The Wright Brothers

by David McCullough

by keeping your noses right at the job until you had accomplished what you had determined to do.

Conestoga wagon,

In the nearly ten years that the Wright brothers had been working to achieve success

ingenuity and courage.

auspicious

those who would win new worlds.

the dream of all ages—hitherto

the brothers had had more than a little experience with adversity and, as so often before, refused to give up.

Persistent

proof of the pace of change

just one year before,

Wilbur Wright, flying one airplane before about 150 people to start with. This August at Reims, a total of twenty-two pilots would take off in as many planes, before colossal ...

crowds numbered 200,000,

The contestants flew higher, farther, and faster than anyone ever had, breaking every record set by the Wright brothers in the past year,

Wright and his flying machine circling the Statue of Liberty that made the most powerful impression,

It was estimated a million people were watching.

“A man who works for the immediate present and its immediate rewards is nothing but a fool.”

“My brother and I do not form many intimate friendships, and do not lightly give them up.

Through ignorance or thoughtlessness, each would be touching the other’s sore spots and causing unnecessary pain.

imperturbable

But it was the interminable patent infringement suits that put the most strain on both brothers.

“When we think what we might have accomplished if we had been able to devote this time to experiments,”

“we feel very sad, but it is always easier to deal with th...

An unfailing intellect, imperturbable temper, great self reliance and as great modesty, seeing the right clearly, pursuing it steadily, he lived and died.

Advances in aviation all the while had been accelerating faster than Orville or anyone of his generation had thought possible,

“The best dividends on the labor invested have invariably come from seeking more knowledge rather than more power.”