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A Tale of Two Brothers: The Story of the Wright Brothers

by Judith A. Dempsey

160 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-0514; ISBN 1-4120-0146-3; US$18.95, C$27.00, EUR17.60, £12.20

A TALE OF TWO BROTHERS is the magnificent drama of human courage, although the Wrights were the first to fly a heavier-than-air, powered flight, they had to defend both their reputaions and their patent or die trying.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts or Table of Contents      catalogue info

About the Book A TALE OF TWO BROTHERS: The Story Of The Wright Brothers is a book that captures the human drama of the Wright brothers' lives. The author views the relationship of these two famous men through the lens of human dynamics. This focus finds the Wright family structure unique for the historical period in which the brothers were raised. Milton Wright, their father, was an ordained minister who was firmly committed to his ministry and the defense of his church's original constitution. But even in his frequent absences to serve the western congregations, he continued to stimulate his children's imaginations through his many descriptive letters. He taught his children to read and write before they attended public school. Susan Koerner Wright assumed the maternal duties of a nineteenth century woman, plus the total management of their growing family during her husband's frequent absences. Because of her own mechanical abilities, she nurtured her sons' intuitive skills and spatial perceptions. Both parents seemed to appreciate and encouraged each of their children's unique abilities. When Orville becomes fascinated with printing, Milton Wright persuaded the older brothers to give Orville their unused printing press and he buys the needed type. When Wilbur was recovering from a serious accident and has to forego college, it was Susan who encouraged his self-education. There emerged from this stimulating family environment two of the most self-motivated and individualist men the world has ever produced. During the time they were working in the printing field and the bicycle repair business, they became infected with the idea that human flight was a possibility. Most people, even many scholars, thought human flight was a pipe dream. Neither brother ever dreamed that they would finally find the solution. At first, they considered their involvement as a hobby, but they soon caught the fever. Against overwhelming odds, the Wrights succeeded where many experts had failed and some lost their lives. To their lasting credit, the brothers dared to question the wisdom of the experts. They then had the audacity to begin to experiment on their own. Theirs was not a smooth rise to success and glory, but rather it was a treacherous road marked by frequent failure and delay. When they finally achieved success on that tiny strip of sand jutting out into the Atlantic, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, they were denied the recognition they deserved. Both in America and across the ocean they were accused of being fakes. The first major invention of the twentieth century went unnoticed and unwanted for several years. The brothers enjoyed only the briefest taste of glory before others were claiming their prize. THE TALE OF TWO BROTHERS is one of the most poignant stories of the twentieth century.

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About the Author Judy Dempsey has worked as an educator for thirty-two years, first as a classroom teacher, then as a school counselor; she did private counseling with children, families and couples. She volunteered at a community mediation center as a mediator and trainer. Now retired, she lives with her husband of 42 years with their five cats and Belgian shepherd in a house with a view of the Atlantic ocean on the same spit of sand, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, on which the Wright brothers first flew their heavier-than-air, powered flight. After thirteen years of visiting and driving past the National Wright Memorial she has developed an appreciation for their story and felt compelled to tell it in her own unique way. She attributes her interest in writing to a weeklong seminar at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching. Always the educator, Mrs. Dempsey chose to concentrate on the human dynamics of the Wright story and to use many photographs to illustrate the details. Several years ago, she and her husband published a calendar of nature photography. She has worked for three years as an education volunteer at the Nature Conservancy's Nags Head Woods. She hopes that this book may inspire other to use their own unique gifts as the Wright brothers did.

