The Wright Brothers

by David McCullough

Included among the ecclesiastical works on his bedroom shelves were the writings of “The Great Agnostic,” Robert Ingersoll, whom the brothers and Katharine were encouraged to read. “Every mind should be true to itself—should think, investigate and conclude for itself,” wrote Ingersoll.

“Learning the secret of flight from a bird,” Orville would say, “was a good deal like learning the secret of magic from a magician.”