DAWN OF FLIGHT PLAYING CARDS celebrating the pioneers, inventions and remarkable machines that launched the age of aviation. At the beginning of the 20th century, powered flight was still an extraordinary experiment. Within a few decades, aircraft had crossed seas, broken records and changed warfare, travel and our understanding of distance forever.
Early aviation was a world of wood, wire and canvas, populated by inventors and pilots willing to test machines whose possibilities were often considerably greater than their reliability. The Wright brothers achieved the first sustained, controlled powered flight in 1903, opening an extraordinary period of experimentation as aircraft design advanced at breathtaking speed.
These early aeroplanes have a character all their own, from delicate monoplanes and biplanes to increasingly sophisticated machines built for speed, altitude and endurance. Together they tell the story of an era when flying was still new, dangerous and irresistibly glamorous.
Carefully curated and richly printed, these collectors’ playing cards bring together historic aircraft and aviation imagery in a distinctive celebration of the pioneers who first took to the skies.
If you are interested in starting or building a collection, you can find more about Bird Playing Cards on our art playing cards page.
Take off with Dawn of Flight Playing Cards, and continue your aviation and military history collection with Warplanes, Battle of Britain, WWII and D-Day, tracing the extraordinary development of flight through the 20th century.
