A Dream of Wings: Americans and the Airplane, 1875-1905
by Tom D. Crouch
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tom D. CrouchEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2002-02
ISBN: 0393322270
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Book Reviews of A Dream of Wings: Americans and the Airplane, 1875-1905
Book Review: The Wright brothers taught the world to fly--without question--but who taught the Wrights?
Summary: 5 Stars
Tom Crouch has been a friend and colleague of mine for some fifteen years, so I am not necessarily unbiased in my assessment of his work, but I think you will find that "A Dream of Wings" is the best description and analysis of the pre-history of flight in America up to the time of the Wright brothers that has ever been written. Crouch concentrates on Octave Chanute, Samuel P. Langley, Otto Lilienthal, and others in the pre-Wright era who steadily moved toward the objective of controlled, powered, sustained, heaver-than-air flight. Most important, Crouch shows that the Wright brothers did not work in a vacuum. They were part of a cadre of serious investigators who worked diligently to solve the practical problems of flight. He rightly notes that "a cooperative, well-directed flight research program involving many men with broad technical experience" made possible the success of the Wrights at Kitty Hawk (p. 29). Rescuing this community of researchers from obscurity is the most important contribution of "A Dream of Wings."
The hero of "A Dream of Wings" is Octave Chanute, a French-born, Chicago-based engineer who explored the challenge of flight in Gilded Age America. His personal investigations into the problems of flight measurably advanced knowledge about powered flight in the 1890s, and he shared that knowledge with the Wrights as they undertook the research that led to their successful 1903 test flights. The brothers corresponded with Chanute throughout their preliminary research, seeking his counsel and incorporating his ideas into their designs for an airplane. Once successful, Chanute even visited the Wrights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, while they were testing their planes.
Not until 1886, at age 54, did Chanute begin a second career by devoting himself to solving the problems of flight. In typical engineering fashion of step-by-step investigation, Chanute assembled all known data on the science into a single synthesis and catalogued its problems. Very early he began building a community of researchers, organized symposia, and served as the central clearing house for information on the subject. Crouch tells this story exceptionally well in this book, and he holds up Chanute's approach as a model in collegial engineering, as opposed to the proprietary approach taken by most corporations. Chanute deeply believed that the advancement of flight science must be the work of many. He corresponded internationally, and encouraged the pioneers, including the Wright brothers of whom he was a special friend and mentor. He sought no patents on his inventions and gave his findings openly to all. The Wright brothers used his research when they designed their aircraft. Chanute, for instance, advised Wilbur Wright to find a sandy place, with strong prevailing winds, to lessen the problem of landing and of moving the vehicles from the point of landing back to the point of takeoff. This sparked the brothers' decision to journey from their native Dayton, Ohio, to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where the conditions Chanute recommended existed nearly year round.
No one proved a more effective advocate for the Wright brothers after their famous first flight than Octave Chanute, and Crouch tells this story as well. Chanute steadfastly supported the brothers and remained their confidante until patent disputes erupted over aeronautical technology. Chanute broke off his correspondence with them at that time because he disagreed with their desire to control the technology of flight. For him, technical information was a public commodity, and he believed that the ability to fly would usher in a new age of enlightenment that the Wrights were thwarting. The relation was mending when Chanute died in 1910 and the brothers attended his funeral. Wilbur Wright delivered his eulogy.
This is a very fine history of the quest for flight, with usch characters as Octave Chanute center stage in the effort to create practical airplanes. I commend it to all interested in the development of flight in America.
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