SOURCE: "The Air Serpent" (Red Book, April 1911) by Will A. Page

DESCRIPTION: "The monster—or air serpent, for so I must call it—seemed to be about ninety or a hundred feet in length. Its physical structure seemed a cross between a bat and a snake. There were undulating movements as it slowly drifted, together with flapping of the twenty or thirty batlike wings which projected from its sides. The head was enormous, and it was not the head of a bird. Two great eyes, approximately a foot in diameter each, glared and blinked over a cavernous maw which opened and closed spasmodically as the creature breathed. This much we saw, and then as the swift tri-plane shot by almost under the creature's startled eyes, I felt a sudden blast of hot air which made the tri-plane quiver and tremble for a moment. Then we had passed the creature and had sped forth into the darkness, for the moonlight was very faint." ("The Air Serpent" by Will A. Page)

NOTES: The giant air serpent looks like a snake with sixty wings. The creature attacks an experimental tri-plane that is able to beat the highest vertical height record. The serpent charges the plane but it deflected by a bright search light that hurts its massive eyes. Making a sudden turn, the mechanic who is riding in the back seat falls from the plane and is snatched up in the creature's large maw.. The pilot somehow manages to make it back to earth to tell the tale.

HISTORY:  What makes this story interesting is that Arthur Conan Doyle would publish a very similar tale "The Horror of the Heights" in The Strand Magazine (November 1913). Granted Doyle's version is much better written but the fact remains he didn't come up with the idea first. Page's tale is too technical at the beginning, making it dull wading until the encounter. Like Doyle's tale, both have become dated with the advancement of aircraft.