The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright
Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000. First Printing stated. Hardcover. ii, [2], 316, {2] pages. Includes Acknowledgments, and Introduction. DJ has some sticker residue at the back. Topics covered include The Age of the Flying Machine Had Come (The Wrights tell Their Story); Some Aeronautical Experiments (Technical Articles by the Wrights); The Greatest of the Precursors (The Wrights Assess Their Contemporaries); and It is Never Safe to Prophesy (The Wrights on the Future of Aviation). Also includes an Appendix (Witnesses to the Birth of Flight). Also includes Bibliography, Photography Credits, and Index. The authors bring together for the first time nearly seventy of Wilbur and Orville Wright's published writings into 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. As the airplane evolved, the brothers frequently commented on such subjects as the future of commercial aviation and air travel, sport flying, air safety, and military aviation. Because Wilber'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 pieces illuminate how they chose to document their achievement and to shape their legacy. Dr. Peter L. Jakab is chief curator of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Formerly he served as the Museum’s associate director for Collections and Curatorial Affairs. He has been with the Museum since 1983. He holds a BA, MA, and Ph.D. in American history from Rutgers University. Areas of specialization include the history of technology, aerospace history, and American social and cultural history. Prior museum work includes stays at the Edison National Historic Site, West Orange, N.J., and the New Jersey Historical Commission. He also spent a year with the Thomas A. Edison Papers Project and two years teaching American history at Rutgers University during his graduate study. During his stay at the Museum, he has curated numerous exhibitions and frequently lectured on the history of technology; the history of invention; the Wright brothers and pioneer aviation; and First World War aviation. Major exhibitions include The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age, which opened at the National Air and Space Museum in October 2003. His publications include the books Visions of a Flying Machine: The Wright Brothers and the Process of Invention; Icare: revue de l'aviation française, #147, Les Frères Wright, 1994; The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright, and The Wright Brothers and The Invention of the Aerial Age.
Derived from a review found on-line: In this book, editors Peter Jakab and Rick Young bring together the published writings of the Wrights. Many of these often short works were published through small, obscure outlets, including some early writings that appeared in newspapers published by the brothers themselves in their Dayton print shop. Also included are published interviews and transcripts of speeches and addresses delivered by one or the other Wright brother.
The editors have divided the collection into four parts. The first includes articles and published statements in which the Wrights explain how they came to invent the airplane. The next section includes technical articles written by the Wrights. The pieces chosen for the third section include the Wrights' assessments of their contemporaries, their fellow experimenters, and date as early as 1890. The last section includes articles in which the Wrights made predictions about the future uses of their invention. There is also a small appendix in which the editors have gathered published writings by several witnesses to the Wright brothers' early experiments and their first flight.
Reading the sections from start to finish can provide not only an immersion in the "voice" of the Wright brothers but other insights as well. This is especially true of the first section, dealing with the Wrights and their own telling of their story. it becomes evident that the Wrights were remarkably consistent in the way they related their story over the years. They clearly had or developed a single and precise vision of what they had done and how they had done it, and they knew exactly how they wanted the world to understand and remember it. They demonstrated the same precision in relating their story that they did in their aeronautical research.
It is also clear from these writings that the Wrights, especially Orville, developed a clear public image over time. The world did not have much of a chance to get to know Wilbur, who died in 1912. Orville, however, lived until early 1948. The image of Orville Wright as presented in the interviews republished in this work is consistent over time and between interviewers. He is described and presented in almost the same way by both professional journalists and a student interviewer from some university newspaper. It is clear, however, that the younger Wright brother somehow projected a consistent image of himself, his brother, and their work over a long period of time.
Finally, it is also clear from the selections presented that the Wrights were no more able to grasp the full impact of their invention, particularly during the early years after Kitty Hawk, than any of their contemporaries. Except for Orville's expression of a belief, fairly common at the time, that the airplane had the potential to prevent all future wars, the Wrights seemed in many ways far more realistic and less romantic about their invention than many. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright, Aeronautics, Aviation, Experiments, Kitty Hawk, Aeroplane, Langley Medal, Flying Machine, Fred Kelly, Gliding Flight, Aeronautical, Octave Chanute, Mouillard, Clement Ader, Otto Lilienthal, Commercial Aviation
ISBN: 1560989386
[Book #79454]
Price: $50.00