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| Acknowledgments | ||
| Introduction: The Origins of the Practical Airplane | 3 | |
| 1 | Daedalus and Icarus | 15 |
| 2 | The Short, Happy Flight of King Bladud | 18 |
| 3 | Oliver of Malmesbury, the Flying Monk | 19 |
| 4 | The Saracen of Constantinople | 20 |
| 5 | The Aerial Ship | 21 |
| 6 | The Flight of Birds | 26 |
| 7 | "Some Fire, My Dear Friend, Some Fire!" | 29 |
| 8 | The Flight of the Sycamore Seed | 35 |
| 9 | On Aerial Navigation | 36 |
| 10 | "Certain Improvements in Locomotive Apparatus and Machinery for Conveying Letters, Goods, and Passengers from Place to Place Through the Air, Part of Which Improvements Are Applicable to Locomotive and Other Machinery to Be Used on Water and on Land." | 43 |
| 11 | Proposal | 45 |
| 12 | "We Feel Very Sanguine as to the Results of Our Endeavour..." | 48 |
| 13 | "Memoir of the Late John Stringfellow" | 50 |
| 14 | The Artificial Bird of Captain Le Bris | 56 |
| 15 | "My Apparatus, No. 3, the Light, Imperfect One" | 62 |
| 16 | "My Late Brother Otto" | 67 |
| 17 | The Trials of the Eole | 76 |
| 18 | Progress in Flying Machines: Introduction | 77 |
| 19 | Progress in Flying Machines: Conclusion | 79 |
| 20 | "I Have Been Afflicted With the Belief That Flight Is Possible to Man" | 85 |
| 21 | The First Journey to Kitty Hawk | 88 |
| 22 | Life at Kitty Hawk, 1900 | 90 |
| 23 | Life at Kitty Hawk, 1901 | 94 |
| 24 | Life at Kitty Hawk, 1902 | 98 |
| 25 | Mr. Chanute in Paris | 100 |
| 26 | Experiments With the Langley Aerodrome | 104 |
| 27 | Life at Kitty Hawk, 1903 | 117 |
| 28 | "We Tossed a Coin to Decide..." | 120 |
| 29 | "Success Assured Keep Quiet" | 122 |
| 30 | "Mr. Daniels Took a Picture Just as It Left the Tracks" | 123 |
| 31 | "Success Four Flights Thursday Morning" | 126 |
| 32 | "Two Ohio Brothers Crowned With Success" | 127 |
| 33 | The Wright Boys Are Coming Home | 131 |
| 34 | Statement to the Associated Press | 132 |
| 35 | Fall Wrecks Airship | 134 |
| 36 | What Hath God Wrought? | 135 |
| 37 | "We Are Prepared to Furnish a Machine on Contract..." | 137 |
| 38 | "Like Everybody Else, I Cried: 'Bravo! Bravo!'" | 143 |
| 39 | Competition | 146 |
| 40 | Beginning to Fly | 151 |
| 41 | The June Bug | 158 |
| 42 | "We Would Be Glad to Take Up the Matter of a License..." | 161 |
| 43 | The Pioneers of Flight | 165 |
| 44 | Bleriot Tells of His Flight - Dropped Crutches to Do It | 168 |
| 45 | The First Air Meet | 172 |
| 46 | An Exchange Between Two Old Friends | 175 |
| 47 | "The Cheering Subsided to a Silent Prayer..." | 181 |
| 48 | Down the Hudson River | 182 |
| 49 | Finding His Wings | 189 |
| 50 | How a Woman Learns to Fly | 195 |
| 51 | "Canvas, Steel, and Wire" | 207 |
| 52 | The Sensation of Flying | 209 |
| 53 | Why I Looped the Loop | 215 |
| 54 | Johannisthal Days | 217 |
| 55 | "A Short Life, Full of Consequences" | 227 |
| 56 | The Credulous Farmer | 228 |
| Index | 229 |