This
image of a model of the Wright Brothers’ airplane is from Modell
eines Aeroplans der Brüder Wright, by Walter Häntzschel, published
in Germany in the early 1900s. The volume contains the illustration, several
pages of explanation, and a key to the parts of the plane numbered on the
model. The illustration is actually multiple overlapping flaps, somewhat similar
to a children’s “pop-up” book. By lifting the flaps the
viewer is able to penetrate deeper and deeper into the lithographed image
of the airplane to see how its external and internal parts are positioned.
The plane,
the world’s first power-driven, heavier-than-air craft, was designed
and built by inventors Orville and Wilbur Wright. It was first flown successfully
on 17 December 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Modell
eines Aeroplans der Brüder Wright is one of many volumes in the Vail
Collection of rare books. The
Vail Collection contains thousands of volumes on the history of science and
technology, among them many that document the history of man’s efforts
to fly. Researchers can use materials from the Vail Collection in the reading
room of the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Microfiche copies
of the card catalog are available in the Institute Archives as well as in
the divisional libraries at MIT.
Object of the Month: December 2003
