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"The feud between this nation's great air pioneers, the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss, was a collision of unyielding and profoundly American personalities. On one side, a pair of tenacious siblings who together had solved the centuries-old riddle of powered, heavier-than-air flight. On the other, an audacious motorcycle racer whose innovative aircraft became synonymous in the public mind with death-defying stunts. For more than a decade, they battled each other in court, at air shows, and in the newspapers. The outcome of this contest of wills would shape the course of aviation history--and take a fearsome toll on the men involved. Birdmen sets the engrossing story of the Wrights' war with Curtiss against the thrilling backdrop of the early years of manned flight, and is rich with period detail and larger-than-life personalities: Thomas Scott Baldwin, or "Cap't Tom" as he styled himself, who invented the parachute and almost convinced the world that balloons were the future of aviation; John Moisant, the dapper daredevil who took to the skies after three failed attempts to overthrow the government of El Salvador, then quickly emerged as a celebrity flier; and Harriet Quimby, the statuesque silent-film beauty who became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. And then there is Lincoln Beachey, perhaps the greatest aviator who ever lived, who dazzled crowds with an array of trademark twists and dives--and best embodied the romance with death that fueled so many of aviation's earliest heroes. A dramatic story of unimaginable bravery in the air and brutal competition on the ground, Birdmen is at once a thrill ride through flight's wild early years and a surprising look at the personal clash that fueled America's race to the skies" --… (more)
User reviews
The book “Birdmen, the Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies” reveals the massive effort by many people in Europe and the United States to solve the problem of putting men into the sky and making such an effort worthwhile. Balloons and dirigibles are visited and examined, gliders tested, power plants built and, most importantly, patents sought and issued that affected the search to make men equal to birds. Today aircraft are built whose wingspans are longer than the first flight by Orville Wright and yet the basic physics remain the same.
Here is a book that gathers together the many threads leading to flight and the men who used them to weave a fabric that today envelops the world in a skein of transworld air routes making the world smaller and more accessible with an ease that can only be called remarkable.
I mean they really come off like pompous jerks. Over and over they are stunned to find governments around the world are reluctant to buy their plane sight unseen.
If they could shoot themselves in the foot, they did. And don't even get me started on the patent lawsuits.
The age was filled with colorful, clever, daring men (and women) who's stories fill these pages with a vibrant, squabbling one upsmanship that drove aviation forward technically and culturally. For the first decade the only real markets for the airplane were for competition flying and veblenian thrill seeking by the "birdmen" who dared to take these fragile contraptions aloft. Their daring and disasters burned flight into the consciousness of the times, but these willowy contraptions of lacquered silk and wood, so filled with possibilities, were too feeble to be exploited for practical use. So the money men, who could smell the scent of profit, and the newspapermen, who could taste the blood in the water, put up thousands of dollars in prize money to fund the aerial competitions which drove the technology forward.
And this is where the crux of our story lies. Orville and Wilbur Wright, having designed, constructed and flown the first practical, controllable heavier than air vehicle, filed for and received patents for their method for controlled flight in America and several European countries. If you've ever been involved in writing a patent application, you know how the game is played. You seek to lay claim to so much more than the actual device you have designed. The goal is to make your claims as broad as possible to prevent competitors from slipping past the area you have fenced off in your patent and competing with you on equal terms. This is just what the Wrights intended. Having identified a critical feature of the control of natural bird flight, the fine control of the shape of the wing to stabilize the lateral (or level) flight, they sought exclusive rights to all means for controlling that stability. To their minds the true innovation in their patent was not the specifics of how they twisted the wings, altering the flow of air to effect stable flight, but that fact that you could do this. Thus any means of control by altering the flow of air over the wings would be in violation of their patent.
There is no doubt that Wilbur Wright was a meticulous and innovative researcher. His work and insights were laudatory. But having reached controllable manned flight first, he sought to monopolize access to the skies. He used the courts to try and enforce their patent rights and extract crippling license fees ($1000 per plane sold or about 20% of the sale price) from his competitors. Had those competitors simply acquiesced to Wilbur's demands, they would not have been in a position to compete. The Wright brothers would have controlled aviation development world wide for nearly two decades.
There were many skilled researchers working world wide on heavier than air flight, (many of them for far longer than the Wrights had been), and they were not going to give in so easily to the Wright's patent infringement claims. Before Kitty Hawk, aviation research had been a competitive but collegial world. The Wrights blew that world apart with their patent war. Their legal wrangling alienated them and stifled American aviation innovation. Wilbur Wright's obsession with the legal battle monopolized his time so that he failed to produce any significant innovations while his competitors strove diligently to further aviation...and their pocket books.
