Classic Lecture: Cody the hero? By Peter Reese AMRAeS

Published: March 14, 2022, 10:34 a.m.

b'An American showman turned aviator, Samuel Franklin Cody used his imagination, endless courage and engineering virtuosity to become the first man in Britain to fly in an aircraft of his own making. But can he rightly take a place amongst the world\\u2019s heroes? \\n\\nIn this lecture, historian Peter Reese tells the story of how a man moved from performing a Wild West Show to becoming an aeronautical pioneer by building and flying some of the earliest man-carrying kites and aeroplane, before showing how, once the War Office declared against constructing aeroplanes in favour of airships, he raced his own aeroplanes and outflew his contemporaries.\\n\\nPeter Reese addressed the National Aerospace Library\\u2019s volunteers on 29 November 2021 and the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.'