Unlocking the Sky: Glenn Hammond Curtiss and the Race to Invent the Airplane [Paperback]

Seth Shulman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 2003

Unlocking the Sky tells the extraordinary tale of the race to design, refine, and manufacture a manned flying machine, a race that took place in the air, on the ground, and in the courtrooms of America. While the Wright brothers threw a veil of secrecy over their flying machine, Glenn Hammond Curtiss -- perhaps the greatest aviator and aeronautical inventor of all time -- freely exchanged information with engineers in America and abroad, resulting in his famous airplane, the June Bug, which made the first ever public flight in America. Fiercely jealous, the Wright brothers took to the courts to keep Curtiss and his airplane out of the sky and off the market. Ultimately, however, it was Curtiss's innovations and designs, not the Wright brothers', that served as the model for the modern airplane.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the American imagination, Wilbur and Orville Wright are "earnest, young bicycle builders who attacked an age-old technological problem with fresh, ingenious thinking and dedication." There is plenty of truth to this, writes Seth Shulman, but it also obscures an important fact: The first flyers were so secretive and desperate to cash in on their invention that their behavior actually "retarded" the development of aviation. One of their most brutish acts involved a punishing legal fight with Glenn Hammond Curtiss, the inventor of the aileron (wing flaps that stabilize an aircraft in flight), retractable landing gear, pontoons, and much else. Unlocking the Sky suggests that Curtiss deserves at least near-equal billing with the brothers from Dayton. He performed the first public flight in the United States, sold the first commercial airplane, and piloted the first flight from one American city to another. "Curtiss surely belongs in the pantheon of America's greatest entrepreneurial inventors," writes Shulman. Yet he's virtually forgotten today, except by aficionados of aviation history. He comes across as a pioneering hero on these pages--and the Wright brothers as thuggish would-be monopolizers. This may be revisionist history, but it's a history that perhaps could stand revising. --John J. Miller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Journalist Shulman (Owning the Future) gives readers a jumbled but compelling revision to accepted aviation history in this study of American aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss. A bicycle builder like the Wright brothers, he was second into the air (1908), but invented more of modern aviation technology and built better airplanes. This did not keep the Wrights (particularly Orville) from suing Curtiss on the questionable ground that their patent gave them a monopoly of airplane building in the U. S. Shulman's account presents Curtiss as the Little Guy vs. the Corporate Monopolists and uses "non-fiction novel" techniques (e.g., assigning Curtiss present-tense internal dialogue) in a way that calls unnecessary attention to them. It also tries to cram too many subjects into a modest length, but in the end it succeeds in offering the general reader an up-to-date overview of Curtiss's remarkable achievements. 8-page b&w photo insert.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (September 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060956151
• ISBN-13: 978-0060956158
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #571,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Revisionist Read, A Foolishly Weird Book of errors, fun, October 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Unlocking The Sky: Glenn Hammond Curtiss and the Race to Invent the Airplane (Hardcover)

Best part of this book is the insight into Prof. Langley's preparation of the Aerodrome & it's failure to fly. this for those uninitiated with Samuel Langley. Also good the Curtiss flight from Albany to NYC in May 1910. But reader Beware!

STICKLING FOR ACCURACY

p.46 Shulman writes Katharine Wright being Orville's older sister.
-Orville was older than Katharine by 3 years. They both had the same birthday August 19.

p.97 Shulman makes claim that a wing's 'camber' & the effect of 'pitch' are one in the same.
-They are not. They are two totally different things.

p.100 The text here says Curtiss & both Wright Bros. didn't school past 8th grade.
-Not True! Both Wrights graduated High School.

p.102 It's noted here that the Dirigible enjoyed a brief era at the turn or the Century, early 1900s.
-Dirigibles were popular, especially the Zeppelins, up to the late 1930s.

p.106 Shulman correctly states the Wrights sent the crankshaft & flywheel from their 1903 Flyer's engine to the Aero Club of America for a 1906 exhibition.
-He doesn't mention that the Aero Club never sent the crankshaft & flywheel back to the Wrights & they remain lost!

p.110 Thomas Selfridge is stated to be a US Army Aviation Expert in 1907.
-Selfridge, in 1907, was a 1903 graduate of West Point, had never flown any aerial vehicle(until 1908) and perhaps not an 'expert' in aviation since there was basically no aviation to be expert in...(fixed wing flight was just being born). However Douglas MacArthur was A West Point classmate of Selfridge's.

p.134 The credit at the bottom of this page detailing how the AEA learned of aileron usage.
-Gibbs-Smith also stated(elsewhere)that info. about the Wrights' glider activities had been divulged by Octave Chanute himself perhaps to his good friend Dr Bell & certainly to the European aviation community from 1903 onwards. (Chanute had been a visitor to Kitty Hawk in 1901 & 1902).

p.160 The text says the Wrights wing warping & rudder method worked only when inter-connected.
-Not True! The Wrights successfully separated wing warping & rudder control in 1905.

p.161 the author makes a stupid analogy comparing the turbulence Curtiss's Rheims Flyer was encountering to an automoble hitting a boulder.
-If one hits a boulder at high speed in an auto one would be very dead. You don't repeatedly hit a boulder with a car at high speed & stay alive.

pgs.
174-176 These three pages about comparison to an early automobile patent.
-The author is mixing apples & oranges. This has nothing to do with the Wrights' 'FLYING MACHINE' patent.

pg.176 Henry Ford ....Big Deal!
-In 1909 Ford was just another up & coming auto maker. One of many. The Model T was only a year old & not mass produced until 1913.

p.177 Wing Warping & Rudder connections
-The Wrights' patent is explicit about the coordinated effect of rudder & wing warping. No matter the controls are connected or not.

p.189 Text mentions an 'airtight metal pontoon'
-Pontoons should always be 'watertight' one would think.

p.191 author states no airplane of the time(May 1910)could carry enough fuel to cover the 150 miles nonstop from Albany to NYC.
-Henri Farman in 1909 kept his prototype Farman III in the air for 113 miles circling a flying field in France. With bigger gas tanks this mileage could be increased.

p.192 A Dr Taylor responding to Curtiss's request for a landing spot at his Insane Asylum Grounds.

-This bit is funny & amusing. You'll have to read it.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars what a great story!, January 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Unlocking The Sky: Glenn Hammond Curtiss and the Race to Invent the Airplane (Hardcover)

This is a fantastic book about a little-known inventor and entrepreneur who helped change the world. It has excitement, wonderful, colorful tales of adventure, plus I learned a whole new side of the origin of the airplane. The author did a very nice job of evoking the period: a lot of amazing people like Alexander Graham Bell and Henry Ford swirl through this tale focusing on aviation great Glenn Curtiss. I would highly recommend this book even if you're not an aviation buff. I don't know what some of the other picky reviewers are quibbling about. I just really enjoyed this story and the way it was written. There's also a great review that first drew my attention to it in the Boston Globe.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great tale of adventure, October 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Unlocking The Sky: Glenn Hammond Curtiss and the Race to Invent the Airplane (Hardcover)

This is a fun, exciting and entertaining book--one of the best nonfiction stories I've read. Glenn Curtiss had an amazing life and overcame an astounding set of obstacles to make a major contribution to the modern airplane. Best of all, Shulman is able to bring the story alive--deepening and broadening our understanding of how the airplane came to be and how technologies evolve. You don't have to be an aviation buff or even a history lover to thoroughly enjoy this page-turning tale. I highly recommend it.