When they first flew, hardly anyone could believe that the Wright brothers had succeeded. Many inventors had tried, but hardly any were as successful as the Americans. Historian David McCullough wrote a solid double biography of the famous brothers.
According to two interesting anecdotes, the fascination with flying started at an early age with Wilbur and Orville Wright. Their father had brought a 'small helicopter' from France and his sons immediately got to work with it. It was nothing more than a stick and twisted elastics. When their father showed the thing flying to the ceiling, the boys were immediately curious. They affectionately called it the "bat." Their former primary school teacher could still remember that the brothers were once busy with pieces of wood. What did they build? A machine to fly was the answer.
Find out the wind
The fascination for crafts and means of transport was already ingrained in the Wright brothers from an early age. If you read the new double biography about them, it soon becomes clear that they prefer to work with their hands. They were happiest behind the workbench, McCullough writes. It was not for nothing that they started a bicycle shop together, fascinated as they were by the means of transport. They were good at their job and the demand for two-wheelers grew.
But they had an even greater fascination:flying. Now, over the centuries, several inventors had broken down making an airplane. For example, there are stories of a Spanish scholar who in 875 covered himself with feathers to fly like a bird; but he couldn't. There were also people who made their own wings in several places in Europe. They all fell to pieces.
Exciting
In the time of the Wright brothers – late nineteenth, early twentieth century – there were many attempts. It was a time when the automobile became a success and many more important inventions were made, such as the telephone. Glider pilots have already achieved successful results. But the brothers wanted more:to add an engine and cover greater distances.
But first they had to understand how you stayed in the air at all. They copied that art from birds. At the same time, they tried to fathom the wind. They did that at Kitty Hawk, a remote place in North Carolina. And that is by far the most beautiful part of the book.
McCullough writes eloquently about how they study, tinker and eventually build different airplanes. That part of a book reads like a picaresque novel. As a reader you are, as it were, right next to it and you look over the shoulders of the brothers at the latest creations.
The release was great when the brothers managed to fly. They set record after record and stayed in the air longer and longer. At first hardly anyone could and would not believe it. For example, many journalists were skeptical.
But when more and more people saw the brothers fly with their own eyes, they became wildly popular. Not just in the United States, by the way. In France they were highly appreciated and they also trained pilots. 'The rulers of the skies', they were aptly called.
Funnily enough, the book becomes a lot less exciting after the inventors managed to fly. The second part mainly describes the many flights that the brothers carried out and that is a lot more boring than the first part, in which they take the airspace by trial and error.
Their characters don't quite come out either. McCullough mainly portrays them as fearless go-getters, but that's about it. This is probably because they preferred to work with their hands rather than talk or write.
Nevertheless, this is a successful book. McCullough, who previously wrote about John Adams and Harry Truman, has written a solid double biography. He has a fairly sober writing style and tells clearly about the events. He skillfully places the developments in the time of the Wright brothers.