Tom Lund

Classic American Airplanes Tom Lund

The United States has a rich history of airplanes beginning with the Wright Flyer and continuing on to the impressive SR-71 Blackbird and to capable passenger and military airplanes of today. A few of the many different airplanes developed in the United States have become classics. The author selected 14 of these airplanes including the Wright Flyer, Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, Spirit of St. Louis, Douglas DC-3, and the Lockheed SR-71 for description in this book. The book gives a concise description of the physical and performance characteristics of each airplane as well as its most important design features. The Wright Flyer was the first airplane to take off under its own power; be controllable in pitch, yaw, and roll and land safely. At the opposite end of performance, the SR-71 was the fastest and highest flying airplane in the world. Speed and altitude records of 2,193 mph and 85,069 feet in level flight set in 1976 still stand.