Book Review: The Wright Brothers

image: amazon.com

My Dad was in the Air Force, and we were stationed all over the United States when I was growing up.  Out of all of the places we were stationed, Dad was stationed in Fairborn for a total of 7 of my first 13 years.  (Dad's final tour in the military was in Virginia, and that's where I went to high school and college.)

If you're not familiar with Ohio, Fairborn is located just outside of Dayton, and the Wright Brothers were my Dad's personal heroes.  Growing up, we went by the home of Orville and Wilbur, I walked by the spot where their bicycle shop was located, and went to the field where they flew their airplanes, and to the Wright Brothers monument.

In school, the stories of Orville and Wilbur were told to us every year, and we all diligently wrote oral reports about them, built toothpick models of the Wright Flier, and looked at actual real bicycles that had been built by them.  The ability to fix your own bike was a highly prized trait among the youth in our neighborhood.

Heck, when Dad was stationed in North Carolina, we made a pilgrimage to Kitty Hawk to see the spot where it all began.

I honestly thought I knew all that there was to know about the Wright Brothers.  However, since they are family heroes, and this book was written by the incomparable David McCullough, I decided it was well worth reading it.  Six months on the wait list at the library, and I finally got the coveted e-mail from the library, letting me know that my book was waiting for me!

This book is well worth the read.  I found out things I never knew about the Wright family.  I found out things I never knew about Orville and Wilbur.  I found out things I never knew about the race to develop a flying machine - a race which was echoed many years later in what my generation remembers as "the space race".  Even more fascinating for me was the description of how the Wrights financed their own experiments and built their own equipment in the back of their bicycle shop.  Their ingenuity continues to amaze and impress me.

This well researched book will take you through the Wright family dynamics, and introduce you to the entire Wright family and explore the depth and dynamics of the relationships and how they impacted the brothers.  You will watch, speechless, as the brothers puzzle through the physics of flight and work out the beginnings of the equations that we now know are the driving principles of flight.  Breathless, you will sit on the sidelines as the brothers check out their planes, make adjustments, develop new plans, and finally fight for recognition for their accomplishments.

The Wright brothers truly embody American Ingenuity at it's best.  This book truly does a fantastic job of taking you back in time and journeying with Orville and Wilbur as they strive to do something that had never been done before.