Looks like I'm back on an 'airplane trail' again. China Clipper: the Age of the Great Flying Boats, by Robert Gandt is an interesting and easy to read history of the sea planes. It started with mail runs, progressed to carrying passengers (in great luxury), transported troops and equipment during wars, to finally being replaced by planes we all recognize today ... ones that land on a runway instead of water. Known as Clippers, these were the first planes to fly a trans-Pacific route. (Hoping for an interesting quote from the handsome, but camera shy pilot of this historic flight, all the news-folks got was "without incident").

This lead me to Pan Am, by Lynn M. Homan and Thomas Reilly, from the Images of Aviation series (hooray, another series from Arcadia Publishing)! This is the history of an airline from start to end. It included the flying boats as well as some of the biggest passenger planes from Boeing. Pan Am was the first to use radio communication, the first to have cabin attendants (later known as stewardesses), the first to serve meals on longer flights, and early on, something that no other planes offered (for crew or passengers), a toilet! It was also the first to offer a flight schedule and worked to provide on time flights. Loved the pictures!

Other airplane/pilot books have been requested, look for them soon.

Reading Hermit With Dog