Les Torpilleurs de l'air
Subtitle: prodigieux exploits d'un aviateur français
Publisher: La Maison du Livre Moderne
Published: c1912
Language: fre
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 120
Description: An early novel with an aviation theme, written probably for an adult rather than a juvenile audience. It tells the  story of failed businessman and gambler, Remi de Fos, who is eventually bitten by the aviation bug and embarks on a series of round-the-world adventures including helping the Japanese to win a war against the United States. Love interest is provided by his romance with a beautiful Russian journalist.  The book is prophetic in many respects apart from the US-Japanese war. It foresees a fast-moving current of air that we would now call the jetstream and the tactical and strategic use of aircraft in warfare.
The illustrations show aircraft contemporary with the book's publication and does not attempt to foresee futuristic designs when in reality the boxkite-type of aircraft shown pictured would not have been capable of the inter-continental flights described in the text. The cover picture on my copy bears no relation to anything in the text. There was an English language edition at the time, published under the title of 'War in Space'.
Table of contents: title: Premiere Partie - untitled; title: Deuxieme Partie - L'Empire de l'Air; title: Troisieme Partie - Pro Pace