AtDDtA1: Aeromaniacs

[Dave Monroe]

   "Since that morning, before the first light, a gay, picnic-going
throng of aeromaniacs of one sort and another had been continuing all
day now to vol-à-voile in ..."  (AtD, Pt. I, Ch. 2, p. 14)


"a gay, picnic-throwing throng of aeromaniacs"

aeromaniac

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http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50003571?nearest_to=aeromaniac

WWI and Early Aviation Image Archive

http://www.earlyaviator.com/archive1.htm

Strange Aircraft From the Early Years of Flight

http://www.unmuseum.org/flystrange.htm

L'aviation d'avant l'avion: les précurseurs

http://aerostories.free.fr/precurseurs/

Flying Machines

http://www.flyingmachines.org/

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from
London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes (1965)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059797/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Those_Magnificent_Men_in_Their_Flying_Machines

CAN'T WAIT FOR AIRVENTURE!
Make plans now for EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2007, July 23-29

It happens only once a year, and it happens only in Oshkosh. Many
aviation enthusiasts return to AirVenture year after year because the
event is more than a collection of attractions, activities, and
experiences - it's a way of life....

http://www.airventure.org/

http://www.eaa.org/


vol-à-voile

THE soaring, or as the French term it more properly, the sailing
flight (vol-ô-voile) of certain species of birds, that is to say their
power of progressing through the air and of translating themselves at
will without any flapping action whatever, has always seemed such a
mechanical paradox that its very existence has been questioned by
those who have not carefully observed the performance of these
birds....

http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/inventors/i/Chanute/library/Chanute_Sailing_Flight.html

http://spicerweb.org/chanute/chan_ind.html

volplane
[VAHL-playn]
1. To glide in or as if in an airplane.
2. Of an airplane; to descend gradually in controlled flight.
3. To fly in a glider.
Example:
An eagle soared and volplaned gracefully across the sky.
History:
"Vol plane," meaning "gliding flight," was a phrase first used by
19th-century French ornithologists to describe downward flight by
birds; it contrasted with "vol a voile" ("soaring flight"). Around the
time Orville and Wilbur Wright were promoting their latest "aeroplane"
in France, the noun and the verb "volplane" soared to popularity in
America as a term describing the daring dives by aviators. ("Fly"
magazine reported in 1910 that "the French flyers are noted for their
thrilling spirals and vol planes from the sky.") The avian-to-aviator
generalization was fitting, since the Wright brothers had studied the
flight of birds in designing their planes.

http://www.translationdirectory.com/glossaries/glossary014_v.htm

Glider flight operation = Activités de vol à voile

Glider site = Aérodrome de vol à voile

http://www.segelflug.de/segelflieger/philippe.lagarrigue/Eng.htm#G


gold-beaters' skin

One of the traditional materials used in the repair of manuscripts
written on vellum is goldbeater's skin, the outer membrane of ox
intestine. The advantages of this material are transparency, strength
and fairly uniform thickness....

http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v02/bp02-15.html

Goldbeater's skin — the outer membrane of calf's intestine — is
parchment material traditionally used in the process of reducing gold
into mere 1μm-thick leaves. Up to 120 sheets of gold laminated with
goldbeater's skin could be beaten at one time since skin is thin,
elastic and did not tear under heavy goldbeating.

It is used as sensitive element in hygrometers since due it
hygroscopic property variations in atmospheric humidity causes skin
contraction or expansion. Alexander Graham Bell used drum of
goldbeater's skin with an armature of magnetised iron attached to its
middle as sound receiver (see Invention of the telephone) and the
North German Confederation printed 10- and 30-groschen postage stamps
on goldbeater's skin, to prevent reuse of the high-value stamps.

Due to its transparency, strength and fairly uniform thickness
goldbeater's skin is also used in conservation of the manuscripts
written on vellum to repair holes and vellum tears. To manufacture
goldbeater's skin the gut of ox (or other cattle) is soaked in a
dilute solution of potassium hydroxide, washed, stretched, beaten flat
and thin, and treated chemically to prevent putrefaction. A pack of
1,000 pieces of goldbeater's skin requires the gut of about 400 oxen,
and is only 1 inch thick.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldbeater's_skin


sky-dogs

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cc/Snoopy_wwi_ace_lb.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Snoopy_wwi_ace_lb.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Guardsmen

http://www.snoopy.com/comics/peanuts/namco/

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2339283960203831616

Dogfight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogfight

"THE DOGS OF THE HEAVENS"

http://hometown.aol.com/puffindog/canis.html

"Certain quarters of Paris raved under the heat of Sirius, were
touched by its halo of plague, which is nine light-years from rim to
center." (V., Ch. 14, Sec. i, pp. 393-4)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0106&msg=56356

And thanks again, Ya Sam ...

http://www.nationalballoonmuseum.com/hot_air_airship.htm

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0701&msg=114327