Reaching for the Skies - The Adventure of Flight

Reaching for the Skies is the dramatic and entertaining story of many of this century's most colourful adventurers. It shows how, thanks to the dreams, courage and inspiration of a few hundred people, the aeroplane has been developed from a Heath Robinson contraption of wooden struts and fabric into a machine of steel and aluminium that can circle the Earth in 100 minutes or reach out into space.

From the first manned flight in a balloon in 1783 and Orville Wright's first 12-second powered flight in 1903 to the X-15 and Concorde in the 1960s and the Shuttle in the 1980s, it is a story of pilots and plane-makers who have taken up the challenge of flight and conquered the skies. Brave men rub shoulders with hucksters, greed competes with patriotism, technical genius joins hands with the spirit of adventure. War inevitably plays an important part too, as one technological break-through gives way to another.

Reaching for the Skies includes material from over 200 interviews with pioneering aviators and is fully illustrated with stunning colour and black-and-white photographs.

Ivan Kendall is a freelance television producer and writer. He learnt to fly privately before joining the Royal Air Force to train as a pilot. Author of Flyers, he researched, developed and co-produced the television series Reaching for the Skies with John Gau Productions. He is married with three children and lives in London and Worcester.