Presents biographical profiles of 11 fliers who shaped the history of aviation, from the advent of the airplane to the dawn of the space age: Wilbur & Orville Wright, Glenn Curtiss, Eddie Rickenbacker, Billy Mitchell, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Bernt Balchen, Jacqueline Cochran, Henry Arnold and Chuck Yeager. Lives profiled span the first 44 years of aviation in America--from invention to breaking the sound barrier in 1947. The first reference of its kind designed with the needs of middle-school & high-school students in mind.