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| Introduction: From Myth to Machine | |
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| Preparing the Way: from Antiquity to the Enlightenment | |
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| Of Dreams and Desires | |
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| Hellenic and Hellenistic Avian Influences: Archytas' Dove and the Sakkara Bird | |
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| Islam, Christendom, and the Consciousness of Flight | |
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| Brother Eilmer, the Flying Monk of Malmesbury | |
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| The Rocket and the Helicopter: The First Powered Flying Machines | |
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| Conflicting Ideas and Societies | |
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| Of Birds and Ornithopters | |
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| The Search for Alternative Solutions: Lana de Terzi and Gusmao Envision Aerostatics | |
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| Why Europe? | |
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| Science, Technology, and Inventing Flight | |
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| Ethereal Flight: Inventing the Balloon and Airship, 1782-1900 | |
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| The Astonishing Year | |
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| Two Brothers from Annonay | |
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| The Battle of the Balloons (I): Montgolfiere versus Charliere--the | |
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| First Trials | |
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| The Battle of the Balloons (II): Humanity Aloft | |
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| Consequences | |
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| Exploiting the Balloon | |
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| Professor Charles's Invention Goes to War | |
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| The Civil War | |
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| The French Revival and the Siege of Paris | |
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| Trials and Tragedy: Scientific Ballooning to the End of the Nineteenth Century | |
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| The Quest for Steerable Flight | |
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| Precursors | |
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| The First Successful Airship: The Renards, Krebs, and la France | |
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| Small Airships ... | |
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| ... and Large | |
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| Winged Flight: Early Conceptions of the Airplane, 1792-1903 | |
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| Sir George Cayley and the Birth of Aeronautics | |
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| Aerodynamics before Sir George | |
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| The Country Gentleman as Aeronautical Researcher | |
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| Cayley and his Work | |
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| Cayley's Other Interests and Influence | |
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| The Way Forward | |
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| Creating "an Artificial Wind": Wenham, Phillips, and the First Wind Tunnels | |
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| The Frustrated Hopes of French Aeronautics | |
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| The French Crucible | |
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| After Penaud: Tatin and Goupil | |
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| Birds, Bats, and Clement Ader | |
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| "L'affaire Ader": Attempting the World's First Military Airplane | |
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| The Tragedy of Early French Aviation | |
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| The Anglo-American School of Power and Lift | |
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| Maxim: The Businessman as Airplane Inventor | |
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| Langley: The Scientist as Airplane Inventor | |
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| Langley and the Military | |
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| Aftermath | |
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| The Airmen Triumphant: Lilienthal, Chanute, and the Wrights, 1891-1905 | |
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| The Lilienthal Legacy | |
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| The Making of an Airman | |
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| Lilienthal's Influence: An Assessment | |
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| Octave Chanute and the Transferring of Aeronautics from Europe to America | |
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| Into the Air: Chanute and the Birth of American Flight Testing | |
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| Enter the Wrights | |
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| Richard Rathbun: The Unsung Bureaucrat | |
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| "Annihilating" Time and Space | |
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| The Wrights as Engineers | |
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| Control and Stability: The Anticipated and Unanticipated Challenges | |
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| The Wrights Aloft: First Experiences | |
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| "They Done It, They Done It, Damned If They Ain't Flew!" | |
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| Rethinking Their Design | |
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| The Prime Mover | |
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| Final Preparations | |
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| Triumph of "the Whopper Flying Machine" | |
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| Afterwards | |
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| Europe Resurgent, 1905-1909 | |
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| "L'affaire Wright" | |
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| Concerns, Irritations, and Frustrations | |
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| "Fliers or Liars": The Growing "l'affaire Wright" | |
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| Santos to the Rescue, Archdeacon to the Attack, and Ader to the Barricades | |
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| The Roots of European Resurgence | |
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| Hunaudieres | |
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| "The Flying Industry Is Already Born" | |
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| The Spectre of Obsolescence: America's First Fliers and France's Fast Seconds | |
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| The First Aeronautical Salon | |
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| France, Europe, and the First Aerodynamic Laboratories | |
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| "The Age of Flight Is the Age We Live In" | |
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| Crossing la Manche | |
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| The Great Aviation Week at Reims | |
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| Denouement | |
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| Expansion, Incorporation, Maturation: Beginning the Aerial Age, 1910-1914 | |
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| Global Expansion | |
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| Aviation in Britain | |
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| Flight in the Vaterland | |
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| Italy, Scandinavia, Russia, and Asia | |
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| Whither America? The Wright Patent Muddle | |
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| The Loss of Innocence | |
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| Visions of Future War | |
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| America and the First Demonstrations of Military Value | |
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| The Birth of Maritime Aviation | |
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| Airships: The Prewar "Wunderwaffen" | |
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| Europe Exercises Its Military Aviation | |
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| To War on Wings | |
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| Triumphs of Speed and Distance | |
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| The Triumph of the French | |
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| La glorieuse annee | |
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| ... and Afterwards | |
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| Tennyson Fulfilled: Putting Prophecy into Practice, 1914 and Afterwards | |
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| Into the Whirlwind | |
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| The Road to War | |
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| Tannenberg: Annihilation of an Army | |
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| Decision on the Marne | |
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| Grappling in the Central Blue | |
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| The Rise of the Fighter: The Birth of Air Superiority Warfare | |
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| The Coming of the Bomber and the Advent of Strategic Air Attack | |
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| Air Power over the Battlefield | |
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| Aviation at Sea | |
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| The Industrial Dimension | |
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| Reflections on the Beginning of the Aerial Age | |
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| Questions ... | |
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| ... and Answers | |
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| What Happened in America | |
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| Echoes and Resonances | |
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| Transformations, Civil and Military | |
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| Afterword: Technology of Light or Technology of Darkness? Considering Flight after 9/11/01 | |
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| Acknowledgments | |
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| References | |
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| Index | |