The First Aviators

The First Aviators is a Time-Life aviation book included in the Epic of Flight Series. The age of aviation dawned not as a sunburst but as a tantalizing glimmer. Long after the Wright brothers had flown in 1903, and even after they had gone on to perfect the first truly practical airplane, few people had heard of their achievement. The Wrights worked in relative obscurity and kept the details of their invention secret. As a result, aspiring aviators everywhere, particularly in France, toiled to conquer gravity with an assortment of contraptions of their own design. The first aviators had only their wits and reflexes to bring them down safely again. Their planes, mere collages of wood, cloth and wire, were difficult to control and so sensitive to air currents that even moderate winds could knock them to the ground. But once flying was established, by the end of 1910, the aviator emerged as an international hero.