Spaceship Handbook's subject is the historical development of the Spaceship during the 20th Century. Arranged in three Sections, "The Theoreticians," "The Entertainers," and "The Real Stuff," it presents an amazing collection of 75 designs and their stories - from Tsiolkovsky and Oberth's engineering papers, through the golden age of movie science fiction, up to the present day's Lockheed "VentureStar" and Rotary Rocket "Roton." Spaceflight historian Hagerty delves into the background story behind each design, examining the motivations of the designers in the context of the times in which they lived. The book's selection of these historically important Spaceships has a twist; none of these Spacecraft ever flew! However, from the information presented, we can see their importance to the development of Spaceships that did fly, and also on the world we live in. Each entry has a wealth of background information. For example, in the "The Theoreticians" section, we see illustrator Chesley Bonestell's wonderful artwork that appeared in Willy Ley's Conquest of Space, a book that accurately predicted space flight years ahead of its time. Plate XLI from this book, shows the Arizona Meteor Crater superimposed over Manhattan Island (with the crater centered roughly on Times Square). Today, it bears a disconcerting similarity to the September 11th terrorist attacks. However, Bonestell's illustration was done over 50 years ago to show the danger of Earth-crossing asteroids. In "The Entertainers," section, the 1930's comic strips and movie serials of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon get their just due. Not only did they affect a whole generation of future NASA engineers, the influence of streamlined design began with these ships. The baby boomer crowd will find that Captain Video, Space Patrol, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, and others from 1950's live TV space opera shows are included. Also from that era, George Pal's great science fiction films "Destination Moon," "When Worlds Collide" and others are well documented. For those who grew up in the 1960's, there are the "Thunderbirds" of the famous Gerry Anderson puppet show, and "2001, A Space Odyssey." From the 1970's, '80's, and 90's you'll find "Josie and the Pussy Cats in Outer Space," "Wallace and Gromit," and the mysterious Spaceship from Myst, the extremely popular computer game. The next section of the book discusses "The Real Stuff" -- spaceships that either almost were (Dyna-Soar, NOVA and the Manned Orbital Laboratory) or that aren't quite yet, like the VentureStar and Pathfinder, and others. Finally, the Appendixes. Appendix A is The Atomic Powered Spaceship by Jon Rogers. This section could easily be a book in its own right. Rogers, an aerospace engineer, does an extensive treatment of the Holy Grail of science fiction spaceships, atomic power. Included are comparisons with existing chemical rockets and even the ultimate rocket power plant, matter/antimatter. Appendix B presents some plans for building flying versions of several Spaceships covered in the book. In this way, Spaceship Handbook traces the Spaceship from it's beginnings in the imaginations of dreamers, entertainers, and scientists to it's selection as "one of the twenty most important engineering achievements of the 20th Century. To Quote Mark Johnson's review in Sport Rocketry, "Spaceship Handbook was worth the wait. Unless you were hiding under a rock for the entire 20th Century, you'll find something familiar here. Both rocketeers and space enthusiasts will find many hours of fascinating reading in its pages."