The Papers of Wilbur & Orville Wright, Including the Chanute-Wright Papers [DELUXE EDITION] (Hardcover)

~ Marvin McFarland (Author), Orville Wright (Author) "Our first interest began when we were children..." (more)
Key Phrases: Wilbur Wright, Octave Chanute, Kitty Hawk (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

For a limited time! This special commemorative original edition reprint collector set of rare volumes celebrates a century of flight. Don't miss this opportunity!

A chronologically organized look at aviation pioneers' Wilbur and Orville Wright's plans, progress, achievements, and setbacks, documented in two illustrated volumes spanning 50 years' worth of letters, papers, notes, drawings, and compelling photograhps

Taken from the detailed correspondence and numerous diary and notebook excerpts, wind tazble tunnels, and more

From the Back Cover

THE PAPERS OF WILBUR & ORVILLE WRIGHT

"On December 17, 1903, on a cold, windswept patch of sand in North Carolina's Outer Banks, five years of experimental work backed by solid engineering and flashes of utter genius reached a climax. At 10:35 A.M. that day, two brothers with the improbable names of Wilbur and Orville forever changed the way that people would live and dream. Because on that day the human race, in the guise of two quiet, unassuming men from the great American Midwest, slipped the shackles that had bound men to the Earth since time began. In a flight that covered 120 feet and lasted 12 seconds, man had made a controlled, sustained flight. More simply put, man had conquered the air."

---From the Foreword to these new 100th Anniversary volumes by Stanley W. Kandebo, Assistant Managing Editor, Aviation Week & Space Technology

Amazingly, the brothers never collaborated to create a full first person narrative of their experiments, of their historic flight, or of the trials they faced in its aftermath. They also failed to leave engineering drawings that fully captured all the details of their aircraft. As Aviation Week editor Kandebo writes, "that ... is exactly why the private papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright--their notebooks, their diaries, and their extremely important correspondence with [aeronautic pioneer] Octave Chanute--are so fundamentally important to the saga of how man conquered the air."

This carefully bound and boxed set faithfully recreates the historic original first edition of The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Published in 1953, five years after Orville Wright's death, those volumes are now rare. Reissued to make the Papers once again available and to mark the Centennial of Flight, this set of documents--diary entries, drawings, and personal and aeronautical correspondence--edited by a director of the Aeronautics Division of the Library of Congress, represent the most complete published record left by the Wright brothers on their triumph, and its far-ranging consequences to themselves and to the world.

In 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, two brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, made the first manned, controlled, sustained, successful powered flight in a heavier-than-air craft--a flight that both electrified the imagination of the world and revolutionized aeronautical theory. Now, fifty years after this history-making event, the private papers of the Wright brothers are published for the first time. Under the sponsorship of Oberlin College, Marvin W. McFarland representing the Library of Congress Aeronautics Division has edited and annotated the great mass of material. Volume One covers the years from 1899 to 1905, the years of the Wrights' experimentation; Volume Two spans the years from 1906 to 1948, the years of public recognition and acclaim. Both volumes include, besides a number of scientific papers highlighting the Wrights' vast contribution to the science of aeronautics, their numerous diaries and letters, which show the brothers as persons of wit, warm affections, and integrity.

In these two volumes is the fascinating correspondence (1900-1919) between Wilbur Wright and Octave Chanute, the early leader in the aeronautics field who freely lent his genius and aid to the brothers; excerpts from 33 Wright diaries and notebooks (1900-1919), and from Wright family correspondence; wind-tunnel tables, propeller notebooks, and many other selected articles, lectures, and writings by the brothers. Also included are five appendices that summarize technical information, 128 pages of halftones, 12 pages of historical photographs, a complete index, and numerous charts and diagrams.

Selections from THE PAPERS Of WILBUR & ORVILLE WRIGHT

Orville Wright
I cannot think of any part bird flight had in the development of human flight excepting as an inspiration. Although we intently watched birds fly in the hope of learning something from them I cannot think of anything that was learned in that way.

Katharine Wright to Bishop Wright Dayton, August 20, 1902
The flying machine is in process of making now. Will spins the sewing machine around by the hour while Orv squats around marking the places to sew.

Wilbur Wright to Bishop Wright and Katharine Wright Kill Devil Hills, December 14, 1903
We gave machine first trial today with only partial success ... The machinery all worked in entirely satisfactory manner, and seems reliable... There is now no question of final success. Telegram)
Kitty Hawk, December 17, 1903
Success four flights Thursday morning all against twenty-one mile wind started from level with engine power alone average speed through air thirty-one miles longest 57 seconds inform press home Christmas.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 832 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 1 edition (November 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071363769
• ISBN-13: 978-0071363761
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.5 x 5.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,493,702 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An astounding firsthand account of the invention of flight, October 7, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

Conventional wisdom brands these two geniuses as simple "bicycle mechanics." This incredible book takes you inside their genius, in their own words, written day-by-day. What they accomplished is no less than a miracle, and this book will humble even the most self-assured intellects. Their research "invented" wing theory and shapes, aircraft control systems, and propeller theory. Then they had to design and constuct their own engine, as available ones were too heavy. And wonderfully for us, they left an astounding amount of documentation, including photographic (including the famous photo of the first controlled flight ever), and massive documents and correspondence, which is reproduced in this 800+ page book. There's nothing "dry" about this first-hand story of man's most significant invention.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive Book on the Wrights, January 6, 2003

By	Edward Cafarella (Bellport, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you like avaition and it's history, this is the book for you. Very easy to read and well put together. The two volumes come in a nice dust case.