Description
Original LIFE Magazine — June 18, 1956
LIFE Magazine June 18 1956 is a Special Issue devoted to the Air Age, exploring how aviation was transforming modern life and reshaping the world through the conquest of the skies.
The cover presents a dramatic pilot’s-eye view from an aircraft in a banking turn, reinforcing the issue’s focus on flight, technology, aviation history, and the rapidly expanding role of air travel in the mid-1950s.
- Cover Subject: Air Age Special Issue
- Inside This Issue: The evolution of modern flight; aviation technology; military and civilian aircraft; the growing impact of air travel on modern life; plus LIFE’s signature photography, reporting, and period advertising from 1956.
- Completeness: Complete original issue of LIFE Magazine, not a reproduction.
- Perfect For: Aviation collectors, pilots, military aviation enthusiasts, aerospace history fans, airline memorabilia collectors, 1950s technology collectors, birthday gifts, and collectors of original LIFE Magazines.
This original special issue preserves LIFE’s mid-century view of aviation at a time when flight was changing transportation, military strategy, commerce, and the way Americans understood distance and the modern world.
Original LIFE Magazines are authentic issues published between 1936 and 2000.
Pg… 14 MAN’S HIGH NEW REALM: The Exaltation of Modern Flight is Sensed in Howard Sochurek’s Color Photographs of Sights a Grounding Never Sees
Pg… 39 CIVILIAN AMERICA HAS A BUSY DAY IN THE AIR: Photographers from Coast to Coast Document 24 Hours of Travel
Pg… 56 EDITORIAL: Science, Sickness?and Character
Pg… 59 SEARCH FOR SAFETY: Test Crack–Ups Help Find New Ways to Safeguard Passengers
Pg… 67 THE FRONTIER OF AVIATION: At Edwards Air Force Base a Few Pilots Fly Planes of the Future and an Army of Dedicated Technologists Supports Them, By Robert Wallace
Pg… 86 AIRPORTS AROUND THE GLOBE: In Paintings, Edward Reep Describes the New Gateways to the Wide World
Pg… 99 FAMILIES GO FLYING: Weekend Wings Take Private Fliers Into the Wilds
Pg… 109 ODD SHAPES FOR TOMORROW: Agile Aircraft Now Under Serious Study are Being Designed to Speed?or Hover
Pg… 117 THE HANDY HELICOPTER: Farfetched Stunts Show Off the Wondrousness of the Wingless Wonders
Pg… 123 CAPTAIN OF THE OCEAN AIR: Pan American Pilot Portlock Wilson and Versatile Crew Make World Travel a Routine. Photographed by Leonard McCombe
Pg… 135 THE GROWING AIR AMERICA: The Far–Ranging Revolution has Given Birth to a New, Noisy and Burgeoning Economy. By Charles J.V. Murphy
Pg… 154 PORTRAIT OF U.S. MILITARY AVIATION: Color Fold–Out Shows the Air Force’s Front Line Planes and the Navy’s Power
Pg… 161 THE INDISPENSABLE ENGINEER: The Industry Bids Fiercely for Men Like Boeing’s Blumenthal Who Get the Planes Off the Drawing Board and Into the Air
Pg… 166 RESEARCH PLUNGES INTO THE FUTURE: The Achievement of Almost Unlimited Power Brings Man to New Challenges in a Strange World of Superspeed
Pg… 174 A SINGLE MOMENT OF TRANSATLANTIC TRAFFIC: Map Shows the Plane–Filled Air Lanes on a Night Over the Ocean
Pg… 176 AIRMAN WITHOUT WEIGHT: Progress Frees Flier of Gravity and Brings Him Confusion
