Rating: 
Summary: A Revisionist Read, A Foolishly Weird Book of errors, fun
Review: Best part of this book is the insight into Prof. Langley's preparation of the Aerodrome & it's failure to fly. this for those uninitiated with Samuel Langley. Also good the Curtiss flight from Albany to NYC in May 1910. But reader Beware!STICKLING FOR ACCURACY p.46 Shulman writes Katharine Wright being Orville's older sister.
-Orville was older than Katharine by 3 years. They both had the same birthday August 19. p.97 Shulman makes claim that a wing's 'camber' & the effect of 'pitch' are one in the same.
-They are not. They are two totally different things. p.100 The text here says Curtiss & both Wright Bros. didn't school past 8th grade.
-Not True! Both Wrights graduated High School. p.102 It's noted here that the Dirigible enjoyed a brief era at the turn or the Century, early 1900s.
-Dirigibles were popular, especially the Zeppelins, up to the late 1930s. p.106 Shulman correctly states the Wrights sent the crankshaft & flywheel from their 1903 Flyer's engine to the Aero Club of America for a 1906 exhibition.
-He doesn't mention that the Aero Club never sent the crankshaft & flywheel back to the Wrights & they remain lost! p.110 Thomas Selfridge is stated to be a US Army Aviation Expert in 1907.
-Selfridge, in 1907, was a 1903 graduate of West Point, had never flown any aerial vehicle(until 1908) and perhaps not an 'expert' in aviation since there was basically no aviation to be expert in...(fixed wing flight was just being born). However Douglas MacArthur was A West Point classmate of Selfridge's. p.134 The credit at the bottom of this page detailing how the AEA learned of aileron usage.
-Gibbs-Smith also stated(elsewhere)that info. about the Wrights' glider activities had been divulged by Octave Chanute himself perhaps to his good friend Dr Bell & certainly to the European aviation community from 1903 onwards. (Chanute had been a visitor to Kitty Hawk in 1901 & 1902). p.160 The text says the Wrights wing warping & rudder method worked only when inter-connected.
-Not True! The Wrights successfully separated wing warping & rudder control in 1905. p.161 the author makes a stupid analogy comparing the turbulence Curtiss's Rheims Flyer was encountering to an automoble hitting a boulder.
-If one hits a boulder at high speed in an auto one would be very dead. You don't repeatedly hit a boulder with a car at high speed & stay alive. pgs.
174-176 These three pages about comparison to an early automobile patent.
-The author is mixing apples & oranges. This has nothing to do with the Wrights' 'FLYING MACHINE' patent. pg.176 Henry Ford ....Big Deal!
-In 1909 Ford was just another up & coming auto maker. One of many. The Model T was only a year old & not mass produced until 1913. p.177 Wing Warping & Rudder connections
-The Wrights' patent is explicit about the coordinated effect of rudder & wing warping. No matter the controls are connected or not. p.189 Text mentions an 'airtight metal pontoon'
-Pontoons should always be 'watertight' one would think. p.191 author states no airplane of the time(May 1910)could carry enough fuel to cover the 150 miles nonstop from Albany to NYC.
-Henri Farman in 1909 kept his prototype Farman III in the air for 113 miles circling a flying field in France. With bigger gas tanks this mileage could be increased. p.192 A Dr Taylor responding to Curtiss's request for a landing spot at his Insane Asylum Grounds. -This bit is funny & amusing. You'll have to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Who is Curtiss? I'm still not sure!
Review: Glenn Hammond Curtiss appears to be a fascinating and underrated participant in the development of human flight. Unfortunately, I don't feel I know much more about him after reading "Unlocking The Sky" than I did before. For whatever reason, Seth Shulman seems more interested in attacking the Wright Brothers (apparrently for what could be considered simply protecting their ideas and inventions) than in describing Curtiss's acccomplishments. I've seen many errors and unfair comments pointed out in other reviews by folks with much more knowledge of aeronautics and flight history than I have. To this list I'll add (or point out again, if its already been covered) Shulman's constant mocking of the Wrights for some of their ideas that became "obsolete" some time later. Should we also mock Alexander Graham Bell because we moved on to dial telephones, touch tone phones, cordless phones, and then cell phones? Or more to the point, should we mock Curtiss for his courageous and historic flight over New York because such a flight became routine in a relatively short time? 2 stars for what information one can gleam about Curtiss from this book. No more because of the bizarre Wright bashing. This being said, I recommend this book along with James Tobin's "To Conquer the Air" (instead of using the "instead of" option), for two differing views of the Wright Brothers.
