Braniff Airways Flying Colors

Braniff Airways: Flying Colors takes readers on a magical flight through the history of Braniff International Airways, beginning with its small-town Oklahoma roots to its high-flying and stylish span of the globe. Braniff brought together the mystery of aviation with the glamorous fields of fashion, art, and design, and taught the flying world how to fly with style and beauty. It is this remarkable joining of forces that has made Braniff as popular today as it was when flying in style across the Atlantic and Pacific.

Capture the glory of flight in this nostalgic look back at the colorful posters that lured yesterday's passengers to take to the air. Constellations, tri-motors, and DC-3s are featured decked-out in the liveries of their owners and presented in stunning color artworks created by such famed artists as Norman Rockwell, Calder, and other popular painters. Nostalgic poster art contained within tells the history of yesteryear's airways through its free-spirited and colorful advertising.

This work celebrates the culture of air travel, from plane interiors and airline branding, to food and fashion. The book charts the development of all aspects of international air travel both, elegant and chic, kitsch and vulgar.

"A lively, unexpected portrait of the jet-age stewardesses serving on iconic Pan Am airways between 1966 and 1975"--

Tracing the hundred-year history of aviation in Texas, aviator and historian Barbara Ganson brings to life the colorful personalities that shaped the phenomenally successful development of this industry in the state. Weaving stories and profiles of aviators, designers, manufacturers, and those in related services, Texas Takes Wing covers the major trends that propelled Texas to the forefront of the field. Covering institutions from San Antonio’s Randolph Air Force Base (the West Point of this branch of service) to Brownsville’s airport with its Pan American Airlines instrument flight school (which served as an international gateway to Latin America as early as the 1920s) to Houston’s Johnson Space Center, home of Mission Control for the U.S. space program, the book provides an exhilarating timeline and engaging history of dozens of unsung pioneers as well as their more widely celebrated peers. Drawn from personal interviews as well as major archives and the collections of several commercial airlines, including American, Southwest, Braniff, Pan American Airways, and Continental, this sweeping history captures the story of powered flight in Texas since 1910. With its generally favorable flying weather, flat terrain, and wide open spaces, Texas has more airports than any other state and is often considered one of America’s most aviation-friendly places. Texas Takes Wing also explores the men and women who made the region pivotal in military training, aircraft manufacturing during wartime, general aviation, and air servicing of the agricultural industry. The result is a soaring history that will delight aviators and passengers alike.