La Fregate crashes (photo)

 In today's age of space probes and moon rockets, it is hard to believe that the aeroplane is scarcely sixty years old. Here Henry Serrano Villard, who knew many of the pioneer pilots and flew in their "bits of stick and string,"re-creates the romantic era when man first dared the miracle of flight. His anecdotal account, illustrated with 125 photographs--many from his personal album--covers the decade and a half of aeronautical history from the Wright brothers' exploits at Kitty Hawk to the outbreak of World War I.  "It was inevitable that some constructors should copy the graceful arched wings of a bird in flight--in fixed, not flexible, form. Such a type was seen on the Franz Miller monoplane--the first machine to be built in Italy--which flew, after a fashion, in 1908 and 1909. The frigate bird was the model for a French tractor monoplane with unmistakeable Blériot characteristics, powered by a three-cylinder 30--hp Anzani motor. named, naturally enough, La Frégate, it was tested at Issy by Robert de Lesseps."/