Introductory Note
Reading edition
“Hitherto aviation has been almost monopolized by that much-overpraised and much-overtrusted person, ‘the practical man.’ It is much in need of the services of the theorist—the engineer with his mathematical calculations of how a flying machine ought to be built and of how the material used in its construction should be distributed to give the greatest possible amount of strength and efficiency.”
—From the New York Times, January 16, 1911.