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Walker, John Brisben : The Final Conquest Of The Air

The Cosmopolitan Publishing Company, NY, 1904

8vo. 16pp extract, printed in double columns, illustrated with 29 drawings, salvaged from a damaged issue of The Cosmopolitan, Volume XXXVI, No. 5, March, 1904. Includes much on Samuel Pierpont Langley, who, at the time was head of the Smithsonian Institution, and to whom the author, who was editor of The Cosmopolitan, gives too much credit for the present status of aeronautics. Other named aeronauts include the Montgolfier brothers, M. De La Landelle, Robertson, Lebaudy, Henri Villard, Mr. Cocking, Spencer, Fred Bickford, and Santos-Dumont. Curiously absent (except a very small drawing of the aerostat) are the Wright Brothers, who, on December 17, 1903, only a few month's prior to the release of this March issue of The Cosmopolitan, were making history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This, perhaps, was the beginning of the myth propagated by the Smithsonian Institution that it was Professor Langley who first achieved man-carrying, sustained, motorized flight. In fact, Langley's aerodrome had crashed for the second time only days before the Wright's successful flight. Due credit wouldn't be given to the Wrights by the Smithsonian Institution until after World War II, and it was only then that the Wright brothers' aeroplane was donated to the Smithsonian after spending two decades in the Kensington Science Museum, England. Housed in protective mylar report cover. Very scarce, important piece of aviation history.. Book. Book Condition: VG. Binding: Soft cover

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