A Dream of Wings Americans and the Airplane, 1875-1905 [Paperback]

When Orville and Wilbur Wright soared over Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina's outer banks and solved the problem of aerial navigation, they wrote the last chapter in a long story. For decades prior, a small community of engineers, scientists, and dreamersmen named Chanute and Langley and Herringhad tried to make the ascent in every conceivable craft, from kites and gliders to an assortment of powered flying models. This fascinating assortment of characters and contraptions comes to life in Tom Crouch's classicThe story of a handful of talented American engineers and adventurers who labored to conquer gravity in a flying machine.