Lighter than air : an illustrated history of balloons and airships /

In this small, coffee-table-style book, Crouch (Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum) covers "lighter-than-air flight from Archimedes' discovery of the principle of buoyancy to the latest in sport balloons and plans for future airships." The author begins by describing the history of the balloon along with its military applications. Next, he traces the history of the dirigible airship up to the development of the rigid airship in the decade before WW I. Then Crouch ably deals with the history of rigid and nonrigid airships from the start of WW I to the end of WW II. The last two chapters describe scientific ballooning and sport ballooning. The appendixes provide a chronology of lighter-than-air flight and a selected list of airships of the world. The volume includes more than 100 photographs that bring life to this competent history of specialized flight as well as the individuals involved in these endeavors. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates, two-year technical program students, and general readers. A. M. Strauss Vanderbilt University