Rating: 
Summary: Just don't read it
Review: While I am a keen reader, I am no literary expert. Ordinarily I would not write a book review of any sort. However, I felt compelled to make an exception in the case of "To Conquer the Air". Despite my enthusiasm for the subject matter, I found Tobin's style insufferably painful. He is more interested in tangential minutiae than in telling the story. For instance, he uses a single paragraph spanning almost half a page to itemize the contents of McClure's magazine simply to introduce an irrelevant character by the name of Professor Newcomb (p.117). He regularly snatches boredom from the jaws of curiosity with vignettes about the petty struggles between Bishop Wright (Wilbur and Orville's father) and breakaway factions within his church. How an author can mix ingredients like rivalry, deceit, visionary brilliance, and momentous discovery into such a disagreeable literary cocktail is beyond me.
Rating: 
Summary: Those Wright Fellows are all Right
Review: Who are the inventors of the airplane, the French, Glenn Curtiss, Samuel Langley, or the Wright Brothers?
Who were the first to fly a plane capable of turning in a complete circle in full flight?
Who struggled for years on the windy Sands of the Outer Banks, without a sponsor or any serious outside help, in those days a desolate area of sand, populated by a few peasants? (Now a highly populated beach, a retirement area, and vacationers heaven)
The toil, the work, and the expense the Wright boys went through to gradually build, from unmanned, and manned gliders, a rudimentary (to our present standards) but suitable flying machine is mind-boggling.
The author could have told his story in perhaps a 100 pages instead of the 448 utilized, however Tobin includes in his narration a lot of particulars concerning family life, the details from the lives of friends and competitors, such as inventor Samuel Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian and creator of the doomed Aerodrome; Alexander Graham Bell; Octave Chanute; and Glenn Curtiss, the brothers' foremost challenger.
Tobin recounts how the famous inventor Graham Bell, who was fascinated by the idea of a flying machine, was extremely occupied with other affairs to get involved in such demanding a task, namely designing and building from scratch a multifaceted aircraft.
The Wrights struggled for years to develop from simple gliders, which crashed several times on the sands of the Outer Banks, a more advanced power-driven plane like the one Wilbur Wright flew in 1909 circling the Statue of liberty and Manhattan. That legendary flight turned out to be their "debut in society," flight that eventually elevated the Wright brothers to the place of official inventors of the airplane.
All things considered this narration is engrossing, and in depth accurate work.
Rating:
Summary: Those Wright Fellows Were all Right
Review: Who are the inventors of the airplane, the French, Glenn Curtiss, Samuel Langley, or the Wright Brothers? Who were the first to fly a plane capable of turning in a complete circle in full flight? Who struggled for years in the windy Sands of the Outer Banks, without a sponsor or any serious outside help, in those days a desolate area of sand, populated by a few peasants? (Now a highly populated beach, a retirement area, and vacationers heaven) The toil, the work, and the expense the Wright boys went through to gradually build, from unmanned, and manned gliders, a rudimentary (to our present standards) but suitable flying machine is mind-boggling. The author could have told his story in perhaps a 100 pages instead of the 448 utilized, however Tobin includes in his narration a lot of particulars concerning family life, the details from the lives of friends and competitors, such as inventor Samuel Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian and creator of the doomed Aerodrome; Alexander Graham Bell; Octave Chanute; and Glenn Curtiss, the brothers' foremost challenger. Tobin recounts how the famous inventor Graham Bell, who was fascinated by the idea of a flying machine, was extremely occupied with other affairs to get involved in such demanding a task, namely designing and building from scratch a multifaceted aircraft. The Wrights struggled for years to develop from simple gliders, which crashed several times on the sands of the Outer Banks, a more advanced power-driven plane like the one Wilbur Wright flew in 1909 circling the Statue of liberty and Manhattan. That legendary flight turned out to be their "debut in society," flight that eventually elevated the Wright brothers to the place of official inventors of the airplane. All things considered this narration is engrossing, an in depth accurate work, and a good read.
|
