Pioneer Aviators Of The World

Most people recognize brothers and bicycle mechanics Wilbur and Orville Wright as the first in flight, and know that in 1903, on the blustery sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they made history with a flying machine of their own invention. But few other people know that the next aviator after the Wright brothers, a Brazilian, flew almost three years later and was nevertheless widely credited as being the first in flight. Or that a world-famous escapologist, a Hungarian, made the first flights in Australia but afterwards never flew again. Or that in Spain the first public display of a flying machine led to religious riots. The first pilots from each of a hundred countries have their stories told in this work. A brief biography and description of his or her attempts to fly are provided for each early aviator, except in a very few cases where facts are hard to find. For purposes of this book, a "flight" is defined as that made by a "heavier-than-air machine capable of taking off from ground level carrying a pilot, who controls to some degree the ascent, descent and path of the machine." To be called "successful," the flight must be "sustained past the point to which the machine's take-off momentum would normally carry it through the air."

Pioneer Aviators records the various stages of man's journey into the skies, taking the reader from the earliest years of experimentation, through the early age of ballooning, into heavier-than-air flight, our ventures into space and even all the way back around to modern human-powered vessels. The book introduces the reader to almost three hundred aviation pioneers and the aircraft they flew, and is illustrated throughout with photographs mostly from the author's own collection. Due to the historical importance of these aircraft - and as a tribute to those who flew them - many are now housed in museums across the world. Without the efforts and sacrifices of the pioneers, we would not have the aviation industry of today.

Pioneer Aviators records the various stages of man's journey into the skies, taking the reader from the earliest years of experimentation, through the early age of ballooning, into heavier-than-air flight, our ventures into space and even all the way back around to modern human-powered vessels. The book introduces the reader to almost three hundred aviation pioneers and the aircraft they flew, and is illustrated throughout with photographs mostly from the author's own collection. Due to the historical importance of these aircraft - and as a tribute to those who flew them - many are now housed in museums across the world. Without the efforts and sacrifices of the pioneers, we would not have the aviation industry of today.

Profiles the lives and careers of twenty-six women who were pioneers in the field of aviation.

Pioneer Aviators records the various stages of man's journey into the skies, taking the reader from the earliest years of experimentation, through the early age of ballooning, into heavier-than-air flight, our ventures into space and even all the way back around to modern human-powered vessels. The book introduces the reader to almost three hundred aviation pioneers and the aircraft they flew, and is illustrated throughout with photographs mostly from the author's own collection. Due to the historical importance of these aircraft - and as a tribute to those who flew them - many are now housed in museums across the world. Without the efforts and sacrifices of the pioneers, we would not have the aviation industry of today.

The Early Development of the Aviation Industry: Entrepreneurs of the Sky provides an introduction to the world of the early aviation industry and the business endeavours of the original aviators. Many of the first pioneers who flew heavier-than-air planes went on to develop considerable industrial concerns. In doing so they exhibited a number of entrepreneurial qualities, which provide useful case studies for those interested in studying how successful entrepreneurs create or develop opportunities at the inception and emergence of high-tech industries. This book looks at the careers of pioneer aviators in the United States, Britain and France such as A.V. Roe, Thomas Sopwith, Glenn Curtiss and William Boeing. It examines this group of entrepreneurs during the start-up and early development stages of an emerging industry undergoing considerable technological change, and relates this experience to contemporary studies and experiences of entrepreneurship. The book explores what made these men successful in their entrepreneurial endeavours to help promote a better understanding of what makes an entrepreneur and what business and economic conditions are needed to allow such men to be successful. This book makes a major contribution to our knowledge of the development of the twentieth century economy and is essential reading for students and academics who are interested in the development of aviation and the nature of entrepreneurial behaviour.

This a story of pioneers, intrepid aviators, adventurers, tycoons and innovators. It is also a story of dedication and determination, for despite fixed-wing aircraft proving their value over the battlefields of the Western Front during the First World War, convincing governments and public alike that they had a role in peacetime proved far more challenging. The Americans, as inventors of heavier-than-air powered flight, had briefly courted with a passenger airline across Tampa Bay in 1914, yet it took a further nine years for mail to be flown coast-to-coast. In 1919 a British company made the first international scheduled flight between London and Paris, but the continuation of regular services was thwarted by a less-than-enthusiastic government that allowed its generously subsidised French competition, for a short time at least, to fly cross-Channel passenger schedules unimpeded. The British eventually realzed that fast links with their Empire were vital, followed the example of the French and Dutch who had forged air links with their cousins in North Africa and the Far East. Meanwhile, in South America, the Germans, forbidden under the Versailles Treaty from any major aircraft-building, were establishing cunning supremacy by forming airlines throughout South America and in China. While America awaited a transcontinental passenger service, Juan Trippe's Pan American Airways was crossing swords with Ralph O'Neill of New York, Rio & Buenos Aires Line (NYRBA) for air supremacy between the US, Brazil, Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America that led to the formation of arguably the world's greatest airline. In Russia, Igor Sikorsky had built a vast passenger-carrying aircraft, the Il'ya Muromets, and politicians debated whether giant airships or fixed-wing aircraft should rule the skies _ an issue that was put firmly to bed when the mighty German airship Hindenburg exploded while mooring at Lakehurst in 1937. Robert BluffieldÍs highly researched and detailed account tells the dramatic stories of explorers such as Kingsford Smith, Lindbergh and Cobham, and flamboyant entrepreneurs, some well known, others forgotten, who risked fortunes and reputations to follow their dreams of reaching and ruling the skies over empires, continents and oceans. Against bewildering adversity, corruption, underhanded deals and dwindling resources, these tenacious individuals braved the elements using primitive, entirely unsuitable equipment to establish earth-shrinking aerial services that criss-crossed the great oceans and the globe's most inhospitable territories. These are the stories of those pioneers _ of A_ropostale, CNAC, Air Orient, Imperial Airways, KLM, Deutsche Luft Hansa, Pan Am, SCADTA, The Condor Syndicat, Qantas and others that had a far-reaching impact on the way the modern world would travel.