The Dream of Flight is the first book in English to trace in detail the ingenious and often amusing results of aeronautical speculation and experiment from the earliest times to the emergence of the New Science in the late Renaissance. While the flapping of artificial wings was the most common form of experiment, a great many other aerodynamic devices were tried. Rockets, kites, windsocks, mechanical birds, flying chariots, and even a primitive hot-air balloon, were all either made or suggested, the persistence of the invcntors testifying again and again co the intellectual, psychological, and spiritual importance of man's desire to fly.
This book deals with the major devices in turn, and ends with a discussion of the achievements of Leonardo, the greatest of all the early speculators in the field.
The most important documents are quoted in the appendix, and there is an extensive bibliography.