Comprehensive history of the world's great airline from 1927-1991, including all its affiliates and subsidiaries.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes this extraordinary thriller about airline safety, business intrigue, and a deadly cover-up. “The pacing is fast, the suspense nonstop.”—People Three passengers are dead. Fifty-six are injured. The interior cabin is virtually destroyed. But the pilot manages to land the plane. At a moment when the issue of safety and death in the skies is paramount in the public mind, a lethal midair disaster aboard a commercial twin-jet airliner flying from Hong Kong to Denver triggers a pressured and frantic investigation. Airframe is nonstop reading, full of the extraordinary mixture of super suspense and authentic information on a subject of compelling interest that are the hallmarks of Michael Crichton. “A one-sitting read that will cause a lifetime of white-knuckled nightmares.”—The Philaelphia Inquirer “The ultimate thriller . . . [Crichton’s] stories are always page-turners of the highest order. . . . [Airframe] moves like a firehouse dog chasing a red truck.”—The Denver Post “Dramatically vivid.”—The New York Times

Making a detailed contribution to geographies of air transport and aeromobility, this book examines the practices and processes that produce particular patterns of air transport provision both regionally and globally. In so doing, it updates the seminal contributions of Eva Taylor (1945), Kenneth Sealy (1957), Brian Graham (1995) and others to the study of air transport geography. Leading scholars in the field offer a unique insight into the key developments that have occurred in the field and the implications that these developments have had for geography, geographers, and global patterns of past, present and future air transport. Although globalization and liberalization processes have greatly expanded the demand for air transport over the last two decades, the industry has experienced several major setbacks due to economic, security, and environmental concerns. Many of these impacts have been much more pronounced in some regions, such as North America and Europe while others, such as Asia-Pacific have not been as adversely affected. Accordingly, there is a clear need to examine these recent economic and geopolitical changes from a geographical perspective given the differentiated pattern of effects from global processes. Addressing this need, this volume opens with thematic chapters covering key topics such as the historical geographies, socio-cultural mobilities, environmental externalities, urban geographies, and sustainability of the global air transport industry, followed by regional analysis of the industry in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Greater Middle East and Africa as well as North America and Europe.