Now, at the start of the 21st century, much of warfare is waged from the air, not on the ground. High-flying, high-tech air forces around the world keep breaking barriers in speed and in stealthiness. Find out how we got to this point, and where the modern air force will soar to in the future. Helped by more than 180 photographs, a story unfolds of how the best air forces developed, and of their winning strategies--including the Nazis' devastating Blitzkrieg tactic. All the groundbreaking planes of the past and the ones revolutionizing our present receive close coverage, as are those wars where control of the skies proved crucial to victory and humanitarian efforts where the air force played an important role.