first edition
1970 · London
by Gibbs-Smith, Charles H.
London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1970. First Edition. Octavo. 316pp. From the antiquity of dreams & myth, through the 16th-to-18th centuries, and smaller intervals of important years thereafter in the history of powered flight. Illustrated with photographs of all forms of powered flight: flops and failures, as well as the shining successes. A very nice copy bound in black cloth centrally stamped with a bird in gilt, spine lettring gilt over blue, small corner bump, in very good pictorial dust jacket lettered in black and white. From the library of Herbert G. Fales who was an aviation pioneer.Mr. Fales learned to fly at the age of 21. In 1917, he obtained pilot's license No. 826. In 1976, he was the 10th oldest active pilot in the country. When he was 64 he flew a plane at more than twice the speed of sound. (Inventory #: 005960)