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Sample Excerpts or Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1 The Homecoming
Chapter 2 The Wright Stuff
Chapter 3 A Childhood Remembered
Chapter 4 Return to Dayton
Chapter 5 A Great Loss
Chapter 6 Reorientation
Chapter 7 A Gem of an Idea
Chapter 8 Beginnings
Chapter 9 On Their Way
Chapter 10 A Kitty Hawk Adventure
Chapter 11 Aloft Again
Chapter 12 Bridging The Gap
Chapter 13 Gliding Again
Chapter 14 The Flyer
Chapter 15 Flying At Last
Chapter 16 Repercussions
Chapter 17 Flyer For Sale
Chapter 18 Across The Atlantic
Chapter 19 A European Experience
Chapter 20 Not One, But Two
Chapter 21 A Seclueded Place
Chapter 22 More Delays
Chapter 23 In Full View
Chapter 24 Trials And Triumphs
Chapter 25 World Recognition
Chapter 26 A Second Time At Fort Myer
Chapter 27 Striking Back
Chapter 28 Taking Strides
Chapter 29 Litigations and Exhibitions
Chapter 30 A Terrible Toll
Chapter 31 A Firm Stand
Chapter 32 The Aerodrome Affair
Chapter 33 Following His Heart
Chapter 34 Finally

Bibliography

Index

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CHAPTER ONE - THE HOMECOMING

On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright became the first persons in human history to successfully fly a powered, heavier-than-air plane. The 1903 Wright Flyer was the first important invention of the twentieth century, yet it was denied the honor it so richly deserved in the United States and, in 1928, was sent to England to be exhibited at the Science Museum in London. Finally, in 1948, it returned to enjoy a long overdue homecoming at the Smithsonian Institution.

The 1903 Wright Flyer is a visible reminder of the courage, creativity and commitment of aviation's most famous pioneers, Orville and Wilbur Wright. Their work was an important step in the advancement of aeronautical science that has reached its present peak in space travel. Without it, we might still be without another first, a photograph of our earth "in all its spherical glory." On December 7, 1972 the crew of Apollo 17 captured our planet in a photograph entitled The Blue Marble, which has become NASA's most popular photograph. Apollo 17's monumental feat is a culmination of decades of technological advances, all of which built on the Flyer's proof that man can, indeed, fly.

Apollo 11 landed on the moon in July 1969 and Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on its surface, the words he spoke that day are remembered today and often repeated, "That's one small step for a man...one giant leap for mankind."

Less known and seldom repeated are the words telegraphed to Bishop Wright by his two sons as they attempted their first powered flight on December 14, 1903, "Success assured. . . ." Three days later success became reality, as Orville Wright flew 120 feet in twelve seconds from level ground in a heavier-than-air, powered machine for the first time in human history.

Captain Louis F. Ferber, a Frenchman, conceded:
To do something in the air is everything. The Wrights did everything in the air and did it first: they flew. Hedge it about with a thousand explanations [...] the fact remains: they were the first men to make powered, sustained, and controlled flights (McFarland, Heirs of Prometheus, 27).

THE BLUE MARBLE

On November 2, 2000, Yuri Gidzenko, Bill Shepherd and Sergei Krikalev became the first residents of the International Station encircling the earth.

In November 2002, a tiny band of Nature Conservancy volunteers stood on the same sandy, wind-swept shore that the Wright brothers had and cheered as the Space Shuttle, Endeavor, zoomed past and out of sight. It had been launched eight minutes earlier at Cape Kennedy.

One hundred years after the Wright brothers' first flight we are still awed by our ability to fly and we continue to extend our reach farther and farther into space. But if it hadn't been for the tenacity and commitment of Orville and Wilbur Wright a century ago, space flight would not be as advanced today. The world has never been the same since that fateful day when Orville Wright first flew.

Due to some unfortunate circumstances, the relationship between the Wrights and the Smithsonian Institution became strained and in 1928 Orville Wright sent the Wright Flyer to England where it remained for the next twenty years.

