The Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Aeronautics, by E. Charles Vivian

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Title: A History of Aeronautics

Author: E. Charles Vivian

Posting Date: July 26, 2008 [EBook #874]
Release Date: April, 1997

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF AERONAUTICS ***

Produced by Dianne Bean

A HISTORY OF AERONAUTICS

by E. Charles Vivian

FOREWORD

Although successful heavier-than-air flight is less than two decades
old, and successful dirigible propulsion antedates it by a very short
period, the mass of experiment and accomplishment renders any one-volume
history of the subject a matter of selection. In addition to the
restrictions imposed by space limits, the material for compilation is
fragmentary, and, in many cases, scattered through periodical and
other publications. Hitherto, there has been no attempt at furnishing a
detailed account of how the aeroplane and the dirigible of to-day came
to being, but each author who has treated the subject has devoted his
attention to some special phase or section. The principal exception to
this rule--Hildebrandt--wrote in 1906, and a good many of his statements
are inaccurate, especially with regard to heavier-than-air experiment.

Such statements as are made in this work are, where possible, given
with acknowledgment to the authorities on which they rest. Further
acknowledgment is due to Lieut.-Col. Lockwood Marsh, not only for the
section on aeroplane development which he has contributed to the work,
but also for his kindly assistance and advice in connection with the
section on aerostation. The author's thanks are also due to the
Royal Aeronautical Society for free access to its valuable library of
aeronautical literature, and to Mr A. Vincent Clarke for permission to
make use of his notes on the development of the aero engine.

In this work is no claim to originality--it has been a matter mainly of
compilation, and some stories, notably those of the Wright Brothers and
of Santos Dumont, are better told in the words of the men themselves
than any third party could tell them. The author claims, however, that
this is the first attem