The Cody Flyer [cover title].

Aldershot: Gale and Polden. [1912]. 4to. Original red card wrappers, lettered in gilt, original printed envelope preserved; pp. 11, [1], highly illustrated after photographs and drawings, printed on yellow, blue and white coated paper; wire-stitching removed and replaced with new ties, traces of oxidation along gutters, final page with a little offsetting from red wrappers; a rare survival with the original printed envelope, this a little spotted.Extremely rare trade catalogue for the Cody mono- and biplanes, as well as a manned war kite. 'Samuel Franklin Cowdery was born in 1867, in Davenport, Iowa, was a Wild West showman and early pioneer of manned flight. He changed his name to Cody at age 21 when he was part of a touring Wild West show (not to be confused with that of Buffalo Bill Cody). He is most famous for his work on the large kites known as Cody War-Kites, that were used by the British in World War I as a smaller alternative to balloons for artillery spotting. Financed by his Wild West shows, Cody's unusual interest in manned kites advanced significantly when he enlarged upon Lawrence Hargrave's double-cell box kite to increase its lifting power, especially by adding wings on either side. He patented his design in 1901, and it became known as the Cody kite. Cody eventually managed to interest the British Army in his kites. In 1906, he was appointed Chief Instructor of Kiting for the Balloon School in Aldershot and soon after joined the new Army Balloon Factory down the road at Farnborough. The Factory would eventually become the Royal Aircraft Establishment. In 1908, the War Office officially adopted Cody's kites for the Balloon Companies he had been training. This group would in due course evolve into the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers, No. 1 Company of which later became No. 1 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps and eventually No. 1 Squadron Royal Air Force. During 1907, he was given full authority as the designer of the the British governments dirigible understructure and propulsion system. On 5 October 1907, Britain's first powered airship British Army Dirigible No 1, and using Cody's engine, the Nulli Secundus flew from Farnburough to London. In 1907, the British Army decided to back the development of Cody's powered aeroplane, the British Army Aeroplane No 1. His flight of 16 October 1908 is recognized as the first official flight of a piloted heavier-than-air machine in Great Britain. He went on to win a number of aeronautical awards and started developing his own aircraft company. That company produced the Cody Flyer (a monoplane), for which this pamphlet was issued. On 7 August 1913, he was test flying his latest design, the Cody Floatplane, when it broke up at 200 feet and he and his passenger, the cricketer William Evans, were killed' (Nat DesMarais Rare Books). The 1908 British Army Aeroplane No.1 was actually Cody's biplane, sometimes called Cody 1, later officialy referred to as The Cody Flyer. 'On 16 October, at Farnborough, it made what is recognised officially as the first sustained powered flight in Great Britain by a heavier-than-air machine, covering 423.7m before crash-landing' (Virtual Aircraft Museum, online).Library Hub locates a single copy, in the National Aerospace Library.…