The Road to Kitty Hawk

by Valerie Moolman

Book Overview

The editors of Time-Life Books have produced another exciting series: The Epic of Flight. The Road to Kitty Hawk is brought to you in exciting detail through vivid photography and engaging,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809432609
• ISBN13: 9780809432608
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Time-Life
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

No Guts, No Glory; No Brains, No Luck

This is one of a series of books, by Time Life, which explores the history of aviation from its earliest beginnings up to the jet age. This particular volume covers the span of history and myth from around 11 BC up to and through the Wright brothers successful achievement of powered flight in the early 1900s. In the process, it discusses such diverse flying objects, and hoped-for flying objects, as kites; balloons; manned and unmanned gliders; tower jumpers paraphernalia; parachutes; and finally powered craft, both successful and unsuccessful. In reading the book, I was astonished to see how many misguided men seemingly had more guts than brains and attempted flight with no preparation and little or no understanding of what they were about to do. I was also surprised to find that, with so many attempts over such a long period of time, so little was learned by those who followed concerning the elements and requirements of flight, either powered or otherwise. Take, for example, the efforts of Robert Cocking who, in 1837, fashioned a parachute of his own design. He and his chute were hoisted aloft beneath a hot air balloon and released at about 5,000 feet. The parachute then collapsed carrying Cocking to his death. Academically speaking, it seems that it would have been much more prudent to have tested the parachute before the actual attempt. And the same might be said of Franz Reichelt who stepped off the Eiffel Tower, planning to glide safely to the earth below. His vertical glide lasted a scant five seconds. It seems that the Wright brothers were the first would-be aviators in history to attempt to learn everything they could from previous attempts, to test that knowledge in practice, and to understand the need, not only to get into the air, but to be able to control their craft once it was aloft. They were also prudent enough to pursue their goal in a systematic, step-by-step, manner, learning and testing as they went. Starting from scratch, with little formal education, no basic knowledge of flight, and no outside funding, they succeeded where all others before them had failed. They simply applied what might now be termed the scientific method, and, with a measure of courage and a great deal of brain power, were able to achieve what many thought to be impossible. This is a very interesting book. The only problem I had with it was in trying to decide which was more interesting, the unsuccessful efforts of those leading to the Wright brothers' work, or the detailed discussion of that work. In any case: this is a great book which should be of interest to anyone having even the slightest interest in the history of aviation or the men involved.