The Flyers: In Search of Wilbur & Orville Wright
by Noah Adams
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Biography & Autobiography. History. Transportation. Nonfiction. HTML:“It takes only nineteen seconds to walk the distance of the first powered flight. But when I was there the wind was up and cold on my face, and I felt as if I’d entered the black-and-white photograph I’d been seeing all my life. The sand is light gray, there’s a spill of surf in the distance. Wilbur, running at the right of the plane, and Orville, the pilot, are in dark suits. The propellers blur against the sky as show more the machine rises. . . .”So begins Noah Adams’s adventure in search of Wilbur and Orville Wright, a journey that takes him across the country as he follows in the footsteps of the famous brothers in an attempt to know them more deeply, not just as inventors and pilots but as individuals as well.
Adams, one of our most distinctive and talented storytellers, traveled thousands of miles and interviewed scores of experts and individuals to piece together his story. He finds a local boat captain to ferry him to Kitty Hawk, along the same route that Wilbur took in 1900, and spends several days talking with descendants of the families who first welcomed the Wright brothers a century ago and helped them conduct their gliding experiments. To experience first-hand the thrill of being in the air, Adams himself goes hang-gliding in the Outer Banks.
To understand the aerodynamics of lift and drag and how the famous 1903 plane was constructed, he visits Ken Hyde, a Virginia pilot and vintage aircraft builder who is creating the world’s most accurate reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer. Adams goes to the prop shop and handles the tools and materials that the Wrights used to build their gliders and planes, and later he visits the wind tunnel at Langley Air Force Base where Hyde’s reproduction was tested for the first time.
He also travels to France to visit the old racetrack at Le Mans where Wilbur startled the European aviation community with his demonstration flights in 1908, and he spends a few days at Wisconsin’s Oshkosh Fly-in, where builders of experimental aircraft and owners of vintage planes gather every year to dazzle the crowds. Adams himself takes to the air in a restored Ford Tri-Motor, America’s first airliner, which took its maiden flight seventy years ago.
In Adams’s book we encounter the Wright brothers in a way that no writer has introduced them before. Through the lens of his own experiences as well as original reporting, letters, diaries, and other primary source material, he helps us understand the talent and intensity of the brothers and their family, including the fascinating, deeply complex, and at times tragic bond between Orville and Katharine, his younger sister.
The Flyers is a wonderfully rich narrative that brings an unprecedented spirit of immediacy to one of history’s most dramatic stories. show less
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Noah Adams, a correspondent for NPR & the longtime host of All Things Considered, took a cross-country journey in search of Wilbur & Orville Wright. He followed in the footsteps of the famous brothers in an attempt to know them more deeply, not just as inventors & pilots but as individuals as well. Through the lens of his own experiences as well as original reporting, letters, diaries, & other primary source material, Adams helps us understand the talent & intensity of the brothers & their family, including the fascinating, deeply complex, & at times tragic bond between Orville & Katharine, his younger sister. A wonderfully rich narrative that brings an unprecedented spirit of immediacy to one of history s most dramatic show more stories. show less
Good historical account on the Wright Brothers and realizing their dream of making an aircraft.
Fascinating story on an invention we take for granted.
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6+ Works 1,201 Members
Noah Adams is the co-host of NPR's "All Things Considered." He lives with his wife in Takoma Park, Maryland. (Bowker Author Biography)
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Katharine Wright; Orville Wright; Wilbur Wright
- Important places
- Dayton, Ohio, USA; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA; Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France; Paris, Île-de-France, France; Manhattan, New York, New York, USA
- Important events
- First powered airplane flight by the Wright brothers (1903-12-17)
- Epigraph
- All happiness is a kind of innocence.
MARGUERITE YOURCENAR - Dedication
- For
Master Sergeant Randy Crowder, USAF (Ret.) - First words
- It only takes nineteen seconds to walk the distance of the first flight.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Perhaps we've lost the ability to comprehend how that once seemed impossible, but we have the story of two brothers to assure us that someday, even in a century to come, such a thing might happen again.
- Publisher's editor
- Lafarge, Annik
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, History, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 629.13 — Applied science & technology Engineering Transportation Vehicles Airplanes, Helicopters, and other aircrafts Aviation engineering
- LCC
- TL540 .W7 .A64 — Technology Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics Aeronautics. Aeronautical engineering
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 112
- Popularity
- 291,364
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.60)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 1
