Pioneer aircraft : Early aviation to 1914

Inbunden bok. Putnam. 2002. 255 sidor.

Nyskick. Skyddsomslag i nära nyskick. // Pioneer Aircraft Early Aviation before 1914

The dream of human flight is as old as human society, and is enshrined in such myths as the Greek tale of Icarus, the son of Daedalus, who flew too close to the sun and suffered a cat-astrophic structural failure. This volume describes the pro-tracted development of the technology that resulted in the world's first powered, sustained and controlled flight on a windy beach in North Carolina, in the USA, in 1903.

The story begins with the speculations of ancient and medieval philosophers and scientists, and how the understanding of the nature of flight improved in tandem with the growing sci-entific understanding during the Renaissance in Europe and after. In 1783 the first breakthrough occurred with the ascent of two men in a hot-air balloon built by the Montgolfier broth-ers. While balloons provided one way of taking to the air dur-ing the nineteenth century, others sought to achieve heavier-than air flight on winged aircraft. In the USA, Orville and Wilbur Wright, two enterprising and perceptive brothers from Ohio, after designing and building their own powerplant, made the first successful powered flight.

The Wrights were first, but other aviators were not far behind. In Europe, Blériot, Farman and Voisin became leaders in the world of aviation. By the time the First World War broke out, in 1914, aeroplanes had flown from water and attained speeds in excess of 100km/h, and engines had reached over 100hp.

The story of this great human conquest is told by some of today's most prominent specialist aviation writers. This is not simply a narrative history of early aviation. It explains why human flight took so long to achieve, and how the problems were overcome as successive experimenters built on the work of their predecessors until human flight was a reality.

This volume includes:

Introduction

Dreams and Realities

The Lighter-than-air Contribution

The Passive and Active Approaches

The Dawn of Aerodynamics

Man Flies

How and Why the Wrights Succeeded

Evolving the Practical Aeroplane

Flying Early Aeroplanes

Propulsion Systems

Flying from Water

Making Aeroplanes Safe

An Industry Is Born

Putting the Aeroplane to Work