The Atlantic had proved a graveyard for many ships, and when the first butterfly craft began to fly it after the First World War, all the omens warned that it would swallow up planes as well. Nonetheless, the pioneers - Read, Alcock and Brown, Lindbergh, as well as many who gambled and lost - continued to pit themselves against the odds. David Beaty involves us not only in the drama of man against the elements but in the increasingly vehement struggle of man against man: the race to be first, the race to beat the ships, the race to run a commercial airline, the race to be fastest. Opening with a passenger in the mid-70's who is taking off in a jumbo jet, he unfolds the tapestry of what went before: the vision and blindness, the guesses, mistakes and waste, the political interference and technical advances, the personalities, the tragedies, the commitment and the successes.
Used availability for David Beaty's The Water Jump