Birdmen is a fascinating story that is well told. It has its flaws, and there is nothing new in this retelling, but your time will be well spent getting to know the colorful history of the early days of aviation.
"Birdmen" tells the story of early aviation including gliders balloons and the development of early airplane. I knew the
Newspaper articles, letters articles and web sites were used to gather the story. The author took all this information and weaved it into a fascinating story of the beginning of flight and the personalities involved. The dare devil exhibit pilots were fascinating and came alive in the book.
I would highly recommend this book to those who love history and enjoy a well rounded lively portrayal of the history of flight and the people who made it happen.
Starting some years before the Wright brothers flights at Kitty Hawk it outlines some of the earlier attempts at heavier than air flight -
That the Wright brothers wanted to be the first to fly I already knew, but it was a surprise to me that their goal was also to create a world wide monopoly based upon a patent known as a Pioneer patent which would have given them very broad rights.
The Wrights worked in secret and actually flew many times before they did it publicly. At this same time, Glenn Curtis, a master builder, tinkerer, and inventory, moved upon from working on motorcycles to working on airplanes. Once he flew, what happened was a lengthy patent battle between the Wrights and Curtis (and others). The court cases ate up all of the Wrights time and while Curtis continued to innovate, the Wrights - who ultimately won the court battle after many years - fell behind. While this was going on, in the midst of Wilbur's death from Typhoid Fever, many pilots' deaths from exhibition flying became the cost of innovation.
Fascinating book about the early days of flight - and would be interesting to lovers of history of that. But it would also be a great case study for any interested in patent law and how this may affect innovation.
Most folks believe that they humbly created a way to fly and thereby the birth of aviation. A lot more went on and the Wright brothers weren't exactly forthcoming with any information or a willingness to work together. They could have used the expertise of Glenn Curtiss, probably the best mechanic and engine builder from Hammondsport, New York, or anywhere else. They had a chance to work together but the Wright's rebuffed the queries and offers of everyone with any interest in flying. After building their first plane they offered it to the US Government, with one important and mind-boggling request: no one could see any information about the plane, see it fly, or test it themselves. Of course, they were turned down so, instead of ratcheting down their expectations, they went to France. Meanwhile, other builders and pilots were burning up the skies with their own flying machines. Of course, the brothers weren't happy with this and took everyone concerned to court for patent infringements. Their competitors made simple changes and off they went. It's amazing how many years and how much money was spent protecting what turned out to be a matter of semantics. Orville and Wilbur didn't limit themselves to patent wars, they also found the time and money to sue for lost winnings - lost because a court resolution had not been received. They were doomed to lose almost every fight but they couldn't see past their won stubbornness and unwillingness to move ahead with technology and couldn't stand that others had.
The book is also a "who's who" of early aviators: Lincoln Beachey, John Frisbie, Rutherford Page, Cal Rogers, and, the first female, Harriett Quimby, among dozens of others. Make no mistake, these were daredevils - racing to set altitude records without the benefit of being strapped to their planes. It's a fascinating look at early aviation, how the US and the world dealt with this new phenomenon (military applications were at the top of the list), the men and women who couldn't get enough of flying through the sky, and how two brothers started it all. Lawrence Goldstone has done his research and this really makes for an intriguing and thrilling look at where it all started.
Recommended for anyone interest in the Wright's and the other pilots that started the race to the skies, historical non-fiction, and how not to handle your business interests.
Other than that, a FANTASTIC read for history nerds the world over. Incredibly interesting and detailed.
Modern day airplanes are exquisite corpses built on the technological advancements that different inventors and companies have made. Birdmen focuses on the individual pieces of the puzzle of flight. Besides the Wrights, there was Curtiss, Baldwin (inventor of the parachute), Chanute, Langley and others.
While there is some biographical information too the life stories take a back seat to the discussion of their research. For anyone interested in the mechanics of flight, the business of being on the leading edge of technology, and the fine art of getting and keeping government contracts. On the flip side is the heavy price of lawsuits, the never ending need to boost one's brand, the growing need for capital, and the ever expanding competition.
For the Wright Bros. business, the desire to stay privately owned, with tight control over patents and publicity, and trouble adapting to an ever changing business model. Ultimately the things that put the Wrights on the top in the beginning, were the same ones that brought an unfortunate end to the company.
My one complaint with the book is that it seems to drag near the end. To fill the book out beyond 400 pages, the book includes some brief biographies of early superstar flyers. While I am also interested in the likes of Harriet Quimby and John Moisant, I was reading Birdmen for the business and engineering stories.