Aircraft, Aircraft [antikvár]

ABOUT THIS BOOK This, I hope, is an aviation history with a difference. The important dates, facts and figures that one expects to find in such a bool^ are here, but an attempt has been made to put them into fresh perspective. It is all too easy for the historian to record that, for example, the Wrights were first to fly a powered aeroplane, or that the Heinkel He 178 was the first jet-plane, and leave it at that. But is there any particular merit in being first with something that is a dead end ? Surely the true greatness of the Wrights lay in what they achieved later, not in those first shaky hops in December 1903 for which they are chiefly honoured? Every fact in this book is founded on the very latest research, particularly that of my friend Charles Gibbs-Smith, who has done more than any man living to correct long-cherished fallacies and give due prominence to the work of true pioneers like Sir George Cayley. Some persistent errors in recorded history are corrected for the first time, such as the identity of the first jet-fighter used in action in World War 2. I hope that the illustrations also will strike a new and welcome note. There seemed little point in presenting once more the same old prints of certain historical machines simply because they are the only contemporary pictures available. Use is made of photographs of authentic models belonging to the famous Qantas collection — giving a completely new impression of what Cayley's boy-carrier and Leonardo's man-powered machine were really like. The lightness of parts of the text is complemented by beautifully drawn cartoons from the BP film Power to Fly. Biggest difference of all between this aviation history and others is that the reader is faced repeatedly with the question 'Is this the kind of flying about which the pioneers dreamed for so many years? In fact, is it flying at all?' The answer may be that only the amateur in his ultra-light home-built aeroplane and the glider pilot really know what it is to fly. J. W. R. T.