The Wright Brothers

The Wright brothers used a camera to photograph their flying experiments, as McCullough notes. Why was that important? How might it have helped them? Discuss the role of photography in the brothers’ work.

Choose another entrepreneur or inventor who succeeded without a formal education or academic degree. (Contemporary examples are Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, but there are many others.) Compare this person to the Wright brothers in their upbringing, environment they lived in, and influences. What did they have in common and what differed? Pinpoint anything that seems necessary for making or inventing something despite a formal education. Also comment on any advantages of not having a formal education.

The airplane improved the world, allowing more people to travel and experience other cultures, cutting the time to transport goods, and so on. However, humans have also used it in inflicting some of the worst violence on one another. For example, the US could not have dropped atomic bombs on Japan during World War II without the plane. What ethics are at play when scientists and entrepreneurs discover and create new things? To what extent should they consider the potential use of their work for harm (versus seeking knowledge for its own sake and leaving the problem of misuse to others)? What professional organizations have guidelines on this?

The book emphasizes Katharine’s role in her brothers’ success. Name another woman in history (recent or distant) who didn’t get credit for the work she did for her husband or a family member. What did she do, why was it significant, and how did it help the other person?

The Wright brothers spent considerable time designing their Flyer’s wings and devising their “wing warping” system to help control (or steer) it. McCullough briefly mentions the aileron system that Glenn Curtiss used in his planes. How does this work differently and how (if at all) did it improve on the Wright brothers’ system? In addition, while the Wright Flyer’s wings were straight from tip to tip, the wings on most planes today have a V shape. Why? What does that do? Discuss these and other improvements to wing design (after the Wright brothers’ design) and the reasons for them.

Wilbur and Orville owned a bicycle shop in Dayton while designing and testing their Flyer. Orville was briefly interested in automobiles and wondered if he and his brother should try building one (but Wilbur was against it because of their noise and frequent mechanical breakdowns). The bicycle and the automobile both came along shortly before the plane. How did they influence its development? Did the brothers incorporate anything from either vehicle into their plane design? What technology from bicycles and/or automobiles was necessary to build a powered plane?

McCullough refers to Wilbur, Orville, and Katharine’s American qualities as appealing to the French. Why? What qualities differed from those common in the French culture that made the Wrights so appealing? McCullough mentions Alexis de Tocqueville, whose famous book Democracy in America referred to some of these traits. Use Tocqueville’s writings to describe how the French viewed Americans and how the Wrights fit that description.

Patent disputes resulted in the Wright brothers’ involvement in several lawsuits (nine against others and three against them). McCullough briefly touches on this at the end of the book but doesn’t go into detail. What was the basis for all these suits? Who won them and why?