About

How this site is built

airand.space is a free history of flight and space exploration, made to be used in classrooms and enjoyed anywhere. Here is who makes it, and how.

Who we are

airand.space is a project of Czerwonka Educational Consulting, LLC, an educational practice with roots in history and science teaching. We plan, review, and publish everything here, and we offer it free as a public service.

Why a law professor built this

If you're wondering what a law professor who owns a bar exam review company is doing building a history and STEM site, that's a good story. When I was in middle and high school I developed a fascination with forensic science, which taught me to start from the evidence and work forward. That habit is the method behind every page here. Oddly enough, I was just as taken with ocean liners, and with the planes that made all but one of them go the way of the dodo: the jets that began crossing the Atlantic in 1958 ended the liner age in a few short years. That is a story for a later chapter. I've taught law seminars to classes as young as third grade, and I wanted to bring my passion for exploration and science to life for students everywhere.

Chris Czerwonka

Sources first

Every chapter starts from primary sources: diaries, letters, photographs, and published accounts by the people involved, most of them held by the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, and NASA. Where the record is uncertain, we say so. Where historians disagree, we show both sides.

No AI responses, ever

Nothing on this site generates AI responses to what visitors type or do. Every page is reviewed and fact-checked by people before it is published, and every interactive runs on plain, predictable code, like the wind tunnel, which is built on the Wrights' own lift equation. Students get history they can trust, and nothing they enter is sent anywhere.

Built to last and to include

• Fast on any device. Pages are prebuilt HTML with almost no JavaScript, so they load quickly even on an older school laptop or a slow connection.
• Accessible. We build to WCAG 2.2 AA: keyboard navigation, screen-reader labels, sufficient contrast, reduced-motion support, and text alternatives for every interactive.
• Private. No accounts, no advertising, no third-party trackers, and fonts served from our own domain. Details are in our privacy and child safety page.
• Readable in light or dark, following your device's setting.

The toolbox

Astro static site · TypeScript · hand-written CSS · Fraunces, Source Serif 4, and IBM Plex Mono typefaces · Firebase Hosting

Get in touch

Teachers, museums, and historical societies: we'd love to hear how you use the site and what you would like to see next.

Are you an educator interested in building on our source code? We'll share it with you, free of charge. Email education@czerwonkalegal.com to chat.