Classicly

The Dominion of the Air: The Story of Aerial Navigation is an aeronautics books written by Brigadier General John Mosby Bacon, who was an American general of the United States Volunteers. He fought in the Battle of Sugar Point, October 5, 1898.

Excerpts:

So wrote Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, who was reckoned a man of genius and learning in the days of the Commonwealth. But so soon as we come to inquire into the matter we find that this good Bishop was borrowing from the ideas of others who had gone before him; and, look back as far as we will, mankind is discovered to have entertained persistent and often plausible ideas of human flight.