Friedman/Fairfax, 2002, $39.95, ISBN 1-58663-716-9, 320 pgs., Oversized hardback

This coffee table book provides a marvelous selection of photos and illustrations from the Renaissance to the Modern Age. It's exactly what a coffee table book for flight enthusiasts should be -- a little text and a lot of interesting photos. There is a grand total of 716 photos, illustrations, and poster reproductions by my count, divided into 25 chapters.

These chapters focus on a particular aspect in the history of flight, from daVinci through NASA. And it's not just warplanes. There's plenty of commercial jets, civilian prop planes, helicopters, dirigibles, and such intertwined among WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Arab-Israeli War, and Gulf War photos.

The text is surprisingly good, with plane specifications, anecdotes and other interesting tidbits.

Sadly, it suffers from quite a few typos, from missing punctuation to leaving in a question from the editor. A spelling checker won't find missing words: "The War Ministry immediately 400 D, VII, and" (page 59), punctuation (pg. 104), or extra words, "The Italian Air Ministry's upper echelons did not appreciate DePinedo's his success" (pg. 84). I'm not quite sure who was writing and editing the photo captions, but the need a refresher course because I am quite sure "the Messerschmitt Bf 108, undoubtedly the most famous German Fighter" (pg. 128) would indeed raise doubts. I found a half-dozen or so more typos.

It's funny, when you see one typo, you wonder how it got through, because they are so rare in modern books. When you see a dozen, you really start to wonder if the other information is correctly edited or if numbers and such are all typos. They look right, but it appears to me that the editor was overwhelmed with deadline pressure.

All in all, you have to give a thumb's up to the effort, because the photos are so strong, and coffee table book text is something that flows around and frames the photos. They're marvelous photos, the layout pleases the eye, and the text is a step above the usual coffee table book babble. I, for one, am very please to place this on my coffee table.