Excerpt from Flying the Atlantic in Sixteen Hours: With a Discussion of Aircraft in Commerce and TransportationI believe that ever since Man, but recently conscious of his own existence, saw the birds, he has desired to emulate them. Among the myths and fables of every race are tales of human flight. The paradise of most religions is reached through the air, and through the air gods and prophets have passed from earth to their respective heavens. And all authentic angels are endowed with wings.The present generation is lucky in that, de spite this instinctive longing since the begin ning of human history for the means of flight, it is the first to see dreams and theories trans lated into fact by the startling development of practical aviation, within the past fifteen years. The aeronautical wonders of the next fifteen years are likely to be yet more startling.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.