JF Ptak Science Books Post 2774
Here's a busy title page of an interesting fairly early aviation work published in 1909 by John Grand-Carterett and Leo Delteil, La conquête de l'air vue par l'image (1495-1909) : ascensions célèbres, … The funny thing about all of the flying machines on the cover is that the Wright machine is way down on the bottom, and small.
The other thing about the Wright flyer: it fits in very comfortably with the only birds that are depicted o the cover. The brothers figured out that it was easy to get into the air; the hard part was staying there. And what kept you in the air was maneuvering the wings to control your flight—that was a mega-important realization, the inspiration for which came from watching birds in flight for some years on end. Anyway the French establishment in general was antagonistic to the Wrights, many people not believing that the Wrights had actually flown, and considered them fakers.
The French in general were leading the field in flight in Europe, but in the year that this publication appeared, they still were nowhere near where the Wrights had been in 1902/3. The Wrights worked mostly privately with only a couple of skilled hands, accepting money from no one, financing everything from their bike shop. (In the end the brothers spent just slightly under $1000 to finance their entire undertaking, from theory to powered flight, including shipping and travel, to the end of 1903. Their counterparts in France for the most part were of some sort of money, and did not have to work a demanding job to finance their pursuit. Ion any event when the brothers were turned down again by the U.S. Army for a sale of their aircraft, they left in 1908 to pursue sales on the continent.
Perhaps it was their secrecy which led to the French discontent, perhaps it was the relative nothingness that greeted their enormous accomplishment in the U.S. And perhaps that is why in 1909 their flyer is depicted as a smallish thing at the bottom of a page.
The thing is that it was in 1908 that the Wrights became truly famous, finally showing their flyer before large crowds, and showing absolutely that their work was far superior to others in the field, that their aircraft was more maneuverable, and more dependable, and their flying skills were unsurpassed. Wilbur famously performed at Le Mans in France to help secure European contracts, and Orville at Ft. Myer for a performance for the U.S. Army. (Orville's flight was successful enough, though one resulted in a crash that killed his passenger and severely injured him.) So this in hand in 1908, why are the Wrights featured in such a lowly position? Perhaps the cover design was contracted and completed before all of the 1908 successes? I don't know—its just annoying that they are down there at the bottom of the page, when in fact they delivered a working Magna Carter to aviation.
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