in mind, the author includes detailed guidelines on when and where open flames are appropriate and the proper weather conditions to launch these lighter-than-air craft.

Some carry people around the world. Some land on water. Some can loop around the sky. What does your favorite plane do? Blast off into the world of biplanes and gliders, seaplanes and dive bombers, and find out the special jobs of every kind of plane.

Professional balloon twister Jeremy Telford provides 32 projects-a flamingo, a princess, a jet with pilot, and many more-with easy-to-follow instructions and how-to photos that teach not only the most useful twisting techniques, but also how to design new balloon sculptures. Telford also gives information about twisting balloons professionally, including how to find and book gigs, what supplies are necessary, and how to entertain an audience.

George Plimpton needed no encouragement. If there was a sport to play, a party to throw, a celebrity to amaze, a fireworks display to ignite, Plimpton was front and center hurling the pitch, popping the corks, lighting the fuse. And then, of course, writing about it with incomparable zest and style. His books made him a legend. "The Paris Review, the magazine he founded and edited, won him a throne in literary heaven. Somehow, in the midst of his self-generated cyclones, Plimpton managed to toss off dazzling essays, profiles, and "New Yorker "Talk of the Town" pieces. This delightful volume collects the very best of Plimpton's inspired brief "excursions." Whether he was escorting Hunter Thompson to the "Fear and Loathing movie premiere in New York or tracking down the California man who launched himself into the upper atmosphere with nothing but a lawn chair and a bunch of weather balloons, Plimpton had a rare knack for finding stories where no one else thought to look. Who but Plimpton would turn up in Las Vegas, notebook in hand, for the annual porn movie awards gala? Among the many gems collected here are accounts of helping Jackie Kennedy plan an unforgettable children's birthday party, the time he improvised his way through amateur night at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater, and how he managed to get himself kicked out of Exeter just weeks before graduation. The grand master of what he called "participatory journalism," George Plimpton followed his bent and his genius down the most unbelievable rabbit holes-but he always came up smiling. This exemplary, utterly captivating volume is a fitting tribute to one of the great literary lives of our time. "From the Hardcoveredition.