Terrific book and the perfect length and depth. It sold well when it came out in 2015 and it's easy to see why. Lots of photos, which are always interesting.
 About the only thing missing was anything about the love lives of the three main characters, Wilbur, Orville, and Katherine Wright, their sister who this book made me develop a mild crush on. (I'm not the only one who found her interesting. An epistolary novel of historical fiction about her written by [a:Patty Dann|7341805|Patty Dann|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] titled [b:The Wright Sister: A Novel|49947034|The Wright Sister A Novel|Patty Dann|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574811817l/49947034.SY75.jpg|72234792] is due to be published in August of 2020. [b:The Wright Sister: Katharine Wright and her Famous Brothers|25332077|The Wright Sister Katharine Wright and her Famous Brothers|Richard Maurer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1458837035l/25332077.SX50.jpg|1310668]), a non-fiction book, came out in 2016.) Neither of the brothers ever married and Katherine didn't marry until she was 52. They were mega-celebrities in their day. Surely they had opportunities, but [a:David McCullough|6281688|David McCullough|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1429921568p2/6281688.jpg] never mentions them. It's hard to believe that with the piles of information about them there wouldn't be a love letter or two floating around. Not that it should've been a main part of the book, but you'd think it'd be mentioned.
 Another thing I found missing was mention of the role refined oil had. I visited the Outer Banks in 2000 and saw a replica of the original plane. One thing striking about it was how small the fuel tank was, but the idea was that there'd be just enough to get it off the ground and fly for a minute or so to keep everything as light as could be. As damaging and awful a thing as gasoline is, powered flight wouldn't have been possible for decades longer without it. There were some attempts to fly with engines powered by steam, but they were unsuccessful.

 In the last days of November, snow fell, something they had not seen before on the Outer Banks. Water in their washbasin froze solid. Cold or not, they succeeded meantime in getting the engine to run with practically no vibration even at high speed. The Flyer would be launched on a single wooden track, to serve like a railroad track 60 feet in length on which it would slide. The total cost for materials for this innovation was all of $4.
 By all evidence the brothers had suffered in spirit not in the least. "After a loaf of 15 days, we are down to work again," Orville wrote to Charlie on November 23. "We will not be ready for a trial for several days yet on account of having decided on some changes in the machine. Unless something breaks in the meantime we feel confident in success."
 New propeller shafts made of larger, heavier steel tubing arrived from Charlie, only to crack during an indoor test. With no delay, Orville, the better mechanic of the two, packed his bag and on November 30 left for Dayton to see what could be done, with Wilbur remaining behind "to keep house alone," in his words.