The Wright Brothers

Everyone should know that the Wright brothers made humanity's first fixed-wing, powered, heavier than air flight in 1903. Most people will know that the Wright brothers were Orville and Wilbur. That's as far as many care to go.David McCullough takes their story into a little more detail. He talks of their larger family and history in Ohio. McCullogh's style is easy to read and he covers a lot of ground quickly. Of particular interest are the Wright's struggles to actually fly at Kitty Hawk and how primitive a place that part of North Carolina was at the start of the 20th century. The book then goes onto talk of their successes in Europe. The Wright's seem to have been intense, unusual men. And theirs is a story of dealing with the world as well as of their genius.This is a popular history which concentrates on the Wrights and their aviation career. McCullough does spend a bit of time talking about Charles Taylor who was the Wright's mechanic and without whom they would not have flown. You can't fly a powered vehicle without an engine after all can you? It also doesn't include a lot of context about their rivals and how or why their company was so unsuccessful. So this is an enjoyable and interesting book which lacks depth and context. If you want to know more about the Wright's then this is a great place to start but a fuller biography/history might have been more fulfilling.

David McCullough is one of the preeminent American historians of our times, the deft biographer of John Adams and Harry Truman, and in this book he brings his wonderful historical exposition and storytelling skills to the lives of the Wright brothers. So much is known about these men that they have been turned into legends. Legends they were but they were also human, and this is the quality that McCullough is best at showcasing in these pages. The book is a quick and fun read. If I have some minor reservations they are only in the lack of technical detail which could have informed descriptions of some of the Wrights' experiments and the slightly hagiographical tint that McCullough is known to bring to his subjects. I would also have appreciated some more insights into attempts that other people around the world were making in enabling powered flight. Nevertheless, this is after all a popular work, and popular history seldom gets better than under McCullough's pen.The book shines in three aspects. Firstly McCullough who is quite certainly one of the best storytellers among all historians does a great job of giving us the details of the Wrights' upbringing and family. He drives home the importance of the Wrights' emphasis on simplicity, intellectual hunger and plain diligence, hard work and determination. The Wright brothers' father who was a Bishop filled the house with books and learning and never held back their intellectual curiosity. This led to an interest in tinkering in the best sense of the tradition, first with bicycles and then with airplanes. The Wrights' sister Katharine also played an integral part in their lives; they were very close to her and McCullough's account is filled with copious examples of the affectionate, sometimes scolding, always encouraging letters that the siblings wrote to each other. The Wrights' upbringing drives home the importance of family and emotional stability.Secondly, McCullough also brings us the riveting details of their experiments with powered flight. He takes us from their selection of Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks of North Carolina as a flight venue through their struggles, both with the weather conditions and with the machinery. He tells us how the brothers were inspired by Otto Lillienthal, a brilliant German glider pilot who crashed to his death and by Octave Chanute and Samuel Langley. Chanute was a first-rate engineer who encouraged their efforts while Samuel Langley headed aviation efforts at the Smithsonian and was a rival. The Wrights' difficult life on the sand dunes - with "demon mosquitoes", 100 degree weather and wind storms - is described vividly. First they experimented with the glider, then consequentially with motors. Their successful and historic flight on December 17, 1903 was a testament to their sheer grit, bon homie and technical brilliance. A new age had dawned.Lastly, McCullough does a fine job describing how the Wrights rose to world fame after their flight. The oddest part of the story concerns how they almost did not make it because institutions in their own country did not seem to care enough. They found a willing and enthusiastic customer in the French, perhaps the French had already embraced the spirit of aviation through their pioneering efforts in ballooning (in this context, Richard Holmes's book on the topic is definitely worth a read). Wilbur traveled to France, secured funding from individuals and the government and made experimental flights that were greeted with ecstatic acclaim. It was only when his star rose in France that America took him seriously. After that it was easier for him and Orville to secure army contracts and test more advanced designs. Throughout their efforts to get funding, improve their designs and tell the world what they had done, their own determined personalities and the support of their sister and family kept them going. While Wilbur died at the age of forty-five from typhoid fever, Orville lived until after World War 2 to witness the evolution of his revolutionary invention in all its glory and horror.McCullough's account of the Wright brothers, as warm and fast-paced as it is, was most interesting to me for the lessons it holds for the future. The brothers were world-class amateurs, not professors at Ivy League universities or researchers in giant corporations. A similar attitude was demonstrated by the amateurs who built Silicon Valley, and that's also an attitude that's key to American innovation. The duo's relentless emphasis on trial and error - displayed to an almost fanatical extent by their compatriot Thomas Edison - is also an immortal lesson. But perhaps what the Wright brothers' story exemplifies the most is the importance of simple traits like devotion to family, hard work, intense intellectual curiosity and most importantly, the frontier, can-do attitude that has defined the American dream since its inception. It's not an easy ideal to hold on to, and as we move into the 21st century, we should always remember Wilbur and Orville who lived that ideal better than almost anyone else. David McCullough tells us how they did it.

