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First Flight: The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Airplane
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  • Wiley

More About This Title First Flight: The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Airplane

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T. A. HEPPENHEIMER is a well-known author who has published extensively on aviation and aerospace, business, and the history of technology. Among his many books are Turbulent Skies: The History of Commercial Aviation, Countdown: A History of Space Flight, and A Brief History of Flight, all available from Wiley. He holds a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan and is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Aerospace.
  • English

English

ONE: ENTER THE WRIGHTS.

TWO: PROPHETS WITH SOME HONOR.

THREE: TEACHERS AND FIRST LESSONS.

FOUR: HITTING A WALL.

FIVE: “WE NOW HOLD ALL THE RECORDS!”

SIX: AMBIGUOUS SUCCESS.

SEVEN: RETURN TO DAYTON.

EIGHT: INTO THE WORLD.

NINE: NOON INTO TWILIGHT.

TEN: INVENTIVENESS AND INVENTION.

NOTES.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

INDEX.

  • English

English

Aviation writer Heppenheimer (A Brief History of Flight) delivers a thorough look at the Wright brothers. Debunking the standard view that the brothers more or less invented their flying machine by luck and persistence, Heppenheimer definitively establishes a number of crucial facts about Orville and Wilbur that challenge current assumptions. He shows that the brothers were both driven, visionary individuals: Orville built his boyhood kites to help him "appreciate the importance of light weight in aeronautics"; their attempt at printing a newspaper failed financially but "showed them that they could measure up to the demands of challenging tasks by using their hands and their wits." He shows that the brothers were careful students of early pioneers in flight technology such as Otto Liliental and Octave Chanute, as well as contemporary rivals such as Samuel Langle and Glenn Curtiss, against whom the litigious brothers brought a legendarily tenacious patent lawsuit. Most important, Heppenheimer not only presents a detailed portrait of the brothers' groundbreaking and painstaking work in the workshop that "was the focus of their lives," but also reintroduces to the historica l rec ord their many technological and business adventures after the famous flight at Kitty Hawk. (Feb.) (Publishers Weekly, January 6, 2003)

Aviation writer Heppenheimer (A Brief History of Flight) here dismisses the popular notion that the Wrights were lowly bicycle mechanics who overcame their limitations through hard work and perserverance. Instead, he shows that the brothers enjoyed the advantages of upper-middle-class family life, an accessible home library, loving parents, and proper home schooling. The book examines the teenagers' various entrepreneurships prior to their self-introduction to the subject of flight, carefully demonstrating their potential for genius in each endeavor. Also covered are the early experiments with lighter-than-air flying contraptions, reminding the reader that not one of the Wright forerunners had mastered the issue of control of the airplane in flight. The first men to investigate the issue of controlled flight became the men who invented the airplane-the Wrights. Following their successful powered flights on December 17, 1903, Heppenheimer traces in detail the Wrights' continued work in Dayton, their adulatory reception by the public, their bitter patent suits against Glenn Curtiss and others. Wilbur's tragic death, and Orville's protracted feud with the Smithsonian Institute over its refusal to accept the Wrights as the Fathers of Flight. This somewhat specialized study runs counter to recent anti-Wright historiography (Herbert A. Johnson's Wingless Eagle and Seth Shulman's Unlocking The Sky) and will appeal to aviation scholars and enthusiasts.
Recommended for all aeronautical collections and libraries. (Library Journal, February 15, 2003)

??excellent a ratteling good read, a most thorough account?? (General Aviation, August 2003)

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