Wilbur and Orville Wright

To Conquer the Air

This book is more about personal character

Much about Langley
p37 Bishop Milton Wright, Church of the United Brethren of Christ "church of the frontier", anti-slaver , Susan Koerner
p38 missionary in Oregon Territory, anti-Masonic, editor of Religious Telescope
p39 1861 Reuchlin, 1862 Lorin, 1867 Wilbur, 1871 Orville. 1874 Katharine
- Wilbur faking "phonograph recording" of speech
- Wilbur, most of high school in Richmond Indiana until 1884
p40 1883 Susan tuberculosis, died 1889 . 1886 Wilbur "shinny" ice hockey illness.
p44 1888 Orville built printing press from odd scrap, 1892 bought Columbia bicycle $160 (4 months salary), West Dayton bicycle shop
p51-55 1899 smithsonian letter, watched pigeons roll and bank, bicycle tube box
p90 "They argued for sport" "the fight was also a method" "No truth is without some mixture of error, no error so false but that it possesses some elements of truth" "I think you were right. No, I think you were right".
p215 Amos Root Gleanings in Bee Culture Huffman Prairie 1904, witnesses (well described) first circle flight (poorly described)
p222 Money would grant them the freedom to experiment further

This book is more about technology

p124 Wilbur stalls glider, but forward elevator stalls first, drops nose, restores control, kept forward elevator until 1910
p143 small wind tunnel, found discrepancies with Lilienthal's data
p144 motor/propeller on separate stand, and an airflow "straighter", a honeycomb of wooden blades
p145 measured C_L/C_D with balances built from bicycle spoke wire, also a C..L.. balance, comparing wing to flat plate composed of 8 square inches of metal strips (used hacksaw blades)
p147 made charts for candidate wings in about an hour
p149 Lilienthal tables, Wilbur wrote "the error is not so great as I had previously estimated"
p151 value of "k" multiplier, previously assumed 0.005, Wrights measured 0.0033, modern value 0.00289
p200 tested thrust with grocer's spring balance
p227 Root: "If you wish to make a success of any thing ... find out what the great and good men have done in this special line before you"
p258 Morocco crisis between Germany and France, French more favorable to Wright's terms
p284 Wilbur August 1908 Le Mans France ... Orville and Selfridge crash at Fort Myer September, "two big thumps" Propeller blade split, vibration broke a brace wire to the tail, vertical rudder fell and pitched the aircraft into the ground.

The rest of the book is about the further development of aircraft, not much about the Wrights

p342 TAH: "Wilbur drew on his recent background by conceiving that an airplane was to amount to a flying bicycle."
p343 TAH: "The Wright brothers were brothers, which also contributed to their success. They could argue the issues in full. Indeed, they spoke only half in jest when Wilbur converted Orville to his point of view, while Orville convinced Wilbur that he had been right. Such interaction was essential; it enabled each man to challenge the other, to break an unproductive line of thought, and to compel one another to justify lines of reasoning in detail. No one else had that."