The Balloon Factory: The Story of the Men Who Built Britain’s First Flying Machines
$8.99
Frater introduces the pioneer aeronauts while embarking on a witty, utterly captivating tour of the parts of Britain that were important to them. He picks up the Cody trail in Farnborough, visits Blair Atholl where Dunne tested his revolutionary machine and drops in on Brooklands, where he learns of a bitter dispute over the first flight crown.
Frater also gives us a fascinating history of the birth of flight through the centuries - he delves deep into aviation history whilst on his travels, digging up eccentric stories such as a Benedictine monk named Eilmer who survived a prodigious leap (equivalent to jumping off a 12-storey building) in Malmesbury in 1010 AD.
Frater's richly described and wonderfully anecdotal journey brings those magnificent men - the rock stars of their time - and the places they knew, vibrantly to life.