Summary and Analysis of The Wright Brothers

Based on the Book by David McCullough

• Publisher: Worth Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781504043335
• Topic: Study Aids
• Subtopic: Study Guides

So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of The Wright Brothers tells you what you need to know—before or after you read David McCullough's book. Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader.
This short summary and analysis of The Wright Brothers by David McCullough includes:

• Historical context
• Chapter-by-chapter summaries
• Detailed timeline of key events
• Important quotes
• Fascinating trivia
• Glossary of terms
• Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work

About David McCullough's The Wright Brothers: Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough's biography is a fresh, personal account of Wilbur and Orville Wright: two young men from the American Midwest who, armed with dedication, ingenuity, and the skills they acquired as bicycle mechanics, invented the first practical airplane in history. Based on extensive research—including the brothers' personal correspondence and diaries— The Wright Brothers brings these two iconic American heroes to life as never before. More than the chronicle of an invention, The Wright Brothers is the story of an American family whose belief in the values of hard work and perseverance made all things seem possible—even the conquest of the skies. The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.

Summary

Prologue

Throughout history, mankind has been fascinated with the idea of flying. Many attempts occurred throughout the ages, including that of Abbas ibn Firnas, a scientist in ninth-century Spain who made a short, successful glider flight. In the nineteenth century, European aviators such as Otto Lilienthal began to study aeronautics and sought to simulate bird flight with gliders. The obsession with flying hit the Wright brothers in their childhood, in the form of a helicopter-like toy they received as a present from their father.

Need to Know: Orville and Wilbur Wright’s fascination with flight can be traced to a toy helicopter from France, designed by Alphonse Pénaud, which their father gave them as a present. Their captivation with flight was rekindled years later, when Wilbur began reading Otto Lilienthal’s books on aeronautics.

PART I

Chapter 1. Beginnings

Orville and Wilbur Wright grew up in a close-knit, middle-class family in Dayton, Ohio, which, in the late nineteenth century, was a rapidly industrializing city. Their father, Bishop Milton Wright, imbued his children with the values of hard work and education. Their modest home contained an extensive library and both boys were voracious readers. Each of them showed an early aptitude for mechanics, inspired by their mother, Susan, who died of tuberculosis in 1889.

While in high school, Orville started a printing business with his brother and briefly published a local newspaper, the West Side News. However, they later turned to manufacturing bicycles, which at the time were taking America by storm. Soon they had built a successful bicycle manufacturing company, but Wilbur, at least, was sure his future did not lie in the business world.

Chapter 2. The Dream Takes Hold

While nursing Orville through a bout of typhoid fever, Wilbur began reading the works of Otto Lilienthal, a German flying enthusiast who died in 1896 after a fall from a glider of his own invention. Lilienthal was convinced that man would have to study bird mechanics in order to discover the secrets of aviation. Orville and Wilbur soon began to devour all the published material they could obtain on “aerial locomotion.”

The brothers built a glider based on the designs of Octave Chanute, a prominent American engineer. Convinced that it could be adapted to carry a pilot, they set out to test “the machine” at the US location with the highest and steadiest winds: Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Chapter 3. Where the Winds Blow

Arriving at Kitty Hawk after a treacherous crossing, Wilbur encountered the most inhospitable place he had ever seen. The high winds kicked up frequent sandstorms on the beach and mosquitoes and ticks were everywhere. Despite all this, Kitty Hawk was still the best location to test the glider. Moreover, it was home to a wide variety of seabirds, whose flight patterns the brothers studied when they were not testing their craft or repairing it after its many crashes.

A second visit to Kitty Hawk in 1901 began with a hurricane, followed by a plague of mosquitoes so overwhelming that the brothers nearly went home. They persevered, however, and in a new set of test flights, concluded that almost everything written so far about aircraft design was erroneous. They would have to build an airplane based on what they learned during their brief, though thrilling, moments in the air.

Chapter 4. Unyielding Resolve

Home again in Dayton, Orville and Wilbur returned to their thriving bicycle business, but spent every free hour conducting experiments in a wind tunnel they built in the workshop above their showroom.

The engineer Octave Chanute, impressed by their research, offered to seek financial support from the industrialist Andrew Carnegie, but the brothers politely declined. They returned to Kitty Hawk in August 1902 with the newly designed “Machine No. 3.”

In multiple short flights, they wer...