Previously we’ve learned how to fly a plane in 1910. Now we learn what it feels like for the pilot.

“At last the pitiless hour has arrived. Everything is ready. It is time to start. Amid the deafening roar of the motor the aeroplane snatches itself out of the hands of the men holding it back and hurtles along the ground. Then it hops and suddenly rises with a slide into the air… The irregular jolting and shaking caused by the unevenness of the ground as the aeroplane dashes to its ascent from the earth are succeeded by a soft gliding sensation which defied definition; the anxiety and anguish of the start have vanished to make room for a feeling of repose, of absolute solitude. The man has disappeared: he is now a bird!

[…]

“Everything blends together and dwindles away. Houses look like dice thrown on a billiard table; the largest cities seem like Liliputian towns, the bas-relief melts away, roads, rivers and railways appear to wind their way in a child’s model landscape toy. Only the sea and lofty mountains are spared in this wholesale diminution, and they always impose on the airman respectful admiration mixed with a very lively sentiment of fear.”

HOW IT FEELS TO FLY GRAPHICALLY TOLD BY AN AVIATOR (PDF)

From August 13, 1911