When aviation was developing, one of the greatest challenges was finding a way to make it appealing to the masses as a means of travel. Airlines and aircraft manufacturers spent a good deal of time and money creating advertising campaigns to woo customers.
“Fly Now!” is a peek at the National Air and Space Museum’s airline poster collection. The book, by Joanne Gernstein London, consists of five chapters, each focusing on a message the posters intended to convey. For example, some advertisements played up the romance and adventure of flying, while others were designed to show that flying was as safe and convenient as taking the subway. Still more catered to well-to-do travelers who became known as “the jet set.”
The book contains posters from airlines around the world. Very often the political climate dictated the message on them. In the 1920s and 1930s, for example, a poster in America stressed the importance of airmail to the growing nation, while posters from pre-World War II Britain made flying a patriotic duty.
The book sells for $25.
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