Richard Dee

In 1799, one hundred years before the Wright Brothers' historic flights at Kitty Hawk, Sir George Cayley had engraved, on a silver disc about the size of a British shilling, both the design for an airplane and the earliest recorded description of the forces by which a wing can fly. Through his work Cayley was the first to recognize the two opponent-paired forces of flight: weight and lift, thrust and drag. These discoveries culminated in the invention of the first practical airplanes. Cayley, his grandson John, and the ever supportive engineer Mr. Vick formed a team that would finally conquer the air. Aged seventy-five, Cayley and his little group developed a series of advanced models, and in 1849 they finally flew a full-sized glider with a crew consisting of a ten-year-old boy. Shortly before the his eightieth birthday, Cayley would finally build the machine that launched the world's first heavier-than-air aviator. Within less than a generation of his death, Cayley's name would be virtually forgotten. The "father of aviation" would remain unknown to all but a tiny group who followed his pioneering work. In this compelling account, Richard Dee tells the story of this remarkable man and his remarkable time. Dee's biography of Cayley allows him to combine his scientific and historical knowledge of aviation to produce an accessible and highly readable account of one of aviation's unsung heroes.

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