The Cream Cowling

A grass airfield near Versailles on a hot hazy summer midday, before an open wooden hangar a two-seat monoplane, the front fuselage in riveted cream-white sheet metal, the cowling plain cream, an open rotary engine with radial cylinders, a large two-blade wooden propeller, wings in sandy pinkish-beige fabric with raised ribs, a pyramid of wooden struts above the fuselage, an open lattice rear fuselage of light wood, two wire-spoked wheels, an aviator in a brown leather helmet and jacket seated in the open cockpit, seen from directly behind, only the back of his helmet and his shoulders, looking forward over the cowling, a mechanic's gloved hand on a propeller blade.