Blue skies, orange wings

"Through a wealth of photographs and color illustrations and an informed narrative, Blue Skies, Orange Wings documents the surprisingly strong role of Dutch aircraft, airmen, designers, and airlines in world aviation in the first half of the twentieth century. In this beautiful book Ryan Noppen offers the most thorough study of the early years of Dutch commercial and military aviation published in the English language. He examines the famed Fokker airliners, fighters, and combat aircraft, the development of Dutch national airline KLM, and the impact that Dutch aircraft had on the world in the pioneering days of flight, including a number of notable individuals -- Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford, Amelia Earhart, and more." --Publisher's website. "A well-written, well-researched, and beautifully illustrated work detailing the astonishing aviation accomplishments of the Netherlands in the first half of the twentieth century. This small country contributed greatly to the development of flight, particularly in the early years of airline expansion when Fokker airliners were the aircraft of choice for most of the world's airlines and explorers, while KLM Royal Dutch Airlines expanded around the globe. This critical story has finally received the important scholarly attention it so richly deserves." --Chairman of the Aeronautics Department, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.