Wilbur and Orville
A Biography of the Wright Brothers

My favorite of the three biographies I've read about the Wright brothers. Howard lays out a very detailed case to support the Wright brothers' claim that they were the first to achieve powered, sustained, controlled, level flight. Essential to this is coverage of the brothers' gliding trials prior t......more

A seemingly very thorough coverage of the Wrights and their work, but also includes much related info on others and their efforts. A minor issue with the text was it’s multiple instances of repeating information. I’m sure it was a challenge to assemble all of this information and I’m grateful to the......more

(no 47 of 2024) i've read it 1 or 2 times before this......more

This book gives some flavor of the Wrights' personalities and some detail on the technical achievements. I am somewhat technical-minded, and, it's enough for me. After a century has passed, a definitive study of their personalities may not be possible. After a century of flight, the finer points of......more

The good: It's an interesting story that I knew very little about. Talks a lot about other early pioneers in aviation. The bad: It goes into a lot of aeronautical details which the author explains well, but which I didn't really care about. However, it seems that these details are precisely what the......more