The Wright Brothers
by David McCullough, 2015, Simon and Schuster, New York
I thought this book was interesting, primarily because I didn’t know that much about the Wright brothers, even though I had made one visit to Kitty Hawk. McCullough, as usual in his books, provides a lot of information about the capabilities, personalities, and idiosyncrasies of his primary characters, in this case Wilbur and Orville Wright and their sister, Katharine.
My reaction to the book is that it certainly isn’t McCullough’s best effort. He accurately depicts the lead up to the Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk, but the rest of the book seems like a catalog of the various rewards and accolades the Wrights received afterward. From 1903 to 1910 the Wrights must have made significant advances in the technology of flight, but McCullough only mentions these in passing. The book would have benefited greatly from a collaboration with an aeronautical expert. McCullough apparently is not one of those as he describes only the duration of the flights, sometimes the altitude, and who of note was in the audience. The first flight was only twelve seconds and, by 1910, the Wright brothers were able to fly for over an hour. Much of the improvement was due to their additional experience in flying, but certainly their ingenuity must have led to technological advances that they applied to each iteration of their aircraft. McCullough mentions some increases in horsepower of the subsequent engines, but not much more.
I was intrigued on my visit to the Edison museum with the advances in design and technology that Edison applied to each succeeding of his phonographs. The Wright brothers essentially invented the first powered aircraft and also learned how to fly it. I would be interested in knowing more about how they improved upon it over the years following.
Also of interest might have been the lineage of the Wright Company and the fact that it subsequently became a part of the Curtiss-Wright Company, a company that survives today. McCullough mentions the Wright brothers’ rivalry with Glenn Curtiss during the early years of powered flight. It seems ironic that the two companies later became part of one company.
I very much enjoyed reading this book. I think it would have been much better, however, if the author had provided some additional information about what was developed after the initial flight.
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