Pioneer Aviators

Book excerpt: 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.