Preflyte is a compilation album by the American folk rock band the Byrds and was released in July 1969 on Together Records. The album is a collection of demos recorded by the Byrds (then named the Jet Set) at World Pacific Studios in Los Angeles during late 1964, before the band had signed to Columbia Records and become famous. It includes early demo versions of the songs "Here Without You", "You Won't Have to Cry", "I Knew I'd Want You", and "Mr. Tambourine Man", all of which appeared in re-recorded form on the band's 1965 debut album.

The album peaked at number 84 on the Billboard Top LPs chart upon its initial release, but failed to chart in the UK when it was issued there in 1973. The album's title is a deliberate misspelling of "pre-flight", meant to emulate the misspelling of "birds" that the band had used for their name.

Initially inspired by the success of the Beatles, folk singers Jim McGuinn and Gene Clark began playing as a duo in Los Angeles folk clubs in early 1964 and were soon joined by fellow folkie, David Crosby. The trio named themselves the Jet Set, a name chosen by McGuinn and inspired by his love of aeronautics. Crosby introduced McGuinn and Clark to his associate Jim Dickson who had access to World Pacific Studios, where he had been recording demos of Crosby. Dickson was impressed enough by the trio to take on management duties for the group and to utilize World Pacific as a rehearsal studio, where he recorded the band as they honed their craft and perfected their blend of Beatles pop and Bob Dylan-style folk.

Dickson arranged a one-off deal with Elektra Records' founder, Jac Holzman, for two songs from the World Pacific sessions, "Please Let Me Love You" and "Don't Be Long", to be released as a single on Elektra in October 1964. In an attempt to cash in on the British Invasion that was then dominating the U.S. music scene, the single was issued under the suitably British sounding pseudonym of the Beefeaters, but it failed to chart. Both songs on the Beefeaters' single featured McGuinn, Clark and Crosby, along with "Wrecking Crew" session musicians Ray Pohlman on bass and Earl Palmer on drums.

Soon after, the Jet Set expanded their ranks to include drummer Michael Clarke and bass player Chris Hillman. The rehearsal and recording sessions at World Pacific studios came to a close when the Jet Set (soon to be renamed the Byrds) signed a recording contract with Columbia Records on November 10, 1964.

In 1969, the manager of rock music for RCA Records on the West Coast, Dick Moreland, heard about the existence of these early Byrds' demo recordings from Jim Dickson and immediately told producer Gary Usher about them. Usher, who had produced the Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday, The Notorious Byrd Brothers and Sweetheart of the Rodeo albums, had recently formed Together Records with colleagues Curt Boettcher and Keith Olsen. Prior to the formation of Together, Usher had been involved with the Columbia Records' release of Conspicuous Only in its Absence, a collection of previously unheard live recordings by the psychedelic band the Great Society (featuring Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane). The album had enjoyed moderate success and Usher was keen to continue issuing previously unreleased, historically significant material on his new record label. Usher met with Dickson and was able to acquire all of the Byrds' World Pacific tapes that still existed for a reasonable sum. The tapes were then edited and compiled into an eleven track running order, before being remixed and mastered by Keith Olsen.

Dickson approached the five original members of the Byrds in order to have them sign a letter of permission to authorize the release of these early recordings. Crosby was initially reluctant to sanction the release, but he was eventually persuaded by his friend and singing partner, Graham Nash, who convinced Crosby of the musical worth and historical value of the recordings. Dickson later recalled Nash's involvement during a 1977 interview: "Graham Nash said that the songs were charming baby pictures. You have to get a little older before you can tolerate seeing your baby pictures out there. We were all babies once! Graham just charmed David's socks off." With the permission of all five original members of the band secured, Together Records released the album in July 1969 with a great deal of publicity. As a collection of previously unreleased demo recordings, Preflyte can be seen as one of the earliest examples of issuing outtakes by popular artists, a practice that is now commonplace in the reissue market.

All of the music on Preflyte predates the release of the Byrds' debut single for Columbia, a cover version of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man", which topped the charts in America and the United Kingdom during 1965. Of the album's eleven songs, seven had never before been released by the Byrds. These previously unreleased songs included five written solely by Gene Clark: "The Reason Why", "She Has a Way", "For Me Again", "Boston", and "You Movin'". Of these, "She Has a Way" had been re-recorded by the Byrds during sessions for their debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man. However, this Columbia recording of the song was discarded at the eleventh hour and remained unreleased until its appearance on the Byrds' archival album, Never Before, in 1987.