By Andrew Nahum
A DK photo book that runs through the history of flight — balloons, biplanes, a jet engine cut open — with the real machines shot sharp against white and a short caption on every page.
It moves through the history of flight one spread at a time. Hot-air balloons, the Victorian steam-powered machines that never got off the ground, the first biplanes, the gear early pilots wore, how a wing makes lift, helicopters, a jet engine sliced open, the black box. Every object is photographed sharp against white with a short labeled caption. Andrew Nahum, who wrote it, spent years curating engineering and technology at the Science Museum in London.
Around eight or nine, a plane-obsessed child often runs past what a parent can answer — 'what's that one called' turns into 'how does the engine actually work.' This book is aimed at the second question. It's built to be dipped into rather than read front to back, so your child may land on a spread, take it in, then flip somewhere else, which is how an Eyewitness book is meant to be used. It also packs more facts per page than most books here, which helps when your child wants to know more about planes than you do.