As part of a growing collection of books, besides the ones I’ve added to my library, I read one from acclaimed David McCullough, two-time Pulitzer price winner for best-selling biographies John Adams and Truman, and has authored other well-known books such as 1776, The Great Bridge, and The Johnstown Flood.
Of his books, one caught my eye the most as it would any other aerospace engineer like myself. It’s titled The Wright Brothers, about the two bicycle-shop owning siblings who brought powered/sustainable flight to the world. McCullough’s biographical abilities were fantastic, namely not just in conveying facts but to add “atmosphere (yes, pun intended)” background, and details about personalities, family/friend relationships, and struggles/triumphs.
Besides technical detail, it covered many personal aspects the Wrights experienced that led to their ultimate goal of a world with powered flight which changed the world in so many ways. More than just established fact, it conveyed the Wright’s philosophy and the heart behind their powered aircraft pursuit.
Orville and Wilbur Wright were born and raised in Dayton, OH in the late 1800’s. Their minister father brought home a toy that could fly for a short time and this inspired them to ultimately pursue a greater flying machine later. Their first businesses involved printing and bicycles (akin to the paid bloggers and electric scooter crowd of today by comparison), but during this time they began to independently study gliders and the tests/exploits of early gliding pioneers without the college degree to back up their inquisitive mindset and skill. Many of these were gained on the side.
While running their bicycle shop, they experimented with wing designs with a makeshift wind tunnel, and ultimately began actual testing at Kitty Hawk, NC (known for having steady breezes essential for testing).
In addition, they experimented with gas-powered motors that were light-weight enough to permit one of their gliders to become airborne. At the same time, other more well-funded efforts for powered flight were occurring at great cost/expense by high-budgeted efforts to no avail.
Finally on December 17, 1903, Orville (who would trade places with Wilbur on each glider and powered flight before/after) took to the air for a mere (yet sustained) 12 seconds and later for a 59-second flight.
After moving their flight operations back to Dayton, the American government and public initially did not express much interest or comprehension at that point, but found greater enthusiasm overseas, particularly France. The Wrights split their time and efforts on both sides of the Atlantic, and often faced serious skepticism from the news press and even well-known scientists of the day for the next several years. This did not deter the Wrights from making continuous improvements on their designs. Finally as the successes mounted, and French enthusiasm grew larger, America began to take notice and realize the great event/invention that had unfolded almost without an afterthought. The interest, the requests for contract, and expansion of flight enthusiasm exploded around the globe.
Downstream landmark events downstream came from this, including the change to mail routes/delivery-time, passenger routes, techno-and exploratory efforts (such as crossing the Atlantic, flying around the world.
There was also a military shift from ground/naval forces to air-dominated ones, supersonic flight, and even hypersonic flight.
Finally (one notably close to my career/passion) was the dawn of the Space Race, with rocket science drawing on the Wright’s vision of flight. This included the notable launches of Sputnik, Vanguard, Mercury, Soyuz, Gemini, Apollo, Salyut 1 (first space station), Skylab (the first US space station), the STS program (aka Space Shuttle) etc. The ones I’ve worked on (past and current) are the Shuttle, Delta II, Delta IV, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), and OmegA, and without the history of the Wright Brothers (conveyed from kids’ books to the internet), current and future generations of Space Program workers (such as myself) would be harder-pressed to keep in tune with the passion of exploring Earth and Space from above the surface of the planet.
Both from David McCullough’s book and other past biographical/scientific narratives on The Wright Brothers, there’s many lessons that are applicable. Having a passion to learn more, think outside the box, gain the skill set capabilities, developing knack for tinkering/testing, technical success, and finally the goal of making life better and providing another avenue of exploration for those who would not know otherwise. Such is the case with Space Program, where many of the pioneering astronauts (from both the US and Russia) served as pilots for both military and test-flight purposes and led to new revelations about space and time that had downstream application to life on Earth.
Even our entertainment ultimately embraced well-known story lines including aerial and spaceflight such shown in Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Star Trek, Star Wars, and onward. Both fictional and actual flying craft have captured the curiosity of following generations such as the Enterprise of Star Trek the X-Wing and Millenium Falcon of the Star Wars saga.
And we can’t forget scientific theories/sci-fi involving UFO’s and wondering if there is intelligent life on other planets, including “Star People” visiting from other worlds. If they are, do they have peaceful intentions or harmful ones? I’m biased toward peaceful and outgoing . . . and if you’ve read The Great Galactic Space Gimmick long enough, you might know what I’m talking about . . . 👽🛸🏜🌵🌴👍😁.
Overall, I give The Wright Brothers a rating of 5-Stars, and recommend it to both history buffs and those in STEM-based aerospace & interstellar exploration. It’s available on Amazon.Com, Audible, , Scribed, and other online/direct retailers.
For The Great Galactic Space Gimmick, I’m Gimmick Commander Ben Faltinowski. 📚 📖 🔭 🚀 🧪 🧮 💫
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