Conquistadors of the Sky: A History of Aviation in Latin America

Dan Hagedorn

Details: 616 pages     6.125 x 9.25
Cloth: $39.95   ISBN 13: 978-0-8130-3249-8   ISBN 10: 0-8130-3249-0   
Paper: $29.95   ISBN 13: 978-0-8130-3509-3   ISBN 10: 0-8130-3509-0   
Pubdate: 5/25/2010
Review(s): 3 available

Please note that while you may order this book at any time, it will not be available for shipment until approximately one month before publication date

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Overview

A primer on Latin Americans' contributions to aviation history

"A highlight reel of first flights, followed by a delineation of Latin America's place in the aviation world."--Gary Kuhn, University of Wisconsin, La Crosse

"Everyone concerned about the story of Latin American aviation will find this the most useful guide available. It tells the economic, political, and geographic realities of their history."--Ray Wagner, author of American Combat Planes of the Twentieth Century, and founder, San Diego Aerospace Museum

Heralded by Brazilians as the "Father of Flight," Alberto Santos-Dumont made the first of several spectacular flights in his lighter-than-air dirigible in France in 1901, two years before the Wright brothers' first fixed-wing flight in North Carolina. Though they are often overlooked, Santos-Dumont and others in Latin America played a key role in the development of aviation. This generously illustrated book tells their story.

Written to complement the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum's new permanent exhibit, America by Air, Conquistadors of the Sky celebrates the aviation achievements of twenty-one Latin American nations over the last 100 years--making this chronicle of heroic ventures and epic flights the best reference available on the subject.

Dan Hagedorn, senior curator with the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle and former adjunct curator for Latin American Aviation for the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution, is the author of fourteen previous books including Air Arsenal North America.


This volume was published in cooperation with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum