![]() With his ear for dialect and eye for detail, McCullough puts the Wrights in historical context, flushed out by vivid portraits of their loyal father and sister. Wilbur was a frenetic dreamer, living “in a world of his own,” a world that might have taken him to Yale if not for a grim hockey injury that led to three housebound years and the opening of a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. Orville, younger by four years, was shy, moody and mechanical. McCullough does a novelistic job in distinguishing the brothers. no friends in high places, no financial backers, no government subsidies, and little money of their own.” Yet the revolution the brothers made was honored by Neil Armstrong, who, within a human lifetime of their first flight, carried a piece of their plane to the moon. They “had no college education, no formal technical training. ![]() As McCullough makes clear, the Wright brothers were a rare blend of Midwestern mettle, lofty vision and homegrown know-how. ![]() What they did - the first powered flight with a controlled turn and landing - was a product of persistence as much as genius. To get to and from their remote sand dune testing ground they had made five round-trips from Dayton … a total of seven thousand miles by train, all to fly little more than a half mile. They had endured violent storms, accidents, one disappointment after another, public indifference or ridicule, and clouds of demon mosquitoes. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |