The Right Flyer

£39.95 £20.00

Category:
  • Cover: Hardback
  • Published: 2017
  • Language: English
  • ISBN: 978-0956981103
  • Number of pages: 360
  • Photographs and illustrations: 310
  • Dimensions: 226mm x 226mm x 36mm

A deep history of Europe’s most significant pioneer aeroplane and the men who built and flew it.

The Right Flyer

Details

The cellular biplane that Gabriel Voisin built for Henry Farman is by any standards a major landmark in the history of powered flight. As the first full account of its genesis and two-year evolution, this is the story of its true role in the final lap of the race to fly, particularly in the context of the Wright brothers’ contemporary feats on both sides of the Atlantic.

As well as exploring its impact of society, culture and politics in France, the story reveals how the zigzag of technological progress was driven by the personality of strong characters involved and unpicks the longstanding controversy between the very different approaches adopted by the Old World and the New.

Drawing on contemporary sources, it separates the facts from the fiction in a way that invests these extraordinary events with some of the gripping immediacy they must have had at the time.

The result is a compelling portrait of aeronautics in France from 1904 to 1908, complete with an analysis of the technologies concerned, lively accounts of the machine’s epoch-defining flights in France, Belgium and New York, and biographies of all the main protagonists.

Farman's Voisin at Issy-les-Moulineaux

Reviews

  • A most excellent book! Its interweaving of technology, events, developments and personalities offers an intriguing look at how and why powered flight came into existence. [..] Superbly illustrated and wonderfully detailed, it provides a ‘you are there’ sense of the unfolding story.

    Carl J. Bobrow NASM/Smithsonian, September 2017

  • A must for anyone interested in the birth of powered flight and/or the sporting atmosphere of the Belle Epoque [..] An excellent book.

    Sébastien Faurès The Automobile, November 2017

  • Every section is illustrated with amazing photographs which are well worth the purchase price alone. [..] A fascinating insight into the larger than life characters that helped shape the world we live in now.

    VSCC Bulletin Autumn 2017

  • A valuable addition to the historiography of early flying in Europe.

    Malcolm Hall, MRAeS Aerospace, December 2017

  • A well-designed and handsomely produced volume, illustrated throughout [..] a detailed history of the formative years of the development of powered flight in Europe and the major contributions made by Voisin and Farman, concluding with biographical summaries of their contemporary pioneering aviators.

    Brian Riddle, Chief Librarian National Aerospace Library

  • An important, detailed and objective review of the earliest history of powered flight. The wealth of contemporary photos is fantastic.”

    E Dean Butler

Contents

Main text

  • Wrights and kites
  • Archdeacon gliders
  • Blériot-Voisin
  • Les Frères Voisin
  • Construction
  • The motor
  • First flights
  • The Kilometre
  • The refit
  • Ghent
  • New York
  • Wrightmania
  • Châlons and the first journey
  • Visions of the future
  • Biplane to triplane
  • Retirement: Vienna
  • Repercussions

    • Appendices

  • The makers: Gabriel & Charles Voisin
  • The flyer: Henry Farman
  • The assistant: Maurice Herbster
  • The loyal lieutenant: Maurice Colliex
  • The catalyst: Ernest Archdeacon
  • The proselytiser: Ferdinand Ferber
  • The friend: Henry Kapférer
  • The opposition: Orville & Wilbur Wright
  • The conduit: Octave Chanute
  • The dilettante: Alberto Santos-Dumont
  • The brains: Robert Esnault-Pelterie
  • The rival: Louis Blériot
  • The motorist: Léon Levavasseur
  • The precursor: Lawrence Hargrave
  • The engineer: Frederick Lanchester
  • The scientist: Paul Painlevé
  • The pilot: John Moore-Brabazon