Customer Reviews

How We Invented the Airplane: An Illustrated History (Dover Transportation)

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I hate to confess that I didn't even know that the Wright Brothers had written anything later in life. This was so great to read about how Orville Wright and his brother and family really felt about their quest.

As co-owner of an aviation restoration company that works on older aircraft, this book meant more to me than most.

What I have noticed about most pilots is that except for those who get involved in the military or through chance - most pilots are almost "meant" to fly from the start. It is something that inspires them from the time they are kids. With the cost of flying and owning an aircraft, not every kid pursues his dream, but for Orville and the rest - once they are up in the sky it makes it all worthwhile.

A full quarter century before the historic first flight of a powered, controlled heavier-than-air aircraft, a minister named Milton Wright presented two young boys with a model Penaud "helicoptere." As Wilbur and Orville Wright observed, "A toy so delicate lasted only a short time in thehands of small boys, but its memory was abiding,"

This wonderful book chronicles the careers of Orville and Wilbur Wright, drawing upon the writings of the brothers themselves and Fred C. Kelly, their authorized biographer and confidant for more than three decades.

What makes the story of the Wright brothers so compelling is their deliberate, patient perserverance to discover how to make the dream of flight reality.

This is a great book. One of my favorite quotes is when Orville was asked when he got the biggest "kick" out of the invention of the airplane, was it the first flight? "No", Orville said, "I got more thrill out of flying before I had ever been in the air at all-- while lying in bed thinking how exciting it would be to fly." For many of us who fly, we can understand this as we spend more time on the ground dreaming then in the air. -- Ross

Do me a favor.
Search the Internet for the Wright brothers Patent.
Note that the patent shows a glider. NO MOTOR! No machine.

Search also the testimony of "Alpheus Drinkwater," which was the telegraph operator who sent the famous telegram to the brother's father.
Mr. Alpheus said in 1953: The correct date to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary would be 1958. The brothers' first flight was in 1908 in France.
In 1903 they just glided.