This Week in Aviation History: February 18th

February 18, 1832. This week in aviation history marks the birth date of Octave Chanute, the first great historian of aviation. Chanute was born in Paris, France and brought to the United States as a child. His career began as a railroad civil engineer but his interests soon swayed to the new and exciting science of aviation. He retired from the railroad business in 1889 and began compiling all disparate data he could find from experiments of flight around the world.

In 1894 this collection of works was published as Progress in Flying Machines the first organized, written collection of aviation research. The book would eventually fall into the hands of the Wright brothers and it became for them a bible on aviation engineering. Wilbur Wright was so much a fan he wrote Chanute a fan letter that struck up a friendship between the brothers and this author. Chanute would visit them frequently in Kitty Hawk and became their de facto publicist, impressed as he was with their exploits in flight. In 2003 the magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology named Chanute 38th on its list of the top 100 most important people in the first century of aerospace.

This Week in Aviation History

2/18/08

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