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Summary: The Wright Biography!
Review: For anyone really interested in the story of human flight, Tom Crouch's "The Bishop's Boys" is the book for you. Crouch has done a masterful job of telling the Wright's story, and what a story it is! Most legendary figures of history crumble when their lives are examined-- Wilbur and Orivlle Wright are more amazing the more you learn about them. Thanks to Crouch and "The Bishop's Boys", the entire story, warts and all, is finally put before the public in a well written, definitive, biography. I have studied and written about the Wright Brothers for years, and I always tell anyone who wants to learn more about these amazing brothers to read this book.
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Summary: How was the Airplane "Really" invented?
Review: In this book, Tom Crouch culminates his exhaustive research on the history of manned flight. All the players (and would-be players) are included from the Wright Brothers viewpoint. Crouch carefully examines the involvement/viewpoints of Chanute, Beloit, Langley, Curtiss and a host of contemporaries from Kings to children with intricate details of the Wright family itself. It sets one back so well in time that one feels you are sitting in the same room with Wilbur, Orville and Milton, their father. One can even sense that Wilbur and Orville might differ on their view of important events (i.e. The Wrights might never have flown if Wilbur had not been knocked cold playing ice hockey near the Soldier's Home).Milton's religious influence and the Wright family tradition is shown to have played a key role in shaping Wilbur's decision to do something meaningful with his life after giving up a likely education at Yale and career in the ministry in his Dad's footsteps as a result of the hockey accident. To me the book has a happy and sad part: The happy part (the first half) deals with Wright family, history, ideas, experiments, inventions and basically seeing how the brothers (particularly Wilbur) came up with all their ideas and diligently and painstakingly pursued them. The sad part (the last half) deals with the agony felt by Wilbur (before his death) and Orville for the rest of his life fighting a multitude of court cases over what they viewed as clear patent infringements. Orville is viewed as extreme and difficult to get along with (according quotes from to Charles Lindberg). Only after Orville's death and World War 2 did the Wrights force the Smithsonian to back down and recant many of their publications related Samuel P. Langley, Orville insisted were untrue. Finally, their 1903 "First Flight" aircraft was returned to the Smithsonian from the British Museum where Orville insisted it remain as a protest until the Smithsonian retracted their views. Such stong uncompromising right/wrong views of Orville and Wilbur are traced to the Bishop (father) in trying to uphold conservative values while their church was split do to relaxing traditional values. The Wright family tradition of honesty and integrity is evident from cover to cover. This is an excellent read, and you'll be anxious to pursue reading numerous other Wright books and artifacts in museums cited at the end.
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Summary: This Book Should Have Been More Popular
Review: This is an outstanding book that describes the Wright brothers. There are a couple of things wrong with the book. The title is terrible and I think that is why it was never as popular, or at least one reason. Secondly the first 100-150 pages are very slow and one wonders where the book is going. Once you get past those obstacles, this is a page turning and compelling read for anyone interested in the engineering and science behind the flights. It is just a wonderful book. The book describes in detail how the brothers developed the plane, measured lift, designed propellers, and other parts all in a methodical and surprisingly scientific way - using things such as their wind tunnel. Also surprisingly they made their own light-weight gas motor. It is all quite fascinating. The book covers the trials and tribulations, and the setbacks. It covers the competitors and the sale of the first plane to the U.S. Army. That plane piloted by Wilbur actually crashes during contract acceptance tests and kills the government officer. Wilbur of course survives and flies a second plane later. This is a great book. Every young engineer should read it. Jack in Toronto
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Summary: Very good biography, but who _were_ they?
Review: Very good biography. Details the events of the Wright brothers' lives quite well. I found especially interesting the section on their family lineage and background. It gave a feeling of them as once-removed from the frontier lifestyle, and also well described their place in midwestern American society, with the father leading the church efforts, their "modern woman" sister attending college, etc. The book doesn't go into a great deal of technical detail on their inventive process. Crouch's colleague Peter Jakab has written an excellent book, "Visions of a Flying Machine," which fills that niche excellently. My only qualm with the book was that as I was nearing the end, I couldn't help but thinking, "Yes, this is all the stuff that happened in their lives, but who WERE they?" Crouch is very exhaustive in covering all the events, esp. their fight for proper credit for the invention. But in the end, I didn't feel as if I had a feel for who they were as people. Ironically, I felt that Jakab's "Visions" book told much more about who they were as people. This book focused on the invention period, and by really showing how they worked and thought, gave more of a feel of their personalities and humanity
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Summary: Source Book
Review: With the 100th anniversary of the invention of the airplane coming up one can expect a surge of interest in the Wrights. Crouch's book was one of two biographies that came out at about the same time several years ago. Crouch did an admirable job in delving into the very tight-knit Wright family, and how its complex relationships molded the inventors. But the superior biography, the best one yet in my opinion, is "Wilbur and Orville" by Fred Howard. It is more technically informed and better written. However, for those with a real bug for the Wrights, by all means read both.
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