CONTENTS
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| I. | What Early History Tells | [ 1] |
| II. | The Work of Scientists | [ 8] |
| III. | First Fruits of Study | [ 21] |
| IV. | Otto and Gustav Lilienthal | [ 31] |
| V. | Gliding Flight | [ 41] |
| VI. | “The Bird Man” | [ 53] |
| VII. | Wilbur and Orville Wright | [ 62] |
| VIII. | The Wright Motor-driven Plane | [ 71] |
| IX. | Dawn of Flight | [ 84] |
| X. | Rival Airmen | [ 93] |
| XI. | A Year of Triumph | [100] |
| XII. | Perils of the Air | [130] |
| XIII. | Military and Cross-Country Flying | [149] |
| XIV. | Sea-Planes and Airships | [169] |
| XV. | Aerial Warfare | [188] |
| XVI. | At a Modern Aerodrome | [209] |
| XVII. | The Flying School | [226] |
| XVIII. | Touring by Air | [247] |
| XIX. | Twenty Years Hence | [270] |
LIST OF PLATES
| The Air Liner of the Future | [Frontispiece] | |
PLATE | FACING PAGE | |
| I. | The Langley Machine | [ 26] |
| II. | Santos-Dumont’s First Flights | [ 46] |
| III. | Farman’s Voisin Biplane | [ 68] |
| IV. | Latham’s Fall into the Sea | [ 84] |
| V. | Bleriot leaving the French Coast | [ 96] |
| VI. | Bleriot reaches Dover | [110] |
| VII. | A Farman in Flight | [116] |
| VIII. | The Gnome Motor | [122] |
| IX. | The First High-powered Bleriot | [134] |
| X. | Maurice Farman Biplane | [150] |
| XI. | An Airman’s Point of View | [164] |
| XII. | The London Aerodrome from Above | [188] |
| XIII. | An Aeroplane Factory | [202] |
| XIV. | Biplane circling a Pylon | [230] |
| XV. | View from a Craft ascending | [240] |
| XVI. | The Grahame-White “Aerobus” | [252] |
THE AEROPLANE