At a time when humankind was grappling with "the impossible art" of aerial navigation, the trans-Mississippi west existed as a hub of invention and innovation prior to and at the time of the emergence of the Wright Brothers and others in the eastern United States. The book redirects the traditional focus of American aviation history from the east to the west and establishes John Montgomery and some of his west coast-based peers as crucial players in the quest for flight in the true pioneering period. Another surprising aspect of the story is the role that women played in this march of progress and the impact that they had on the larger societal attitudes about visionary science and technology. From the first acrobats dangling from trapezes and making parachute jumps from balloons hundreds of feet above the earth, to those who helped design and pilot the first successful dirigibles in America, women trail blazed the path in this visionary field, inspired a generation of aerial workers and transcended the "glass ceiling" in this otherwise male dominated field.