The Wright Brothers

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

This book is the story of the Wright Brothers' lives, though the focus was on aviation. I found it interesting that they talked a good amount about their sister. She wasn't directly involved with aviation, but was glue that held the family together. The brothers used experience from their bike business to plan aviation - with banking turns and other ideas that were innovative. There were others that were involved and helped inspire innovation in aviation, however, the Wrights innovations seemed to be the ones that really got things going. They also worked hard to move things along and defend their patents. (They also tended to be secretive, limiting photographs from others.) Aviation was dangerous in the early days. Early flights were less than a 10th the speed of modern jets and did not get high off the ground, but were plenty dangerous. Some died trying to fly. Even the brothers had some scary flights, with Orville crashing while carrying a passenger - the passenger died, and Orville took a while to recover. The book breezes through the end of their lives, stopping only to point out a bit of family drama.