Aviation

Anyone who watches the news knows about the "black box." Officially called the cockpit voice recorder, the black box (which is actually Day-glo orange) records the final moments of any in-flight accident. Often it provides the only explanation of a crash -- inevitably, it provides a heart-breaking, second-by-second account of intense fear tempered by unyielding professionalism.

Writer Rinker Buck looks back more than 30 years to a summer when he and his brother, at ages 15 and 17 respectively, became the youngest duo to fly across America, from New Jersey to California. Having grown up in an aviation family, the two boys bought an old Piper Cub, restored it themselves, and set out on the grand journey. Buck is a great storyteller, and once you get airborne with the boys you find yourself absorbed in a story of adventure and family drama. And Flight of Passage is also an affecting look back to the summer of 1966, when the times seemed much less cynical and adventures much more enjoyable

In a sublime journey toward understanding time and space, Richard Bach takes flight through American skies in a 1929 biplane. Soaring from New Jersey to California, he learns to navigate by following railroads and highways, masters the dangers of thunderstorms, and tastes the exhilaration of flyingeet above the ground. Biplane describes a magnificent personal quest