As young boys, Orville and Wilbur Wright loved all things mechanical. As young men, they gained invaluable skills essential for their success by working with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and any sort of machinery they could get their hands on. As adults, the brothers worked together to invent, build, and fly the world’s first successful airplane. This is the fascinating story of the two inventors and aviation pioneers who never lost sight of their dream: to fly, and to soar higher!

The #1 New York Times bestseller from David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize—the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly—Wilbur and Orville Wright. On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two brothers—bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio—changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe that the age of flight had begun, with the first powered machine carrying a pilot. Orville and Wilbur Wright were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity. When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education and little money never stopped them in their mission to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off, they risked being killed. In this “enjoyable, fast-paced tale” (The Economist), master historian David McCullough “shows as never before how two Ohio boys from a remarkable family taught the world to fly” (The Washington Post) and “captures the marvel of what the Wrights accomplished” (The Wall Street Journal). He draws on the extensive Wright family papers to profile not only the brothers but their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them. Essential reading, this is “a story of timeless importance, told with uncommon empathy and fluency…about what might be the most astonishing feat mankind has ever accomplished…The Wright Brothers soars” (The New York Times Book Review).

Follows the lives of the Wright brothers and describes how they developed the first airplane.

On December 17, 1903, in a fragile little plane which they had built at home for less than $1,000, Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first powered flights in the history of mankind—and opened the Air Age. Why did these two brothers, mechanics by trade, succeed where trained scientists—working with unlimited funds and the backing of great institutions—had repeatedly failed? In this biography, authorized by Orville Wright and first published in 1943, Fred Kelly separates fact from legend and recreates the dramatic achievements of two men, self-taught inventors, who solved the “impossible” problem of flight. The Wright Brothers is a story of total adventure—the sharp physical adventure of flight in perilously frail machines, and the breathtaking intellectual adventure of minds discovering through tireless research and sudden, brilliant hunches the solution to the “impossible” problem of flight. Fred Kelly is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Wright brothers—their growth, their struggles, their disappointments and their ultimate triumph. For more than thirty years he was a personal friend of Orville Wright and talked with him daily while writing this book. The result is a vivid recreation of the birth and pioneer days of aviation and an intimate, affectionate portrait of two men whose inventive genius changed the world. “A gripping book on a fascinating subject...”—Boston Globe

An activity book tells the amazing true story of how two bicycle-making brothers from Ohio, with no more than high-school educations, accomplished a feat on the beaches of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, that forever changed the world. Original.

An expert on aviation history challenges the idea that the Wright brothers were mere mechanics, upholding their place in history as great inventors and engineers who played an essential role in the evolution of modern aviation.

Beginning with Orville and Wilbur's childhood fascination with flight, brief, accessible chapters trace the work that the two Wright brothers did together to develop the first machine-powered aircraft.

"In graphic novel format, tells the story of how Wilbur and Orville Wright developed, tested, and successfully flew the first powered airplane"--Provided by publisher.

This novel, presents the Wright Brothers as idealists who build a dream out of the nuts and bolts of their everyday reality. There is a hard core of steel in the Wrights that, however compassionate, polite, accommodating and modest they appear to be to other people, is the straight arrow that allows them to see their life's work clearly, to make every decision and action move towards the achievement of their goal, and to seldom make false judgments or false gestures that would cause them to deviate from their true course. The assurance that guides the brothers is that quality in creative people that allows them to work towards their life’s goal no matter who or what encourages or discourages them, advances them or retards them, promotes them or disparages them. Familiarity with the Wright Brothers story has made the invention of the world’s first airplane seem to have a fairy-tale ambiance which is divorced from the sweat and anxiety of everyday life. This assumption of an effortless invention process is actually a hold-over from the initial response to their accomplishment by the people of the Wright Brothers’ own time. While suitably impressed with the achievement of the Wright Brothers, the people of the early Century remained unaware of the complex process that the Wright Brothers had actually gone through in order to produce such amazing results. The lack of appreciation of the complexity of the invention process is a result of the pronouncements of "aviation experts" of the time who failed to appreciate the magnitude of the Wright accomplishment for two reasons: an inability to imagine the number and complexity of the challenges that the Wrights had found solutions to, and a desire to limit the Wright’s legal hold over their inventions in light of what promised to be a great financial future for the new innovation. In effect, while the public of the early Century marveled at the invention of the airplane, and gave full credit to the Wright Brothers, many "aviation experts"assumed that the Wright Brothers’ contribution to the invention process had involved nothing more complicated than a little tinkering with the ideas of those who were better qualified – by education and by academic eminence – to invent the airplane.

