Welcome to PHANTOM AVIATORS!

It has been traditional to teach school children that Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, that Charles Lindbergh was the first man to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, and that the Wright Brothers invented the airplane. Time has since taught us that the first Europeans to set foot on the North American continent were probably the Vikings while Lindbergh was the 85th man to cross the Atlantic by air (although he WAS the first to do it solo). Would it be any more remarkable to learn, then, that the Wright Brothers’ brief flight in December of 1903 may not truly have been the first successful manned and controlled, heavier-than-air powered flight?

This website, based on our book, Phantoms of the Skies, explores the largely lost history of aviation from antiquity through the Wright Brothers and beyond. It is the story of those who first dared to challenge the age old belief that man should remain content to stay earthbound, sometimes even to the point of paying for such presumptuousness with their very lives. As such, it is a tribute to the men and women who made flight not only possible, but who laid the foundation that makes air travel safe and easy today. It is hoped that their sacrifices will inspire others to strive for their own dreams, as well as remind us that, just as the aviation pioneers of the past found ways to overcome the tremendous technological hurdles they faced in their efforts to make their vision a reality, we, too, will find a way to overcome the technological obstacles that stand in our way in our quest to reach the stars.

WHAT'S NEW?

1 March 2012:

HUZZAH! FINALLY! Some Content! Folks, after an inexcusably long period of inactivity (attributable to other projects and life's indifference to schedules and personal desires) I have uploaded the Patents Page, where you will find thumbnailsof all the patents I have collected for the book and the website.