Speaking with some experience, the writer has found that instruction
in the principles underlying the science and sport of aviation must be
vitalized by some contemporaneous study of what is being accomplished
in the air. No one of the revolutionizing inventions of man has
progressed as rapidly as aerial navigation. The "truths" of today are
the absurdities of tomorrow.
The suggestion that some grasp of the principles and a very fair
knowledge of the current practices in aeronautics may be had without
special technical knowledge came almost automatically. If this book
is comprehensible to the lay reader, and if it conveys to him even a
small proportion of the writer's conviction that flying machines are to
profoundly influence our living in the next generation, it will have
accomplished its author's purpose.
POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE OF BROOKLYN,
NEW YORK, April, 1911.