by Simine Short
ISBN 978-0-252-03631-6
University of Illinois Press, 1325 South Oak Street, Champaign, Illinois, 61820-6903, USA
6 1/4in x 9 1/4in hardback; 400 pages; illustrated
£25.99

Octave Chanute presents biographers with a difficult task. French-born and domiciled in the USA, he gained fame in two spheres, as a civil engineer specialising in railways and timber preservation and as an aviation pioneer, so research into two very different aspects is required. Moreover, Chanute corresponded with a large number of his fellow aviation pioneers worldwide in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, and a great deal of that correspondence survives, providing a unique and valuable insight into the exchange of theories and information in the earliest days of the aeroplane’s birth.

The author evidently had limited wordage in which to cover both of Chanute’s primary interests as well as his personal life. That she has succeeded to a large degree is praiseworthy, but the limitation has resulted in significant omissions. For example, Chanute’s praise of the Wright’s “testing machine” is cited without explaining that the brothers had built an impressive windtunnel and balances and had conducted an unprecedented series of tests on aerofoils, and although the British pioneer Percy Pilcher is mentioned a few times we are not told what he did, or how his correspondence with Chanute influenced his work.

As the first 181 pages of the book deal with Chanute’s early years and his numerous “railroad” engineering achievements, only the remaining 104 pages of text are devoted to his involvement in aviation, including his authorship of the classic Progress in Flying Machines, his own gliding experiments in the 1890s and his involvement with other pioneers. This is hardly adequate, and although the author covers Chanute’s own work well, and also his involvement with Augustus Herring and the Wrights, coverage of his exchanges with other experimenters is not so thorough. Describing Maxim’s effort of July 31, 1894, as “the second successful attempt of powered flight carrying a man” is grossly misleading.

Nonetheless, a biography of Chanute was long overdue, and there is much to be learnt in these pages. The extensive notes will guide the reader to further information, and a good index rounds off the book.

PHILIP JARRETT

RATING: ΘΘΘΘ