The Wright brothers and their development of the airplane

This brief book outlines the history leading up to Orville and Wilbur Wright’s successful flight in December of 1903 at Kitty Hawk. The brothers were involved in experiments with various mechanical devices at their home in Dayton and turned their attention to flying machines. Even with no formal training in science, engineering and (most important in their understanding of airplane control) biology, the brothers succeeded where others failed. Their observations of buzzards in flight led to the discovery that a rudder would lead to stability in flight. With control of the plane, it became possible to stay in the air for periods of time. They also built an engine light enough to allow their plane to soar and worked on developing the show more proper propellers. That flight on December 17th wasn’t the end of the story but the beginning of long hours of work to develop a safe flying machine.

Barbara Craig wrote this book while a student in 1960 and it was published by the North Carolina State Archives. The bibliography is scant and extremely dated. However she missed some of the most important work prior to 1960, namely books by the Wrights, especially How we invented the airplane, and a speech by Wilbur from the early 1920s, Some Aeronautical Experiments. She also quotes the Wrights but does not give any indication of original source. The illustrations are interesting and include photos of the memorial and monument near Kill Devil Hills and Kitty Hawk.

This is a good introduction into early flight. In addition to books and articles by Wilbur and Orville Wright, there are many recent books on the subject, especially the ones written by Tom Crouch. show less