Reach for the Skies

January 31, 2011
The Virgin Atlantic Airlines founder and billionaire adventurer celebrates the exploits of airborne daredevils—his own prominently among them—in this lively history of aviation pioneers. Branson ranges from the Montgolfier brothers' 1783 invention of the hot-air balloon to today's nascent space tourism industry—tickets on his Virgin Galactic space liner will run $200,000—highlighting men and women who risked their money and lives to advance aerial technology or just put on a good show. It's a colorful assemblage of engineers, test pilots, barnstormers, and fighter aces; there are asphyxiated high-altitude balloonists, ultra-light enthusiasts who fly lawn chairs, and the "birdman" who jumped from an airplane wearing only wooden wings and glided safely to the ground. Into the soaring, crashing, and burning, Branson inserts his own extreme-ballooning adventures—"I opened the hatch, climbed out on top of the capsule, and hacked away at the cable with my knife"—and much interesting lore of aero-space design. Like everything the author does, the book is, in part, an advertisement ("Over the years, pioneered comfortable reclining seats"). Still, Branson's enthusiasm for avant-garde flight and his firsthand understanding of its rigors make this a rousing—sometimes even elevating—read. Photos.

February 1, 2011

A quirky, eclectic history of great flights, from balloons to space shuttles—with some generous plugs for the author's own Virgin company.

Billionaire Branson (Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur, 2010, etc.), founder of Virgin Group, is a pilot and visionary in his own right, as he reminds us liberally throughout this lively, selective history of man's attempts to take to the skies. The author likes nothing better than a story of someone willing to try what others say can't be done, and he sprinkles his work with these inspiring tales, more or less chronologically: Master inventor Daedalus flew successfully out of King Minos' labyrinth and reached Sicily, while his unfortunate son, Icarus, didn't make it; the Montgolfier paper-manufacturing family engineered the first unmanned balloons in the late 18th century, followed by a host of subsequent lighter-than-air record-breakers, mostly French; gliders modeled on the wings of birds were perfected by Otto Lilienthal and others, until the Wright Brothers and mechanic Charles Taylor added the engine to activate propellers. Branson admires such daredevils as Manfred von Richthofen (aka the Red Baron) and entrepreneurial pilot Howard Hughes, as well as bold ladies like Florence "Pancho" Barnes, but he's also interested in the physics of flight, offering brief disquisitions on the working of wings, the function of the jet stream and what the "sound barrier" means. But the author is especially fascinated by the evolution of the airline industry, its character largely shaped by the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation, the growth of Pan Am Airways and how the Internet has vastly altered the airline landscape. He also shares some of Virgin's cutting-edge designs and prospects for spaceship flight.

In contrast to Martin van Creveld's polished, staid Age of Airpower (2011), Branson is above all enthusiastic about his subject and forward-seeing.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from April 1, 2011
Virgin Atlantic founder Branson is famous for his lifelong interest in aviation, and with this eclectic look at the inventors, explorers, and daredevils who have taken to the skies, he will broaden his own personal appeal. As he blends his experiences with a perceptive look at those who flew before him, Branson wisely resists the limelight to serve as a knowledgeable guide that includes the ancient Greeks as well as a group of Peruvians who likely used balloons 1,500 years ago to map out extraordinary land art from the air. He covers the legal battles of Orville and Wilbur Wright, fearless wing-walker Georgia Broadwick, and the largely forgotten teenager who was the first to deliberately free-fall; and he praises the bold, too often overlooked creativity and courage of Howard Hughes. A personal reminiscence about adventurer Steve Fossett leads to his own near-death experiences. Most illuminating for industry aficionados will be the chapters on the future of aviation, where Bransons bold vision for commercial space travel remains undeterred. Its a toss-up over whats more fascinatingthe subject or the man who so clearly revels in writing about it. This is flat-out fun reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)