The Wright Brothers Paperback – May 3, 2016

Airplane is an important invention. Ever since its coming into existence, it has already evolved into a reliable and affordable means of transportation thanks to decades of scientific progress and various technological innovations. Though no longer a curiosity today, flying like bird in the sky had long been an endeavor pursued by countless enthusiasts in the old days, even at the risk of losing their lives. However, before its successful debut by the Wright brothers at the beginning of the last century, human aviation was largely a history of futile attempts. Consequently, flying a heavier-than-the-air machine was often regarded impossible and any such experiment lunatic and subject to public ridicule.So, it’s safe to say airplane didn’t exist before the Wright brothers came onto the stage. How the first human maneuverable aircraft came about? What challenges did its inventors have to face and overcome and, most importantly, what drove them to success given the various failures experienced by others? David McCullough has done a terrific job in answering these questions in his 2015 bestseller The Wright Brothers. Mr. McCullough is a historian who is known for his gripping stories of influential U.S. historical figures and events. In this book, he tells a compelling story of how the Wright brothers convinced the world for the first time that flying through the air was possible as demonstrated with their own creation. It’s a very well researched book with a wealth of fascinating details, many quoted directly from their correspondence or diary. It’s a memoir that recounts the life experience of these two brothers, with particular emphasis on their crucial activities in airplane development. An entertaining read that’s only made possible by the author’s powerful storytelling skills and lucid prose.Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright were born to an ordinary family in Dayton, Ohio in the mid 19th century. Their father was a righteous Christian preacher, their mother a witty but very shy woman. They had two older brothers and a young sister. The Wright brothers didn’t receive any college education, but that wasn’t an obstacle of their intellectual growth since they were both smart, read widely and had insatiable interest in mechanics. They worked side by side every day on various projects of their liking, industriously. For a living, they tried their hand on newspapers, printing, and bicycle making. Finally their interest led them to build an airplane. It appears they were driven purely by the dream of being able to fly like bird than any financial gains it may potentially bring them. Though taciturn in nature, Wilbur is also an excellent writer and public speaker. This aspect of his talent helped him acquire whatever resources they needed in carrying out their airplane project. Their first airplane was actually a glider and its testing was not quite different from flying a giant kite. After innumerable testings and conscientious study of bird flying, they developed various components and mechanisms to control the balance of an aircraft in flight. Their first manned flight boosted their confidence considerably. Before long, with the help of their assistant Charlie Taylor, two motor-driven propellers were added to their flying machine enabling it to soar in the sky for miles. Though primitive, it was an astounding creation and its news quickly reached as far as Europe. Its sensational fly demonstration in France quickly and firmly established the Wright brothers’ reputation. Their technology was recognized by their own country only after their stupendous success in Europe and a series of domestic demonstrations. In Europe, their success ushered in a flood of enthusiasm to build similar or more powerful airplanes. Their achievement, however, didn’t bring about comparable financial reward to them due to their lacking of financial skills. In fact, they had to fight a long battle to protect their patent and this effort had greatly annoyed them.The Wright brothers’ invention results from their abiding belief in possibility of their pursuit. Though their experience was interspersed with moments of failure, they never gave it up in the ten years period before their career reached its peak. They are good examples of vigorous doers than idle dreamers. Their unquenchable curiosity, unwavering insistence and immense energy are critical factors leading them to final success.

