At the Controls: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Book of Cockpits Hardcover – September 1, 2001

This is a very nice, broad look at lots of cockpit interiors and aircraft exteriors. It's not as good as Nijboer and Patterson's Cockpits of the Cold War, but I found the pictures very clear and devoid of the overly-dramatic (and obscuring) artsy-fartsy photography typical of aviation history books.This is a Smithsonian book, covering aircraft in the Smithsonian collection, so the authors and photographers had unfettered access to each of the aircraft involved. This is evident in the consistent image quality. The images are still not as inspiring as Patterson's work, though, and he had to go traipse across the world to get his aircraft. The thin volume covers the Wright Flyer to the Space Shuttle, which is a little overreaching in my opinion. I tend to like more narrow focus.The prose is a historian's perspective, not the gritty pilot first-person accounts captured in Cockpits of the Cold War. It's not bad prose, but it's clear that the cover of the book correctly lists the writers as "editor" rather than "author." Still, this is a must-have tome for any serious aircraft afficianado.

Having spent my entire adult life in cockpits of one sort or another, I look at this book and take a trip in time and space with each reading. Even my beloved UH-1 Huey is there, which is a bit like the delight and surprise of finding an old friend on the page of a new book. The volume has enough background information to provide context for each aircraft without becoming bogged down with it. The true delight in the book is the crystal clear, full page, photos of each plane's cock pit. The photographers did a masterful job of capturing those wonderful places their pilot occupants called their offices through so many adventures through the years. Where else would the authors start but with the Wright Flyer? The famous and mundane aircraft are represented to current times. Order the book at Amazon's very attractive price and get ready for a flight of fancy in your own home. You won't want to come back down to Earth.

Best of the series thanks to the more detailed commentary.

Great collection and informations!

I bought this book years ago and was meaning to read it. I was going to donate it to my library. So I decided to read it before getting rid of it.I was actually surprised it is a good book to read, It starts out with an impressive first flight photo of the Wright brother and it explaining the wright flyer control and a brief history of the plane. The controls are in wonderful color photos. This book is like that thought out. The controls for a couple of famous ww1 and 2 planes are covered and some civil airlines passenger planes and private planes too. it covers some of the major spacecraft control like the moon lander and the Space Shuttle. Surprisingly it omitted the control of the Apollo Command module.I decide to keep this book because it has it some space craft controls that are hard to find in one book like the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.As a note: I scanned the flyer and enlarge the image. I discovered in the photo that the 1st ground support equipment used for any airplane was used on the Wright flyer- a shovel, a battery, jumper cables and some other equipment. it show that the wright brothers did a lot of pre- planning for this successful flight.For the price of this book it well worth buying.

If you love aircraft, this is a book for you ! The photography of the cockpits is stunning. The information about the control and instruments of flying from the day Wright Brothers, to the Spirit of St. Louis, the Warbirds of WW II, to today's Spacecraftis extraodinary ! I bought the book just to have a photo of the greenhouse of th B-29 Superfortress, my plane in WW II. I was not disapointed. A plus was a view of the A Squares of my 497th bomb Group, 73rd Wing of the 20th Air force in formation.

This book is another in the cockpit series (actually, it's the first one) and it has both photographs and text of some exceptional and rare aircraft. A MUST HAVE book for model makers.

～写真は確かにきれいだし、点数もそこそこあるが、まるまる見開きで1枚の写真を掲載したページは1つもない。隣のページに少しかかっている写真が3点あるだけ。古い機種の狭いコックピットなら縦長なので1ページでも十分に臨場感のある写真だが、最近の二人で操縦する機種は見開きでないので小さくて臨場感に欠ける。ページをまたいで細かな部分が見えづらくなる～～のを嫌ったのかもしれないが、結局写真が小さくなって細かな部分が見えづらくなっている。この作者の選択は見る人によって好みが分かれると思う。解説は歴史的な機種に関しては役立つと思うが、最近の機種に関しては解説文の資料的価値は低いと思う。ただ写真はライティングなども工夫して本当にきれいに撮れているのでコックピットの雰囲気を味わうための写～～真集として眺める為に買うならいいと思います。～