The writing is well done and I appreciate the added insights on the personal side, but as an engineer there are certain parts of the story that simply have to be told to really appreciate what they did. He does touch on some of it but are we not owed:1. an explanation of their discovering the basic errors in atmospheric density at sea level.2. the setup of the wind tunnels that allowed them to show most aerodynamic data was incorrect.3. the explanation as they arrived at it of the interaction between roll and yaw and pitch in turning an aircraft.4. the mathematics involved in the first derivation of how a propeller works.5. a contrast between the first three and last fourth of the first flights.The point is these guys did things that are worthy of Noble prizes and risked their lives in the process and succeeded at minimum costs, and the author touches on that well when he describes C. Taylor's feelings he was watching them risk their lives on every flight at Hoffman Prairie, but you can't really appreciate why that is necessary without a deeper grounding in the technical as well as the human side. I am not saying doing an explanation would be easy I am just trying to show how without it the story is simply not grounded in the wondrous accomplishments that make it so wondrous. Their discovery is in every airline flying today and that needs to be shown not simply celebrated.Again I appreciate the personal side but the hard work of explanation of how and why so important is missing.

As someone who loves flight and history, this was a very enjoyable and exciting read. The story is well balanced and does not drag on for many pages at end as with other autobiographies.Including the historical spectacular photos of flight being recorded, makes the reader “feel” as they are there in the moment of when history was being made.As an avid cyclist my self and flight enthusiast, I’m embarrassed to say I had know clue of the right brothers being in the Bicycle business.They were dropouts from school/college and were able to achieve all of this. With my eyes now open to the possibilities of relying on oneself, I’m compelled to at least try and fix my bike my self instead of taking it to the workshop at first sight of a problem.This book is what good story telling is all about. If you’re a fan of stories, flight, history and mechanical engineering, this book should be a delight to read.

Brilliant book. Reads like a thriller and science textbook combined. These brothers who built and sold bicycles, invented the right curve over the top of the wing, the correct angle and shape of a propellor for wind (unlike others who focused on water propellors) AND invented the first wind tunnel to test all of this. Fly was so dangerous that the decided never to fly together so that one brother could continue the work even if the other was killed trying. (And one brother was badly crippled). They were the perfect test pilots, designing changes and testing them, in peril of their lives.

David McCullough is just a great writer. He can turn any mundane topic into something fascinating. And he did it again with "The Wright Brothers." I don't really have an interest in aviation and I'm not sure why I even picked up the book, except that I figured if McCullough wrote it, it must be good. And it is. McCullough tells the story of two all-American boys who, through an incredible amount of work, effort, and ambition, invented the first real airplane. And they did this with just an amateur knowledge of science and technology. The story is truly inspiring.Two things surprised me, though. One was the anti-semitism that their sister expressed when hearing of Hart Berg, the reprentative of Flint and Company, who would eventually reprensent them, and two, was their fates in the end. Somehow both these elements seemed out of character. The Wright Brothers, themselves, were peculiar, however. It seems neither ever had as much as a girlfriend, at least from the story McCullough tells, and one has to wonder why that was. They lived at home their entire lives, along with their sister, who likewise seems to have avoided the opposite sex for most of her life. McCullough doesn't dwell on this, but it does seem a bit strange. But I suppose genius is often found in madness.But it's a truly fascinating, incredibly American tale, and well worth a read.

Detailed chronology of the Wright brothers' development of the Flyer and how it came to worldwide attention. Quite a lot of primary material quoted which sometimes slowed the tempo, but highly readable and well researched. The personal background of the Wright brothers as bicycle makers from Ohio and how they became early aviators is intriguing. What was missing for me was development of how they designed and engineered the aircraft - wing warping for instance isn't explained in any detail but was a key invention, and their extensive research on aerodynamics, stability and flight control is given little weight. Very enjoyable as a piece of aviation history but not if you wanted to understand how they achieved innovation in aviation.

Excellent book all aviation historians would have a copy. Wilbur and Orville Wright changed our lives. They chose the Short Brothers to manufacture their first aeroplane. Sadly the Short Brothers have never really been acknowledged for their contribution to aviation history in two world wars. Wilbur's early death was a terrible blow. Orville Wright and Oswald Short remained friends for the rest of their lives.