Search Results

1. L'Aerophile collection, 1876-1949

   152 boxes. 15,000 items. -- Science, Technology, and Business Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Correspondence, blueprints and manufactures information for early French and foreign aircraft and dirigibles, reports of accidents involving flyers and balloonists, World War I aerial photographs and intelligence reports, a series of French cartoons, drawings, graphs, charts, diagrams of equipment, maps, newspapers, printed material, and photographs. The materials in the collection were evidently assembled by staff of the magazine L’Aerophile which was published by Georges Besançon in collaboration with Union Aérophile de France. Subjects include aeronautics chiefly in Europe and the U.S., aeronautics corporations, air shows, aviators, balloons, bombs and missiles, commercial airlines, dirigibles, gliders, hydroplanes, medical aviation, military aeronautics, model aircraft, parachutes, propellers, record flights, and research and testing of aircraft. Individuals represented include Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold, Georges Besançon, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and William "Billy" Mitchell.

2. Octave Chanute papers, 1807-1955

   10,325 items. 46 containers plus 1 oversize. 17.4 linear feet. 25 microfilm reels. -- Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Civil engineer and aviation pioneer. The bulk of the collection relates to Chanute's experiments with gliders and his scientific and financial support of aeronautical pioneers. Other papers concern his career as a builder of railroads and his service as chief engineer of the Erie Railroad and railroads in Illinois and Kansas.