L'AÉRONAUTE. Bulletin Mensuel Illustré de la Société Française de Navigation Aérienne

An important and extensive collection of one of the principal journals of the pioneering era of aeronautics, comprising a virtually complete run from January 1896 to December 1899, together with a substantial group of later issues from 1910, and an additional issue for March 1907. Approximately 100 issues in total, preserved in their original printed wrappers, with only two wrappers lacking. Published in Paris by the Société Française de Navigation Aérienne, L'Aéronaute was among the foremost European journals devoted to the science and practice of aerial navigation. The complete four-year run offered here documents a pivotal period in the history of flight, when ballooning and dirigible development were beginning to give way to serious experimentation with powered and controlled flight. These years encompass the emergence of Alberto Santos-Dumont's celebrated airship experiments in France, the development of Count Zeppelin's rigid airship projects, and the international discussion of the theories and research of Octave Chanute and other leading aeronautical pioneers. The additional issue for March 1907 and the accompanying 1910 issues carry the story into the formative years of practical aviation, coinciding with the rise of Farman, Voisin and Blériot, and the period immediately following the public demonstrations that established the Wright Brothers as the leading figures in powered flight.Profusely illustrated throughout and preserving a wealth of contemporary advertising matter, reports, technical articles and society proceedings, the collection constitutes a substantial primary source for the study of early aeronautics, ballooning, dirigibles, military aviation, engineering and meteorology. Such extended runs rarely survive in original parts, most having long since been broken up or bound.A remarkably well-preserved and historically significant collection charting the transition from the age of the balloon to the dawn of the aeroplane. Scarce, particularly with a complete four-year nineteenth-century run. Part of a large 11,000 book aviation book collection.