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How did two bicycle mechanics with high-school educations solve the preeminent engineering riddle of the late nineteenth century? In To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight by James Tobin, we find out. The answer was perseverance and genius. The race to put a man aloft in a self-propelled, heavier-than-air machine was a contest among a large field of talented men in America and Europe. Alexander Graham Bell led a team of American scientists including the great engineer and experimenter Glenn Curtiss. In the end, it was the laconic, self-possessed young men from Dayton, Ohio who led the way to the modern world of flight. While others achieved small victories here and there, it was Orville and Wilbur Wright who made the decisive innovations that led to aircraft that could get off the ground and maneuver in varying wind conditions. Contemporary descriptions capture the essence of the brothers. One Kitty Hawk local noted, "They were two of the workingest boys I ever saw. I never saw men so wrapped up their work in my life. They had their whole heart and soul in what they were doing. The products of a deeply religious household consisting of their father and sister, the Wrights were interested in flight from their early teens. They spent countless hours observing birds and the effects of different wind conditions, and conceived of the breakthrough idea: a moveable wing that a pilot could control in response to different wind conditions. Once they had the idea, the brothers methodically tested different shapes and sizes of wings in their own homemade wind tunnel and kept detailed logs on the performance of each variation. By this painstaking method, they created the modern science of flight, correcting and dramatically expanding what little information then existed. Orville and Wilbur handled every aspect of the affair themselves: building the aircraft, carting the machinery to Kitty Hawk, NC, constructing machinery and buildings, and negotiating with the U.S. government as well as several European countries. Flying the experimental machines required great athletic skill and physical bravery. The reader is impressed with the brothers' superhuman endurance through disappointments and hardships as they methodically brought their breathtakingly original ideas to fruition. Seldom in scientific history have two men worked so seamlessly to bring a brilliant conception into concrete reality by the work of their own hands. The story soars to an exciting conclusion, with the brothers simultaneously flying awe-inspiring exhibitions in France and the United States (where Orville was seriously injured), and Wilbur making a triumphant flight over New York City. Lovers of American innovation and enterprise will treasure this tale of two men with an idea that changed the world. (Free Press, 2003, 448 pps, $28) |
Samuel Langley, head of the Smithsonian and one of America's most esteemed men of science, spent nearly $100,000 of taxpayers' money and hired engineers from elite colleges in a failed attempt to bring his plans to fruition. Meanwhile, the entire French nation was obsessed with putting a man in the air.
