You’ll notice that navigation is to the side and that it starts with Aircrafts. If you click the description link you are taken to photo of that airplane along with some information. You will notice on the airplane page you are viewing that you can click the link Full Text to learn more about that aircraft.
The list of planes in the “Aircraft” section is in alphabetical order, and shows who manufactured it and whether the photo is in color. Some of the aircrafts come with the text already on the same page as the photo of the plane. My favorite aircraft off of the list was Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
In the “Photo Gallery” you will find another great selection of airplanes. Just click the description link and you will be taken to the photo of that model of airplane. Here you get less information, just how many were made, when the photo was taken, and the location. My favorite from in the Photo Gallery was the Aeronca C-3 (Razorback).
The “Airman” section is a listing of airmen, with the subject they are talking about listed, and the country and whether or not there is a photo. Each one tells a very thorough story. I particularly enjoyed the story of Alcock and Brown who flew across the Atlantic “in 16 hours, and 12 minutes sometimes upside down through dense, icy fog.” I’ll be honest though, I ended up reading them all because they were all so interesting.
In “Engines” you can take a look at 12 airplane engines, complete with photos and text. If you check out DB 605 you even get a sectional view of the engine which lets you get a good look inside it.
“Early Years” is a very historical section—go back all the way to 1849 and start learning about the history of flight with George Cayley and end up with information from 1908 with Glenn H. Curtis. And who can neglect to mention the Wright Brothers in 1903. Very interesting section that is worth reading, you will get a real feel for how flight progressed.
“Theory” covers the scientific theory behind flight.
I think this is an interesting site that pays homage to something that most travelers take for granted: it wasn’t always so easy to go catch a flight to wherever you wanted to go in the world.
http://www.aviation-history.com/
2/9/2005