Crafting Flight: Aircraft Pioneers and the Contribitions of the Men and Women of the NASA Langley Research Center

When you pass through the front gates of NASA Langley Research Center you are entering an extraordinary place. You could easily miss that fact, however. A few years ago a cross-state bicycle tour passed through the Center. As interesting as looping around the Center was, the riders observed that nothing about the vaguely industrial site fit the conventional stereotypes of what high tech looks like. NASA Langley does not fit many stereotypes. It takes a close examination to discover the many ways it has contributed to the development of flight. As part of the national celebrations commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight, James Schultz, an experienced journalist with a gift for translating the language of engineers and scientists into prose that nonspecialists can comprehend, has revised and expanded Winds of Change, his wonderful guide to the Center. This revised book, Crafting Flight, invites you inside. You will read about one of the Nation’s oldest research and development facilities, a place of imagination and ingenuity. If this is your first “visit,” you will surely find many surprises. If you are a veteran, the pictures and text will evoke many memories. SP-2003-4316