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So begins Noah Adams’s adventure in search of Wilbur and Orville Wright, a journey that takes him across the country as he follows in the footsteps of the famous brothers in an attempt to know them more deeply, not just as inventors and pilots but as individuals as well.
Adams, one of our most distinctive and talented storytellers, traveled thousands of miles and interviewed scores of experts and individuals to piece together his story. He finds a local boat captain to ferry him to Kitty Hawk, along the same route that Wilbur took in 1900, and spends several days talking with descendants of the families who first welcomed the Wright brothers a century ago and helped them conduct their gliding experiments. To experience first-hand the thrill of being in the air, Adams himself goes hang-gliding in the Outer Banks.
To understand the aerodynamics of lift and drag and how the famous 1903 plane was constructed, he visits Ken Hyde, a Virginia pilot and vintage aircraft builder who is creating the world’s most accurate reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer. Adams goes to the prop shop and handles the tools and materials that the Wrights used to build their gliders and planes, and later he visits the wind tunnel at Langley Air Force Base where Hyde’s reproduction was tested for the first time.
He also travels to France to visit the old racetrack at Le Mans where Wilbur startled the European aviation community with his demonstration flights in 1908, and he spends a few days at Wisconsin’s Oshkosh Fly-in, where builders of experimental aircraft and owners of vintage planes gather every year to dazzle the crowds. Adams himself takes to the air in a restored Ford Tri-Motor, America’s first airliner, which took its maiden flight seventy years ago.
In Adams’s book we encounter the Wright brothers in a way that no writer has introduced them before. Through the lens of his own experiences as well as original reporting, letters, diaries, and other primary source material, he helps us understand the talent and intensity of the brothers and their family, including the fascinating, deeply complex, and at times tragic bond between Orville and Katharine, his younger sister.
The Flyers is a wonderfully rich narrative that brings an unprecedented spirit of immediacy to one of history’s most dramatic stories.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Awards
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Release date
October 7, 2003 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781415952061
- File size: 145353 KB
- Duration: 05:02:49
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Much has been written about the Wright brothers, the Dayton, Ohio, bicycle mechanics who steered twentieth-century history with their airplane and the first successful motorized flight. But Noah Adams takes listeners on a journey through place and time and explores, not just the inventors and their era, but also people today whose lives still touch the famous pair. For instance, at the Ohio prairie where the Wrights did a lot of testing, Adams talks to a biologist who is preserving native prairie plants inside a large Air Force base. He also drops all manner of interesting historical tidbits. For instance, a wind tunnel used to test a modern version of the Wright Flyer plane is used most often to test racing stock car designs. Adams's delivery is smooth and effective. His voice and manner carry the story along. It's the kind of performance that will make commuters take the long way home just to finish a chapter. And a tip of the hat to the producers for ending each disc with the close of a chapter. R.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine -
July 14, 2003
Adams, cohost of NPR's All Things Considered
and author of Piano Lessons, sets out to learn about the Wright Brothers, their family and why they loved to fly so much. Adams visits all the spots important to the brothers, from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where they flew gliders, to France; Dayton, Ohio; and New York. The most appealing part of the book is the look at the close relationship between Orville, Wilbur and their sister Katherine. Following the death of their mother, the three were devoted to one another and planned on living together. In fact, after Wilbur's death, when Katherine announced her plans to marry, at age 50, Orville was devastated and ended up not seeing his sister until she was on her deathbed a few years later. Adams uses letters and diaries to describe the lives of the Wrights; some of these details are not widely included in other books that focus on their inventions and accomplishments. Adams intersperses his personal musings as he re-creates the travels of the Wrights: "Wilbur's Arlington Hotel is gone, replaced by a three-story condominium, the La Casita. I put up at the Comfort Inn, out at the bypass. I had plans for my own boat trip, leaving at first light." In the end, he's a personable guide into the Wright Brothers' world, offering a refreshing look at these aviation pioneers. (Oct.)Forecast:Timed to the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk, along with national appearances, sales should be strong, particularly in such regions as North Carolina and Ohio.
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