Why fly : seeking awe, healing, and our true selves in the sky / Caroline Paul.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Paul, Caroline, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Paul, Caroline.

Aeronautics--History.

Aeronautics.

Airplanes--History.

Airplanes.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

243 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026.

Summary:

"Flying has long represented the beautiful, high-stakes human drive to invent, to explore, to experience. Caroline Paul has known this since becoming a pilot at twenty years old. Now she's in her fifties, and her long-term marriage is dissolving beneath her. She begins to fly a gyrocopter. Isn't it easier to learn a landing than a human heart? As Paul examines the descent of love through the ascent of flight, she turns her eye to the history, the physics, and the deep impact of flying on others. From the brave Night Witches who flew biplanes against the Nazis, to the ultralight pilots who believe they can save endangered birds by becoming one of the flock, to the many people afraid to step onto a passenger plane, Why Fly examines the ways flight, like love, confounds and yet transforms us. Often we soar. But we also crash land. Still, we want to fly. Why?" -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part 1: Earth or sky. Sky

Part 2: Preflight. Gravity

Checklists

Part 3: Taxi. How flight works (because it does)

Drag

A short, incomplete history of flight

Airborne

Part 4: Takeoff. Lift

Gliders

Migration

The pioneers

Loneliness

Fear of flying Part 5: Flight (Outbound). The view

Low and slow

Birds

Maps

The controls

Navigation

Part 6: Flight (inbound). Weather

Groundspeed

Airspeed

Pilot error

Part 7: Landing. Traffic pattern

Communication

Landing: You can do it too

Final approach

Touchdown

Hangar

Acknowledgments.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781639734993

1639734996

9781639735006

1639735003

OCLC:

1514990076