Although I find it hard to forgive this book for having no mention of my favourite aircraft which never flew, the Miller Ornithopter of 1843, I loved it. Philip Jarrett who wrote the introduction and three of the chapters, is also known to us for auctioning the books at our AGM. We are lucky that this is a worthy addition to the spate of excellent books about this era available. Starting with myths, like Alexander the Great being carried aloft by Griffins, through the theories of Leonardo da Vinci (very comprehensivly covered, but all quite well known), to the reality of E.T. Willows and Santos-Dumont, a lot about Percy Pilcher, and so many more birdmen I have never previously heard of, right up to A.V. Roe, Handley Page and Aviatik. There is a wonderful chapter on the Wright brothers and how and why they succeeded - wind tunnel tests in the 1900s!

The first third of the book concentrates on the ancient legends and then continues with the very early pioneers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some of whose claims of airworthiness make the dot-com bubble of recent times seem very understated! We then move on to chapters about aerodynamics, propulsion systems, flying from water, and putting the aeroplane to work, bringing us up to the edge of The Great War. This is a cornucopia of information, pictures (including two marvellous ones of Otto Lilienthal in flight) and enjoyable writing by some of the finest scribes at work to-day. Each chapter ends with a comprehensive bibliography for those who wish to research further.