AVIATION LEGENDS PAPER AIRPLANE BOOK, by Ken Blackburn & Jeff Lammers, Workman Publishing, New York, paperback, $15.95.

It’s a book! It’s a plane! It’s an interactive history of flight!

The Aviation Legends Paper Airplane Book is all of the above, at least once you put scissors and glue to the pages and pages of cut-out aircraft that follow this easy-to-read history of flight.

Indeed, you can fly some of the greats, from Air Force One to Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, from the DC-3 to the Voyager, the only known aircraft to have flown around the world without refueling, setting eight world records and returning to Edwards Air Force Base in California with 18 gallons of fuel to spare.

But before the fun, there are lessons to be learned. The first half of the book features a general overview of aviation history and a related timeline, beginning in 300 B.C. with the first kites flown in China. That’s followed by a more specific chronicle of various technological advances made during our century in the skies.

From the Wright Flyer, which made the first powered flight – albeit a 120-foot maiden voyage that lasted all of 12 seconds on Dec. 17, 1903 – to the Rockwell International Shuttle Spacecraft Endeavour that has made space travel almost mundane to the masses today, “Aviation Legends” charts the course of the different aircraft that took these seemingly rapid-fire advances into the wild blue yonder.

“Aviation Legends” is the fourth in a series of paper airplane books by Ken Blackburn and Jeff Lammers, a series that has more than 1.6 million copies in print. According to the press release accompanying the book, Blackburn holds the world record for duration of flight by a paper aircraft indoors at 27.6 seconds, not to mention working as an aerospace engineer at Boeing. Lammers is a mechanical engineer and entrepreneur with a diverse background in engineering, aviation and business.

Each section devoted to a specific aircraft features specifications of the actual version – not the models that come later – to allow for comparisons of speed, range and altitude, as well as how far aviation has grown in terms of the size of aircraft. For example, The Fokker Dr.I Triplane, made famous during World War I by Baron Manfred von Richthofen – The Red Baron, was 18 feet, 11 inches long and 9 feet, 8 inches high. That’s likely small enough to fit in the cargo compartment of the Boeing 747, which is 231 feet, 10 inches long and 63 feet, 8 inches high.

The individual sections also include step-by-step instructions on cutting out, folding and assembling the full-color, historically accurate models located in the back of the book, as well as tips on how to fly the finished product and even troubleshooting suggestions for when the model plane dives or otherwise deviates from your planned course.

And you needn’t worry about destroying one model, because with two copies of each there is one for play purposes and another to display in your very own air and space museum. There also are fold-up stands for the display models.

Some patience is required, particularly the older the wielder of the scissors. But a parent and a child working together could find this book not only a great educational tool but lots of fun, too.

Ernie Clark is a copy editor at the Bangor Daily News.