Les Torpilleurs de l'air
Subtitle: Prodigieux exploits d'un aviateur francais
Publisher: La Maison du Livre Moderne
Published: c1912
Place of publication: Paris
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 120
Description: An early novel featuring aircraft, probably intended for adult rather than juvenile readers, this tells the story of Remi de Fos, a failed businessman and gambler, who is eventually bitten by the aviation bug and embarks on a series of 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. In many ways the book is prophetic, foreseeing as it does, the use of strategic and tactical aerial bombing. It also foresees a fast-moving current of air that we would now call the jetstream. The illustrations show aircraft contemporary with the book and make no attempt to picture futuristic designs. This is a pity because the sort of inter-continental flights mentioned in the text would need aircraft with enclosed fuselages and of altogether stouter construction than those boxkite-type pictured. The cover illustration on my copy bears no relation to anything in the text. An English translation of the book was published at the time entitled 'War in Space'.
Table of contents: title: Premiere Partie - untitled; title: Deuxieme Parties - L'Empire de l'Air; title: Troisieme Partie - Pro Pace