For the first time, nearly seventy of Wilbur and Orville Wright's published writings are brought together in a single, annotated reference. Spanning the decades from the brothers' turn-of-the-century experiments with gliders until Orville's death in 1948, the articles describe the design of their aircraft, early test flights, and camp life at Kitty Hawk. Because Wilbur's sudden death in 1912 ended any hope that the Wrights would produce a book of their own, the articles collected in this volume are their only published words.

The Wright brothers, Orville (1871-1948) and Wilbur (1867- 1912), were two Americans who are generally credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight in 1903. In the two years afterward, the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed wing flight possible. The brothers' fundamental breakthrough was their invention of "three axis-control," which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. They gained the mechanical skills essential for their success by working for years in their shop with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and other machinery. The brothers' contracts with the U. S. Army and a French syndicate depended on successful public flight demonstrations that met certain conditions. The brothers had to divide their efforts. Wilbur sailed for Europe; Orville would fly near Washington, D.C. They are the authors of The Early History of the Airplane (1922).

Republished by the Science Museum to mark the centenary of the Wright brothers' pioneering flights on 17 December 1903, this classic account provides an introduction to their remarkable careers and their unique place in aviation history. The Wrights were arguably the first to make powered, sustained and controlled flights, near Kitty Hawk, NC; the aeroplane, the first Flyer, was of their own design and construction and had been developed over a period of three years. It was loaned to the Science Museum, London, from 1928 to 1948, and is now displayed in the National Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian Institution) in Washington DC, a reproduction remaining in London. This edition of Gibbs-Smith's authoritative text, first published in 1987, is illustrated with a number of historic photographs and detailed diagrams.

Discover the lives of Wilbur and Orville Wright A story about making ideas take flight The Wright brothers were the first people ever to build and fly an airplane, doing what many people at the time didn't think was possible. Before they made history with their airplane, Wilbur and Orville were curious kids who loved learning about the world around them and how it worked. They fell in love with the idea of flying and taught themselves everything they needed to know to make their dream come true. Explore how the Wright brothers went from young boys growing up in Ohio to world-famous inventors, aviators, and businessmen. How will their hard work and big imaginations inspire you? The Story of the Wright Brothers includes: Lasting change--Learn about how the Wright brothers' inventions changed how we live today. Helpful glossary--Find definitions for some of the more advanced words and ideas in the book. Visual timeline--Watch the Wright brothers progress from curious kids to famous flyers. Explore how Wilbur and Orville brought their dreams to life in this fun and colorful biography for kids.

This collection of 600 letters between the two brothers traces the genesis of their flying machine, from their initial frustration to their bursts of discovery and the thrill of ultimate success. of illustrations.

The Wright Brothers, or the First Flyers, are the legendary duo who gave people wings to fly. They are responsible for inventing an airplane that could actually be controlled in air. All the airplane journeys that we take for granted today would not have been possible without the Wright Brothers’ first successful controlled and powered human flight that gave people a new and speedy means of travelling across the world. Join the curious and playful Digby and his big sister Hester as they make their way through the odds and ends at Mr Rummage’s stall at Knick-Knack Market. Discover the wonderful little objects they pick up and enjoy the stories about the great people they belong to. In the late 1800s, the world’s leading scientists were trying to construct a machine that could soar above the earth. One by one these brilliant scientists failed, some even falling to their deaths, victims of their own winged contraptions. So, how could Orville and Wilbur even think of succeeding when no one else could? But succeed they did. This is the story of their life, the risks they took, despite the multiple failures, and their unwillingness to accept defeat. This is the story of how the Wright Brothers find a way to change the world for the better.

In 1910, Orville and Wilbur Wright opened the first US civilian flight school in Montgomery, Alabama. The Wright Brothers hoped to find a climate warmer and more hospitable to flying than their company base of snowy Dayton, Ohio, even as forward-thinking Montgomerians heralded the school as a way to rise above the shadow of the Civil War. Author Julie Hedgepeth Williams chronicles the short life of this flight school as seen mainly through the eyes of the Alabama press, whose reporting and sometimes mis-reporting “reflected the misconceptions, hopes, dreams, and fears about aviation in 1910, painting a picture of a time when flight was untested, unsteady, and unavailable to most people.”

The pioneers of aviation. The firsthand account by the Wright Brothers of their early experiments with gliders and the first powered flight, and William J Claxton's account of early balloon flight and aircraft development to World War One.

Filled with rare photographs and featuring accounts written by the Wright Brothers themselves, this fascinating firsthand history covers the brothers' early experiments, their construction of planes and motors, the first test flights, life after Kitty Hawk, and much more. Introduction and commentary by Fred C. Kelly. 76 black-and-white photographs.

In graphic novel format recounts the lives of Wilbur and Orville Wright, and describes how their interest in doing things for themselves and their persistence led them to build the first working airplane when better-educated and financed men had failed.