I highly recommend the book “The Wright Brothers” by David McCullough. The story is about Orville and Wilbur Wright and their development of the first airplane. The story primarily takes place at the turn of the 20th century in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, and of course, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
I started the book with the expectation to learn about man’s first attempts at flight. The author, David McCullough, delivers on this expectation.
I wanted to mention a few other interesting tidbits I learned. I learned all about the Wright Brother’s early attempts at flight using their home-made glider as a kite. I learned how they selected Kitty Hawk as the site to make their initial test flights. I learned how the brothers without a formal scientific education approached the whole notion of man’s attempt at flight.
I also learned the importance of the Wrights being a product of Dayton in the 1900s. They truly embodied the basic, sturdy, upbring of the Midwest at the time. In turn, the entire city of Dayton embraced the Wright brothers and the early bicycle shop the brothers owned.
What fascinated me more than man’s first attempts at flight, was the life of their sister Katharine. She truly is the unsung hero of the family. She kept to her role of keeping the family stable. She truly embraced learning, curiosity, and everything that her brothers were doing. I believe in another time and place, she could have given her brothers a run for the money with respect to inventions and engineering.
I highly recommend this book. I learned about man’s first attempts at flight. I learned about the men that helped usher in the era of flight. I learned about a woman that embodied more than what society demanded of her in her time.
Me: I am Diane M. Spolar and I live in Willowbrook, Illinois (a suburb outside of Chicago) with my husband, son and cat. I am a CPA by day, and a reader by night and on the weekends. I am a lifelong lover of books.
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