Rating: 
Summary: Interesting
Review: "Inside the Sky" is an interesting look at aviation for the layman, but it suffers from some factual blunders, as previous reviewers have mentioned. I've just finished reading the WWII aerial combat novel, "The Triumph and the Glory" and suggest that anyone already familiar with aviation basics pass on "Inside the Sky" and read Rustad's stunning novel, it is magnificent. People who want to read a basic primer type book on aviation should try "Inside the Sky", it has a general appeal.
Rating:
Summary: OK, Better title would be "Random thoughts on flying"
Review: A rather uncoherent collection of flying thoughts and observations. Never the less, a entertaining book.
Rating: 
Summary: Unfocused, thin, and only slightly interesting
Review: Although this book has received glowing reviews from the popular press, I found it did not live up to its billing. I enjoy Mr. Langewiesche's occasional articles in The Atlantic, but this book reads too much like a compilation of those articles. In fact, at least two of the chapters have already been in print. The reviews compare Langewiesche with Saint-Exupery, but Langewiesche is a pale imitator. I just found the chapters too disjointed to get me interested. And his obvious bias against air traffic controllers bothered me. He doesn't seem to like people criticizing pilots if they haven't been one, but he feels free to lace into controllers without having walked a day in their shoes. Overall, a minor book, not one I can recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting book about perspective...
Review: An collection of essays united mainly by their general theme of perspective, this book reminded me of John McPhee's work, except that the author is both a flyer and a writer, and in a strange way seems to be a master of his topic, as elusive as that topic is when I try to define it.The book exists in the shadow of his father's how-to flying book -- without doubt the most famous in its completely practical genre, and remarkably though deservedly still in print after about half a century. But this book is not about airmanship, although pilots will detect the signs of clear expertise. Few if any other instructors make a specialization of chasing storms from coast to coast, apparently in part for the instructional value but also for the solitary non-landscape seen and felt by the instrument pilot. It is interesting and perhaps unexpected that this is more a book about perception and awareness, and treated with respect to both individuals and societies. I know it's cliche, but "I couldn't put it down".
Rating: 
Summary: Thoughtful, enjoyable reading about flight and technology
Review: An insightful dissertation on both the technology of aviation and the meaning of flight. The chapters on "The Turn" and "On a Bombay Night" tell of one of the basic challenges facing man in his journey into the sky. A challenge comparable to that of determining longitude at sea as told by Dava Sorbel in "Longitude". Organizational management and systems thinking is touched on in chapters about Air Traffic Control, the FAA, and the Valujet crash. Chapter 2, the "Stranger's Path" may tend to divert one from continuing, but read on, or skip it because the other remaining chapters are worth the effort. William Langewiesche has given us a book that alternates between a personal, intimate view of flying and a broader view of aviation as perhaps the archetype of 20th century discoveries, technologies, and systems.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful, enjoyable reading about flight and technology
Review: An insightful dissertation on both the technology of aviation and the meaning of flight. The chapters on "The Turn" and "On a Bombay Night" tell of one of the basic challenges facing man in his journey into the sky. A challenge comparable to that of determining longitude at sea as told by Dava Sorbel in "Longitude". Organizational management and systems thinking is touched on in chapters about Air Traffic Control, the FAA, and the Valujet crash. Chapter 2, the "Stranger's Path" may tend to divert one from continuing, but read on, or skip it because the other remaining chapters are worth the effort. William Langewiesche has given us a book that alternates between a personal, intimate view of flying and a broader view of aviation as perhaps the archetype of 20th century discoveries, technologies, and systems.
Rating:
Summary: Sans chapters two and six, an excellent read.
Review: As a commercial pilot and and with an education in meteorology (minor), I looked forward to reading this book. The chapter titled "The Turn" as well as the next two chapters capture the pilots sense of "inside the sky" in a way that I've seldom read. Langewiesche does that well and makes the book worth picking up. However, if you are not particularly enamored of philosophical treatments of our landscape from above or the whys of airplane crashes and other disastors, just skip the second and last chapter. They'll waste your time and make you very sleepy. But then again, maybe you need that.
Rating: 
Summary: How Can He Fly with His Ego Weighing Him Down
Review: As I pilot myself I appreciate the beauty of flying. However the author takes an unnecessarily superior, almost professorial, tone with his writing. Flying is a freeing experience that is best described in simple, soaring terms. There is too much "me" in this book. Not enough of the true essence of flight.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting perspective, but disjointed
Review: I began my reading of this book with much anticipation, but quickly got lost in the second chapter, which seems totally removed from the rest of the book. While chapters on "storm flying" and description of fatal crashes such as ValueJet are fascinating, Langewiesche often launches into opinionated, rambling passages of little relevance to the rest of the story. Just as the pioneering pilots who had few tools to help them navigate, I could not get a sense for where he was trying to go, and felt disappointed at the end of the journey
Rating:
Summary: commendable
Review: I bought this book to read while on an airplane. I wanted to know more about the mechanics of flight to make myself more comfortable with the mystery of flight. The book didn't really satisfy all of my questions, but it left me with something more. Yes it was hard to get into. The first essay was just ok and really brings out Langewiesche's thinly veiled condescension (or maybe misunderstanding) of non-pilots. And the second essay where he introduces where he introduces his admiration for J.B. Jackson was where he almost lost me. But the third essay, The Turn, hooked me. An intricate study of the physics of flight, Langewiesche deftly interlaces history, science and his own experiences to give the reader valuable insight of the experiences in the cockpit, intellectual and emotional. I will recommend this book by the virtue of this one essay, though of the ones that follow there are some that are equally readable and there are some that are not.
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