The dream of flight can be traced back as far as civilization and perhaps even further into the dawn of man's imagination. This book answers questions that abound about who came before the Wrights and significantly what part they played in the building of the foundation of aviation. Tinkerers rather than technicians, these men set forth to chase a dream, the dream of flight. A Dream of Wings by Tom D. Crouch chronicles the people, the machines, and the time period as a piece of aeronautical history that can be related to the age as a whole. .
The book begins with acknowledgements from the author along with a description of the Wright Brother's flight of September 20, 1904 in which for the first time an aircraft had flown in a complete circle. The author illustrates the wonder associated with heavier-than air flight. The awe and amazement of the public can well be characterized by the description then of the airplane as an "Aerial Steamboat" (Page 17). Aside from the public the imagination of many engineers would be captured by this new technology. Men such as Chanute, Cayley and Wenham applied their knowledge to further the dream of aviation. Octave Chanute in particular made a large impact during the dawn of heavier-than-air flight. Though his interest in flight stems back to the New York Rapid transit report of 1875, he could not fully realize his visions until the true actualization of his engineering firm in 1885. His having Israel Lancaster speak at the Buffalo meeting would have profound impact on aviation research. Despite what was essentially a failure in the Buffalo meeting Chanute became increasing enthusiastic about aviation through the exploits of men like Louis Mouillard and Otto Lilienthal. .
Through sound logic, the book goes into great detail of the successes and failures of those before the Wrights in attempts at finding solutions to the problems involved in flight and the control of flight.