Results by title
54 books match the query 'Aviation' and 2 start with n
Naked Airport
A Cultural History of the World's Most Revolutionary StructureAlastair Gordon
University of Chicago Press, 2008
Although airports are now best known for interminable waits at check-in counters, liquid restrictions for carry-on luggage, and humiliating shoe-removal rituals at security, they were once the backdrops for jet-setters who strutted, martinis in hand, through curvilinear terminals designed by Eero Saarinen. In the critically acclaimed Naked Airport, Alastair Gordon traces the cultural history of this defining institution from its origins in the muddy fields of flying machines to its frontline position in the struggle against international terrorism.
From global politics to action movies to the daily commute, Gordon shows how the airport has changed our sense of time, distance, and style, and ultimately the way cities are built and business is done. He introduces the people who shaped and were shaped by this place of sudden transition: pilots like Charles Lindbergh, architects like Le Corbusier, and political figures like Fiorello LaGuardia and Adolf Hitler. Naked Airport is a profoundly original history of a long-neglected yet central component of modern life.
“This charming history documents why airports have always been such intriguing places. Gordon wittily deconstructs air terminal architecture. . . . Here is a book with more than enough quirky details to last a long layover.”—People
“[A] splendid cultural history.”—Atlantic Monthly
“Gordon, an architecture and design critic, tells his story well, bringing to life some of the main characters and highlighting some of the important issues concerning urbanism and airports.”—Michael Roth, San Francisco Chronicle
“Gordon provides a truly compelling account of how airports had over the course of three-quarters of a century become the locus of not only modern dreams but postmodern nightmares as well. Don’t leave home without it.”—Terence Riley, director of the Miami Art Museum
From global politics to action movies to the daily commute, Gordon shows how the airport has changed our sense of time, distance, and style, and ultimately the way cities are built and business is done. He introduces the people who shaped and were shaped by this place of sudden transition: pilots like Charles Lindbergh, architects like Le Corbusier, and political figures like Fiorello LaGuardia and Adolf Hitler. Naked Airport is a profoundly original history of a long-neglected yet central component of modern life.
“This charming history documents why airports have always been such intriguing places. Gordon wittily deconstructs air terminal architecture. . . . Here is a book with more than enough quirky details to last a long layover.”—People
“[A] splendid cultural history.”—Atlantic Monthly
“Gordon, an architecture and design critic, tells his story well, bringing to life some of the main characters and highlighting some of the important issues concerning urbanism and airports.”—Michael Roth, San Francisco Chronicle
“Gordon provides a truly compelling account of how airports had over the course of three-quarters of a century become the locus of not only modern dreams but postmodern nightmares as well. Don’t leave home without it.”—Terence Riley, director of the Miami Art Museum
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Noel Wien
Alaska Pioneer Bush PilotIra Harkey
University of Alaska Press, 1999
From his days as one of Alaska's earliest bush pilots through the years spent developing Wien Air Alaska with his brothers, Noel Wien built up a long list of firsts: he was first to fly commercially from Fairbanks to Nome and from Fairbanks to Seattle, first to fly from Anchorage to Fairbanks, first to fly and land beyond the Arctic Circle, and first to make a round-trip flight between Alaska and Asia.
Wien shared a vision to bring commercial aviation to the Far North, and he acted on it. He had 538 hours of barnstorming and aerial circus stunt flying behind him when he arrived in Alaska in 1924. At that time, Alaska's rugged terrain permitted little more than primitive means of communication and transportation. There were no air charts and no radio communication. Navigation depended solely on a pilot's use of natural features of checkpoints, but the innumerable rivers and mountains too easily could look identical. Safe landing sites were scarce. Wien embraced the challenge presented by these obstacles with courage tempered by his native caution - not to mention exceptional talent and a boundless love of flying. Before long, supplies could be taken to settlements previously serviced only by dog sled and sick persons could be transported quickly to hospitals.
In this dramatic account of a flying hero, Pulitzer Prize winning author Ira Harkey describes Wien's experiences in an engaging style, and he establishes Wien's place in Alaska history. In the process, Harkey makes a valuable contribution towards an understanding of the Alaska of the recent past and the people who lived there.
This commemorative edition marks the 75th anniversary of Noel Wien's arrival in Alaska as well as his pioneering flight between Anchorage and Fairbanks. It includes additional photographs and an informative new foreword by Cole.
Noel Wien pursued his vision through decades of wild experiences in an unyielding land. His aviation milestones brought the people of Alaska closer and helped open Alaska to the outside world.
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