On Great White Wings - the Wright Brothers and the Race for Flight - Hardcover

Culick, Fred E. C. & Dunmore, Spencer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1840373334 ISBN 13: 9781840373332

Publisher: Airlife Publishing Limited, 2001

Synopsis

The remarkable story of the tremendous Wright Brothers is re-created in this informative, enthralling resource. With accessible explanations and technical explorations, this documentation of the first successful flight celebrates the fathers of modern aviation and includes detailed and accurate depictions of the first airplane. Contemporary photographs complement the specially commissioned diagrams and schematics—offering a truly inspiring and educational ode to the brothers and their historic achievement.

About this title

About the Author:

Fred E. C. Culick is a leading expert in aeronautics and astronautics and a professor of mechanical engineering at the California Institute of Technology. He is a founding member of the AIAA 1903 Wright Flyer Project, whose goal is to replicate the Wright brothers' first aircraft. He lives in Pasadena, California. Spencer Dunmore is a historian and novelist specializing in military history. He is the author of Bomb Run, Final Approach, In Great Waters, and Squadron and the coauthor of Exploring the Lusitania. He lives in Burlington, Ontario.

From Booklist:

Capitalizing on the approaching centenary of the Wright Flyer, at least one biographer (James Tobin) is hard at work on the lives of the Wright brothers, and author Culick is laboring to build a replica of that first plane. His project gets a sidebar in this picture book, which otherwise is a showcase of the Wrights' victory in the intense competition to develop a heavier-than-air flying machine. Culick notes that the precise technical characteristics of The Flyer have baffled aeronautical engineers, a puzzle his replica hopes to solve; however, the technical details discussed, such as the chord of the wing, are of less interest to most readers than Wilbur and Orville Wright's legendary story, culminating in the brief but epochal first flight in 1903. Culick and Dunmore stolidly recount the mechanical innovations that contributed to that success and continue the tale into the less triumphant sequel of patent battles and the rapid obsolescence of their basic and very accident-prone design. This generously illustrated title no doubt augurs a wave of coming books on the Wright brothers. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Airlife Publishing Limited
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1840373334
• ISBN 13: 9781840373332
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176