Title
Birdmen : the Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the battle to control the skies / Lawrence Goldstone.
Edition
First edition.
ISBN
9780345538031 hardcover alkaline paper
034553803X hardcover alkaline paper
Published
New York : Ballantine Books, [2014]
Language
English
Description
xiv, 428 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Call Number
TL521 .G568 2014
Dewey Decimal Classification
629.13/0092/273
Summary
"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" -- from publisher's web site.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 387-404) and index.
Fulcrum
Highway in the sky
Men in the dunes
To Kitty Hawk
Sophomore slump
Gas bag
Where no man had gone before
Patent pioneering
The vagaries of the marketplace
The inexorable progression of knowledge
The first Brazilian aloft
Langley's legacy
Closing fast
Vindication
Orville and Selfridge
The toast of France
Trading punches
Best-laid plans
Bowing to the inevitable
Team sports
Mavericks
Faster, steeper, higher
War birds
Owning the sky
The wages of righteousness
The romance of death
A reluctant steward
A wisp of victory
The grip of the spotlight
The death of innocence.
