Book Review: The Wright Brothers A Biography by Fred C. Kelly

The Wright Brothers A Biography by Fred C. Kelly

This biography of Wilbur and Orville Wright focuses almost entirely on the creation of the first heavier than air flying machine and the brothers' aviation career afterward. The books starts with a brief overview of their childhood and how they started their bicycle shop as a natural result of their interest in mechanical things. They were also fascinated by the idea of flying and built many kites and gliders. Their interest quickly turned to the problem of building an engine-powered plane that could sustain flight for long periods. The brothers flew for the first time in 1903 on the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 

As their success grew, their fame did not. A lot of newspapers were either skeptical or scoffed at the idea that a machine heavier than air could fly. Many scientists shared (or perhaps inspired) those doubts. The Wrights were not particularly secretive about the project nor did they do much to promote themselves in the early years. At the time, Kitty Hawk was only accessible by boat from the mainland. They chose the area for the windy and generally flat conditions. As they improved their flyer, the Wrights were able to fly just about anywhere with a large enough field for takeoff. They moved their base of operations back to Ohio. By this point, Europeans had more interest and belief than Americans (though the European press was also skeptical), so the brothers toured the continent, demonstrating their plane to the rich, the royal, and the regular folk too. They returned to America where they had exhibitions for crowds and a demonstration for the American government, which finally became interested in the potential uses (mostly military) of airplanes.

The book describes the scientific problems that the Wrights faced as they developed better and better planes. They had not gone to college, so they did most of their work on their own. They developed a wind tunnel to test out various wing shapes and angles. They initially built their own engines, needing to meet the weight and power specifications. Occasionally the book got into more detail than I was interested in but those were short passages. I chuckled a bit at the constant "this flight was a new world record" lines written in the book.

The Wrights filed lots of patents and eventually had to spend a lot of time fighting patent infringers. The book ends with a chapter on the controversy between the Wrights and the Smithsonian Institution. In 1914, one of the patent infringers took an earlier failed flying machine from the Smithsonian, made some modifications, and showed that it could fly. The reporting by the Institution glossed over the significance of the modifications and implied that someone else invented the first heavier than air flying machine. The controversy continued into the 1940s when a new head of the Smithsonian worked with Orville on the clarification and retraction.

The book is a quick and inspiring read. The brothers are interesting, unassuming people who worked hard at their passion. Their success changed the world. The focus is just on the invention of flying, so there is more to their lives that's not covered. Even so, this book is very good reading.

Highly recommended.