The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum draws more visitors than any other museum in the world and the highlight of summer 2007 at the NASM will be "Fly Now," the exhibit of air travel posters featured in this unique companion volume which combines arresting, colorful art, rare archival material, and a unique approach to aeronautical history.The posters feature barnstormers, gliders, and flying boats; the earliest passenger flights, the first luxury-liners, mail carriers, jets, and much more. Spanning a century and a half, they combine the popular art and the commerce of their eras, with both explored in the entertaining, informative text by a longstanding National Air and Space Museum curator. From 19th-century circus impresarios offering rides in gaudy hot-air balloons to the sleek 21st-century airliners, they offer a fascinating illustrated history of flight as it evolved from an exotic realm inhabited only by visionaries and daredevils into our modern world of speedy jets and frequent flyers.Countless visitors to the museum s traveling poster exhibition and the permanent exhibition "America by Air" will delight in the gorgeous and wonderful graphics collected in this appealing, affordable book and so will aviation buffs, armchair travelers, and poster connoisseurs everywhere.