The Wright Brothers

The Wright Brothers

The book I done my report on is titled “The Importance of the Wright Brothers”. It was published by Lucent Books and the author is Michael J. Martin. It also has 128 pages. My report will contain a general overview of the book and my own personal opinions and thoughts.

This book is about the Wrights brothers lives and what they did in them to become important. The author starts off by explaining that the idea of flight to man was preposterous and that it could not be achieved. Wilbur and Orville Wright thought differently though with their persistent and active minds. The author seems to think very highly of these two since first off he wrote this book to tell how great they are and he only says positive things about them
throughout it. The date of their first flight was December 17, 1903 and the author says that this may well be the most important date in aviation history. In my own opinion I also think that this is the most important thing to happen in the world of aviation because without it there wouldn’t be any planes or flight plans.

Chapter 1 starts off with family details. The Wrights family children were said to be raised with self-confidents and independents. This probably explains why the two brothers were so full of knowledge on their own because they did not even graduate high school. The brothers mother was very mechanically inclined because of her mother who was a master builder. This inheritance was mostly likely the reason for their talent. While the first chapter tells some of the key details for understanding where they came from it is not very exciting and interesting to read about as much as the other chapters. Which brings me to my next topic, chapter 3.

Chapter 3 is about how they tested their research with some of their own designs of flight machines. These tests soon lead them to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina where they could work in isolation. No one was around to disturb them this way. While reading about so many great minds who had given up on the idea of flight like Thomas Edison, they really thought to themselves if they could do it. With their countless persistence though the brothers kept on. They had figured out that every other inventor had been going about the idea all wrong. They were only worried about getting the machine up into the air and not about what would happen if they succeeded. The Wright brothers however figured this out and they admired to learn how to fly first rather than build a machine to immediately crash. The Wrights figured they could come up with a safer and more efficient way to control a glider in flight also in this chapter. All they needed was balance and I thought this idea of building a glider based on balanced was a very smart one. They got this idea of balance from watching birds fly. Specifically turkey vultures and other soaring birds. The way they reacted to being acted upon from the force of the wind told them their glider should have the same features.

The next chapter I will discuss will be chapter 8. Chapter 8 is about the worlds reaction to the brother’s actions. Wilbur made two flights that proved heavier than air flight wasn’t a joke and could be done. Millions of people witnessed this amazing feat. Fame was hard to control for

the two brothers but the author explains that Wilbur had it worse than Orville.
He chose to sleep in his hangar with his airplanes and this came to a surprise to people because he was so famous. This was the only place he could get some real privacy though is why he chose too but even then people drilled holes in the walls just to get a peek of the mastermind of flight. This made him furious, He even thought about quitting and going home to Kitty Hawk while he was in Europe. Whenever he flew he wore a distinct green cap. After this was found out thousands of these green caps called ‘Veelburs’ were sold all over France so people could be just like him most likely. More things explained in chapter 8 are how the rest of the world was catching up with the Wrights in flight from the first international air races held at Reims. Wilbur and Orville were tearing it up in Europe while showing off their knowledge and skills of aviation.

Finally, after explaining some things that occurred in this book I will tell you my thoughts and what I think the author did and didn’t do. I do think the author achieved his purpose of explaining the importance of the Wrights brothers. He tells every aspect of their life and every detail of it. For example, in chapter 1 he says that there mechanically ability was nost likely inherited by their mother. That is very important information to understand how these two got started on their path of
fame.

The writing in this book is very effective while explaining details. The author uses very powerful words to get his point across the reader’s minds. Some of these words include isolated, systematic, and enthusiast. They help the reader to get an idea of what the author is trying to say.

My overall response to the book is I was very interested.
Before reading it I thought it would be very boring and I wouldn’t like it. After getting to read a few chapters I was very intrigued in getting to know everything about the two brothers and how they became who they are. This bool succeeded in telling me everything I wanted to know such as where they lived and when their first flight happened which was December 17, 1903.

I enjoyed this book very much. It taught me everything there was to teach about the topic. Where they grew up, what they did, and what they achieved. If one of my peers was doing a report or needed to know information on the Wright brothers, I would definitely recommend this book to them. It is filled with valuable information that is very useful.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this book very much and it taught me a lot about these two special brothers. The impression this book left me with was very moving to know that such extraordinary and special things could be done by just a pair of brothers. I want whoever is thinking about reading this book to know that it is very informational and good. It taught me a lot that I had no idea about. This author has written a very inspirational
piece.