From the Wright Brothers' twelve seconds aloft to the Moon landings less than a lifetime later, the story of aviation is not just a series of astonishing advances made at breathtaking speed. It's also about the courage and ingenuity of the men and women who made such rapid progress possible; about the romance of soaring above the clouds; and perhaps most of all about the exciting and exhilarating realisation of a dream which is literally centuries old.

Writer and historian David Long is the award-winning and bestselling author of the acclaimed Survivors series, Pirates Magnified, We are the Romans, The World's Most Magnificent Machines, Tragedy at Sea, The Story of the London Underground and more than twenty other non-fiction books on a wide range of historical subjects. He is married to Rosy and lives in Suffolk. Terri Po is a children's book illustrator who was highly commended in the FAB Prize. She is originally from Hong Kong but graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2018. She creates editorial illustrations, infographics and illustrated books, as well as doing live graphic facilitation.