It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, but was it
necessity that caused man to take to the sky or was it curiosity and imagination? It is our contention it was the latter.

This book is written in memory of the grandfather of John D. Weigand, Julius Petersen, a Danish immigrant who boarded a boat and became a seaman at the age of seventeen, knew Orville and Wilber Wright, and worked with Thomas Alva
Edison at General Electric in Nela Park, Cleveland Ohio.

It was the golden age of invention, but the truth is it all
actually started much earlier in the renaissance with
Leonardo da Vinci and others who had great imagination and artistic talents and who were the first 'can do' kind of guys.

The question is, have we lost our ability to imagine and invent by making everyone tow the line and think inside of the box instead of out of it, and by discouraging our children, especially our boys, from pursuing the arts?

Enjoy the wonderful photographs of John D. Weigand and the poetry of Penelope Dyan in this brand new approach to the 'For Boys Only' books published by Bellissima Publishing LLC.

A Special thanks and recognition goes to the San Diego Air & Space Museum (and 'The da Vinci Experience') where a majority of these pictures were taken, and to the Red Bull Air Races of 2009 held in beautiful San Diego, California.