UP,UP and Away with the Wright Brothers

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Is there another author of historic biography who writes so smoothly and interestingly as McCullough. His books read as though he is sitting with you, sharing coffee and chatting away about these historical figures. This book is the same. Not only is the wonder of beginnings of aviation brought to life but so, too, are these two men, brothers, Orville and Wilbur. Right alongside them their sister, Katherine and their father, the Bishop Wright. Amazingly, their achievement--human flight --begins and is fulfilled over the course of only ten or so years!!!! They traveled to Europe as well as the East Coast of the United States, learning from others and experimenting with their ideas. Over time, once they proved that man could fly, others followed in their footsteps and competitions of elevation, speed and distance evolved. But, as the field became crowded, Wilbur found himself grounded, his time needed to run the business and fight lawsuits against fellow aviators who infringed on their patents. So stressful was this aspect of their work, he wore himself out and died in his 40's. Orville continued, with the help of Katherine, with the business and with the work. He attended memorials and awards that he would have liked to have avoided but felt he owed it to the memory of his brother. When Katherine, finally in her 50's decided to marry--he ended all involvement with her. Neither he nor Wilbur married.
The story is detailed in the great excitement of the times as people became enamored with the idea of flight--all over the world. The excitement is contagious and jumps off the page despite the readers' present day experience of same day flight to almost any part of the world at thousands of feet in the air and speeds exceeding hundreds of miles. A 22 minute flight of 20 or so miles up the Hudson at about 36 miles an hour, buffeted by the winds bouncing off the skyscrapers of 1908! is as exhilarating in its telling as it must have been to the spectators and the pilot who looped the loops and swung the turns at the time.
The book got misplaced and so it appears to have taken an awful long time to read it. In actuality, when found there were only 24 pages left to read!

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