The 1903 Flyer had survived the German blitz over London where it had been stored underground, but it almost didn't survive the New York dock strike. The director of the British Science Museum accompanied the 1903 Flyer when it crossed the Atlantic aboard the ocean liner, Mauritania. But when Paul E. Garber, Historian Emeritus of the National Air and Space Museum, arrived at the New York Customs House to claim the Flyer, he found that the captain of the Mauritania had learned of the strike and had decided to unload the Flyer at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Garber then made arrangements for the Flyer to be transported by the escort carrier, U.S.S. Palau.

When the Navy carrier finally docked at Bayonne, New Jersey, a crew from the Smithsonian was waiting with a large Navy truck bearing the label, "Operation Homecoming." Garber wrote that the journey to Washington was more like a "triumphal procession" with police escorts at most towns and a stop at the Wright Aeronautical Corporation so the employees could pay their respects to the first successful powered plane.

RECONSTRUCTION OF 1903 WRIGHT FLYER

A Smithsonian reception committee met the crated Flyer at the Freer Gallery of Art. After the ceremony, the boxes were moved to the Arts and Industries Building. The Flyer was home, but much work still had to be done to prepare it for exhibit.

Garber and the members of The Early Birds of Aviation, men who had worked on and flown the earliest Wright airplanes, reconstructed the Flyer and removed any signs of deterioration. The Wright Flyer joined other pioneer flyers, the Wright 1909 Military Flyer and the Vin Fizz. Charles Lindbergh said that one of the highest honors given to the Spirit of St. Louis was being exhibited in the same hall as the Wright Flyer.

RECONSTRUCTION OF 1903 WRIGHT FLYER

On December 17, 1948, nearly a year after Orville Wright passed away, his nephew, Milton Wright, formally presented the reconstructed 1903 Wright Flyer to the Smithsonian Institution. It was the forty-fifth anniversary of the first heavier-than-air, manned, powered flight. In his remarks Milton Wright said:

The world has come to think of Orville and Wilbur Wright either as demigods whose minds suddenly produced the answer to the problem of flight or as ignorant mechanics, who stumbled on the secrets of flight. They were neither. They were normal young men who had an idea and saw a problem and set about to solve that problem. Their ability to select the vital parts of their problem and to discard the unessential was an important factor in their success.

It was a happy combination of circumstances that, through the seemingly commonplace beginnings, the years of painstaking work to perfect the plane, and later to gain recognition for it, neither of the brothers ever abandoned the vision of this first plane as the symbol of the turning point; the concrete evidence that what was impossible before is now universally accepted practice (Young, 182, 184).

No one today doubts that a manned, heavier-than-air, powered machine can fly, but that was not always true. In fact, it is only within the last century that man has been able to fly. Before then, men who thought flight was possible were considered fools and dreamers, not visionaries.

But the Wrights were truly visionaries, inspired by the work of other aeronautical visionaries like Cayley, Lilienthal and Chanute. Before the Wrights began their work, they studied the works of those visionaries and then proceeded to develop their own vision. They used what they found to be true and discarded the "facts" which were in conflict with what they had experienced. What wasn't known, they set out to find through extensive experiments.

Even in the face of apparent failure and at times intense self-pity, they persisted, and then proceeded to verify and clarify their hunches with numerous tests and endless discussions until their concepts were refined to the point of possibility.

At that point, they demonstrated the impossible; they flew. They accomplished what man from the beginning of time had hoped to do. The difference between the Wrights and all other dreamers was that they made their dream a reality.

But it was not without great cost. They endured financial, physical and emotional loss. In 1908, Orville was seriously injured at the first U.S. Army demonstrations and suffered from severe pain for the rest of his life. Two of the brothers' closest friends turned on them. Wilbur was so drained by the strain of preparing for patent infringement suits and testifying in court that he had no resistance to the progression of typhoid fever that took his young life. Eventually, Orville withdrew from public life, maintaining only those contacts most important to the future of flight, the preservation of the 1903 Wright Flyer and honoring the memory of his brother.

But theirs is a glorious story, which should inspire others to follow their own dreams and use their special talents and skills to improve their world.

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Catalogue Information

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