To Conquer the Air

It was “a flight very modest compared with that of birds,” he said, “but it was nevertheless the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in a full flight, had sailed forward without reduction of speed, and finally landed at a point as high as that from which it started.”
That wasn’t an exciting or inspiring way of saying that two human beings had learned how to fly. But it was the way the Wrights thought about things.

To Conquer the Air

In all of To Conquer the Air‘s 200,000 words, there is far too much material to cover in a brief review—or even in a long review. The book is a chronicle of the race for flight and its early years. It primarily covers the Wright brothers, but it also talks about Samuel Langley, Glenn Curtiss, Alexander Graham Bell, and other contenders for the first flight.

Origins

The book starts in the days when people thought of flight enthusiasts as crazy. The general public’s opinion of flight was, “If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us wings.”

It looks at Langley’s first career, astronomy. He made detailed freehand drawings of sunspots, which are amazing artistically, as well as precise.

From there, it discusses Langley’s pursuit of flight and experimentations with the great aerodrome, eventually coming to the Wright brothers, starting with their humble beginnings at 7 Hawthorn Street in Dayton, Ohio.

One of the things that struck me was the close relationship between the Wright family, especially the siblings. Their letters show a great fondness and dependence for each other, and their slang phrases show the result of years of friendship.

About the same time as the Wright brothers were gliding over the sands of Kill Devil Hills, Alexander Graham Bell was experimenting with tetrahedral kites at his manor. The kites seemed to hold promise for a stable and less dangerous form of flight.

Flight

At first, the historic 1903 flight of the Wright brothers went largely unnoticed. The American newspapers had heard enough of flying machine claims to be skeptical of this new player on the field.

However, in France, they were very well known. The flight sent the country, which liked to consider itself the nation of flight for producing its lighter-than-air flying machines, into a frenzy. Americans, surpassing the French in flight? Many Frenchmen began experimenting with heavier-than-air machines—though most were cheap, incomplete versions of a Wright flyer.

Something else that was especially interesting to me was the contrast between the Wright brothers’ experiments and Samuel Langley’s aerodrome.

The original cost of Langley’s enterprise now approached $70,000. The Wrights figured up the total cost of their experiments of 1900 through 1903, including train and boat fare to and from the Outer Banks, at a little under one thousand dollars.

To Conquer the Air

Overall Thoughts

To Conquer the Air is an excellent commentary on the early years of flight. Its length reflects its depth of detail, with the book sometimes spending several paragraphs on the personal lives of the pioneers of flight, such as Milton Wright—the inventors’ father—and his church conflicts.

There are two instances of profanity, both from historical quotes.

It does drag at times when the technical parts are described, but compelling storytelling dominates most of it. You will be smiling at the Wright’s wit and unique personalities, sympathizing with Langley’s failed experiments, and feeling the thrill of the public as they see something novel—a mechanical bird.

I would recommend this for more mature readers, solely for the fact that a younger reader would quickly grow bored with the length and attention to detail.

Overall, a great read for anyone who is interested in aviation.

If To Conquer the Air interests you, you can find it on Amazon here.