The definitive, official illustrated book on U.S. Naval Aviation, published in a fully updated and revised edition. On May 8, 1911, the Navy ordered its first airplanes and United States Naval Aviation was born. The Navy's aviation arm was founded on the same courage and spirit that still define its ranks: self-taught flier Eugene Ely, wearing a football helmet and a bicycle inner tube as a life preserver, became the first man to both take off and land on the deck of a ship. Over the next nine decades, Naval Aviation roared forward on the backs of the most advanced aircraft and well-trained aviators and flight crews in the world. Now, 100 years after its founding, the spirit and essence of United States Naval Aviation is celebrated for the first time in a definitive, magnificently illustrated, large-format book published in association with the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. Written by an outstanding team, including historians, authors, and experts associated with the National Naval Aviation Museum and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, as well as several distinguished active and retired Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard officers, U.S. Naval Aviation has more than 350 pages of riveting and informative text and stories of the Naval Aviation experience. Essays on Naval Aviation history and today's aviators focus not only on the planes, helicopters, and aircraft carriers, but especially on the people that make it all work. The thoughtful incorporation of full-color and vintage photography, portraits, recruiting posters, and historically inspired paintings complements the text while adding the excitement that only spectacular illustrations can bring to a book. U.S. Naval Aviation enables the history of America's naval aviators to be cherished permanently in a handsome package that every pilot and aviation personnel will be proud to own and--with its unique medallion-inlaid cover--to display.