Remarkable and scarce book on early aviation. KVK records only the copy in the Swedish Krigsarkivet, OCLC has two copies, one in the Smithsonian the other in the US Air Force Academy.
The first heavier-than-air flight made in Sweden was on 29th July 1909, by the French pilot Georges Legagneux in a Voisin biplane. The first licensed Swedish pilot was Carl Cederström, who qualified from the Blériot school in 1910, in which year the first Swedish-built ’plane, the Grasshopper a modified Blériot XI, flew. The publication of this work by Suneson, described as a civil engineer, reflects the popular interest at the time.
The spectacular and complex coloured plates show two types of airship, Parseval and Zeppelin, and two types of ’plane, a Blériot “English Channel” model and a Voisin biplane. The numerous flaps lift to reveal the inner workings of the machines, in the case of the Zeppelin the diagram folds open to a length of around 18“ and has five successive structural layers. The survival of this type of paper-engineering in anything like good condition is unusual, but in this case the production of the book itself also militates against it. The diagrams are mounted on quite heavy card leaves attached to linen stubs and wire-stitched in pairs, placing quite a strain on the internal binding.