McCullough has written a serious and riveting review of the lives of Wilbur and Orville. His writing style is concise, thorough, and unpretentious. I was able to read it easily and enjoyably and learned many things about the Wright family that I didn’t know. The book was thus valuable to me.FAMILYMcCullough makes it clear that the Wilbur and Orville were a product of their family environment. Their father was the major influence. Milton Wright was a minister and finally a bishop in the United Brethren Church in Christ.McCullough writes — “He was an unyielding abstainer, which was rare on the frontier, a man of rectitude and purpose— all of which could have served as a description of Milton himself and Wilbur and Orville as well.”His strict values molded and focused the views of the three younger Wrights (Katherine, Wilbur, and Orville). In addition to his strictness, he was a true classical liberal in his beliefs in the scientific method and equal rights for all people, no matter their race or gender. For example, Milton wrote to his sons when they were in Paris trying to get support for their flying machine: “Sons—Be men of the highest types personally, mentally, morally, and spiritually. Be clean, temperate, sober minded, and great souled.” As grown, experienced, and highly successful inventors, they responded: “Father — All the wine I have tasted since leaving home would not fill a single wine glass. I am sure that Orville and myself will do nothing that will disgrace the training we received from you and Mother.”McCullough writes — “Years later, a friend told Orville that he and his brother would always stand as an example of how far Americans with no special advantages could advance in the world. ‘But it isn’t true,’ Orville responded emphatically, ‘to say we had no special advantages . . . the greatest thing in our favor was growing up in a family where there was always much encouragement to intellectual curiosity.’ ”BUSINESSMcCullough records Wilbur’s thoughts on being in business in a letter to his brother Lorin in 1894:“In business it is the aggressive man, who continually has his eye on his own interest, who succeeds. … There is nothing reprehensible in an aggressive disposition, so long as it is not carried to excess, for such men make the world and its affairs move. . . . I entirely agree that the boys of the Wright family are all lacking in determination and push. That is the very reason that none of us have been or will be more than ordinary businessmen. … We ought not to have been businessmen.”In 1911, Wilbur wrote:“When we think what we might have accomplished if we had been able to devote this time [fighting patent infringement suits] to experiments, we feel very sad, but it is always easier to deal with things than with men, and no one can direct his life entirely as he would choose.”The Wrights never built, or even tried to build, an industrial empire as Ford or Edison or their Dayton neighbors John and Frank Patterson (National Cash Register) had done. The Wrights were intellectual men and women.ENGINEERINGMcCullough's book is quite light on technical discussions. But the Wrights' unique approach to technology development is the essence of who they were and why they were such successful engineers when others better funded, better educated, and better connected failed. For example, McCullough ignored the following examples.Wilbur and Orville were superb engineers, though neither went beyond high school. They found by trial and error that the existing data held by the science of aeronautics was flawed even though its principles were generally correct. They zeroed in on weight, power, control, lift, and the propeller as the main technologies that had to be solved. What is so astounding is not just that they solved these technical problems and reduced them to practice, but that they did it in record time. In a matter of three years, they invented or reinvented virtually the whole field of aeronautics. For example, the wind tunnel had been invented thirty years before, but Wilbur and Orville developed it into a precise quantitative instrument. With it, they developed not just the wing configurations, but coupled with the understanding that a propeller is simply a wing on a rotating shaft, they rewrote the rules of propeller design and optimized its efficiency dramatically. These two men had an insight into, and a reverence for, quantitative empirical data that was unique in aeronautical engineering at that time.McCullough shows how that reverence for truth (data) grew out of their family standards. But there was more to it than the principles of a strict Protestant upbringing. It also has to do with time and place. The late 1800s and early 1900s was a period of great minds applying the rules of The Enlightenment and the experience of science to practical problems. The place was an industrial axis, which was anchored by Dayton and Detroit and included Flint, Toledo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and many other cities in the Midwest. This is where Edison, Ford, Dow, Firestone, the Patterson Brothers, and the Wright Brothers lived and created their technologies. There was a culture of boundless innovation and an infrastructure that included materials and support equipment that fostered great invention. It was similar in many ways to Silicon Valley today.REINFORCE THE NARRATIVEAnother area that could be strengthened in the book is its niche. There has been so much written about the Wrights that each new book needs to distinguish itself in some way with a different point of view, a new set of facts, or a fresh interpretation of old facts.For example, McCullough writes — “In early 1889, while still in high school, Orville started his own print shop in the carriage shed behind the house, and apparently with no objections from the Bishop. Interested in printing for some while, Orville had worked for two summers as an apprentice at a local print shop. He designed and built his own press using a discarded tombstone, a buggy spring, and scrap metal.”That last sentence about building his own printing press defines so much about Orville and his simple pragmatism. To reinforce that point requires some expansion of that event or similar other defining events in the lives of Wilbur and Orville. I wanted to read more about Orville's compulsive act of invention, but it wasn't there.The 81 photos McCullough includes in his book are treasures. Many of them are familiar, but so many are new looks at the Wrights. I wish there were greatly expanded captions below each photo, for each one is a story in itself.One source of knowledge about the Wrights’ approach to aeronautics is the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. It is normally overshadowed by the more popular Air and Space Museum in Washington, but the exhibits at the Air Force Museum walk you through the Wrights’ engineering exploits with a degree of detail and insight I have found nowhere else.