Author(s): Ian Mackersey

Non-Fiction

The conquest of the air at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on 17 December 1903 was one of the supreme achievements of the twentieth century. Two unknown American bicycle mechanics, Wilbur and Orville Wright, launched the first successful powered aeroplane, and changed the world forever.

On the centennial of the historic first flights, biographer Ian Mackersey offers this fascinating new study of the little-known lives of these eccentric geniuses. Wilbur and Orville Wright were two brothers who never smoked, drank or had a shred of interest in women, but whose exceptionally close relationship bound them into one uniquely inventive power. Theirs was a brilliance that unlocked the secrets of flight to realise one of man's oldest dreams.