The Independent magazine October 22 1903 Simon Newcomb's "Outlook for the Flying Machine". This article was published a bit less than two months prior to the Wright Brother's first flights at Kitty Hawk, December 17, 1903. The publication name is not Aeroplane as listed above, it is The Independent. But a glitch in the E-bay listing lists Aeroplane.

Simon Newcomb wrote:

"The practical difficulties in the way of realizing the movement of such an object are obvious. The aeroplane must have propellers. These must be driven by an engine with a source of power. Weight is an essential quality of every engine. The propellers must be made of metal, which has its weakness, and which is liable to give way when its speed attains a certain limit. And, granting complete success, imagine the proud possessor of the aeroplane darting through the air at a speed of several hundred feet per second! It is the speed alone that sustains him. How is he ever going to stop? Once he slackens his speed, down he begins to fall....once he stops he falls a dead mass. How shall he reach the ground without destroying his delicate machinery? I do not think the most imaginative inventor has yet even put upon paper a demonstrative, successful way of meeting this difficulty.....

If, therefore, we are ever to have aerial navigation with our present knowledge of natural capabilities, it is to the airship floating in the air, rather than the flying machine resting on the air, to which we are to look....Our aerial ship must be filled with a substance lighter than air..."

Wilbur and Orville Wright flew their aeroplane (with propellers made of wood, not metal) within two months of this article. In 1904 and 1905, they often would simply turn the engine off in flight, and glide to a landing. So much for the difficulty of reaching the ground without destroying their delicate machinery.

The magazine is in great shape, never having plummeted to earth to utter destruction. There is 1/4" chip at lower spine. No torn pages. Nice addition for the Aviation collection.