THE WRIGHT BROTHERS, David McCullough

[Henning]

A discovery in the scientific sense belongs to the one who makes the discovery available to the world at large. Those who fail in that task don't and shouldn't get credit for a discovery.

Controlled powered heavier than air flight was as much a discovery as an invention.

Mmmm... Debatable. The knowledge of what was needed was already known through observation of birds for a long time. How to engineer the structure into a stable and controllable form had also been worked out on gliders before they had the engine ready, and the engine most certainly was not a discovery, but rather a refinement.

I don't take anything away from them and what they did and contributed to the advancement in how to do the research to make the learning process so much more efficient. That was the Wright's biggest contribution to the game, their methodical wind tunnel testing and analysis especially on props.

However the fight over the aileron was not a correct fight, and by choosing to fight it, it cost them dearly. There was plenty of opportunity for everyone, and they wanted to get greedy. The aileron was a significant difference, and improvement, in design.

 

[Mutts]

Just got back from a trip that involved some very long airline flights, and I downloaded the book to my iPad to help pass the time. I'm about halfway through it now (just past the Selfridge crash) and am enjoying it.

By modern standards the brothers would be considered "boring" characters -- disciplined, principled, hard-working. I'd think it would be tough to make a successful mass-market movie about them without taking a lot of literary license.

It would indeed take the right writers for the Wrights.
There are moments of true human glory and comebacks.
A good score, that moment at Kitty Hawk would be magic, because it was.