INTRODUCTION THIS book aims at providing the airman with a reasonably complete outline of such knowledge as he ought to possess. The title, Airman, designates primarily the pilot, together with all who actually fly, but it is also intended in its wider application to include the director, the manager, etc., of commercial enterprises connected with aviation, as well as that very important person, the mechanic, the value of whose interest and intelligent co-operation is, unfortunately, often under-estimated. It is hoped that the book may also prove of interest to persons less directly concerned with its subiect. The rdeal airman must necessarily be somewhat versatile. He must have in him something of the sailor, the engineer, and the scientist, added to which he must possess more than an average share of common sense. The title, Complete Airman, is inevitably somewhat misleading, since it is obviously impossible to compress within the limited space available in a book of this type more...