Rating:
Summary: Who is Curtiss? I'm still not sure!
Review: Glenn Hammond Curtiss appears to be a fascinating and underrated participant in the development of human flight. Unfortunately, I don't feel I know much more about him after reading "Unlocking The Sky" than I did before. For whatever reason, Seth Shulman seems more interested in attacking the Wright Brothers (apparrently for what could be considered simply protecting their ideas and inventions) than in describing Curtiss's acccomplishments. I've seen many errors and unfair comments pointed out in other reviews by folks with much more knowledge of aeronautics and flight history than I have. To this list I'll add (or point out again, if its already been covered) Shulman's constant mocking of the Wrights for some of their ideas that became "obsolete" some time later. Should we also mock Alexander Graham Bell because we moved on to dial telephones, touch tone phones, cordless phones, and then cell phones? Or more to the point, should we mock Curtiss for his courageous and historic flight over New York because such a flight became routine in a relatively short time? 2 stars for what information one can gleam about Curtiss from this book. No more because of the bizarre Wright bashing. This being said, I recommend this book along with James Tobin's "To Conquer the Air" (instead of using the "instead of" option), for two differing views of the Wright Brothers.
Rating: 
Summary: Dissappointing
Review: I expected this book to present a thorough examination of Glen Curtis's life and and his role in the development of early aviation. Instead the author provided a cursory and rather disjointed biography of Curtis concentrating on his patent dispute with the Wrights. It seems to be a somewhat rushed job content to make the point that Curtis's open style of innovation produced far more significant results than the Wrights' secretive and obstructionist course. Most of Curtis's accomplishments are relegated to an appendix in the back of the book almost as an afterthought. I would have preferred that these many critical contributions to the development of the airplane received a more expansive treatment in the narrative. This book is acceptable as an introduction to the life of Glen Curtis but is in no way the full tale.
Rating: 
Summary: Hero of flight
Review: I read this book at one sitting--couldn't put it down. It is a wonderful illustration of how complex the history of an invention can be, how much of what you think you know is wrong and incomplete, and the role that repetition plays in forming your understanding of events that occurred a long time ago. Shulman tells an exciting story here, and provides plenty of muscle in making the case that Curtiss not only made some outstanding contributions to early aviation, but in some ways eclipsed those of the secretive, monopolistic Wright brothers. The patent fights between the Wrights, Curtiss and the rest of the early aviators is told with enough detail that you can get the sense of the times, without getting unnecessarily bogged down in a morass of detail. While I appreciate the pioneering of the Wrights, the openness of Curtiss in sharing his patents and inventions seems quite admirable to me. The part about Curtiss getting Langley's aerodrome flying was something entirely new to me, and the feud that the Wrights had with the Smithsonian over their cooperation with Curtiss, leading them to send their flyer to a British museum, a revelation. All of these men were humans, and had miserable failings, but remain heroes to me.
Rating:
Summary: Hero of flight
Review: I read this book at one sitting--couldn't put it down. It is a wonderful illustration of how complex the history of an invention can be, how much of what you think you know is wrong and incomplete, and the role that repetition plays in forming your understanding of events that occurred a long time ago. Shulman tells an exciting story here, and provides plenty of muscle in making the case that Curtiss not only made some outstanding contributions to early aviation, but in some ways eclipsed those of the secretive, monopolistic Wright brothers. The patent fights between the Wrights, Curtiss and the rest of the early aviators is told with enough detail that you can get the sense of the times, without getting unnecessarily bogged down in a morass of detail. While I appreciate the pioneering of the Wrights, the openness of Curtiss in sharing his patents and inventions seems quite admirable to me. The part about Curtiss getting Langley's aerodrome flying was something entirely new to me, and the feud that the Wrights had with the Smithsonian over their cooperation with Curtiss, leading them to send their flyer to a British museum, a revelation. All of these men were humans, and had miserable failings, but remain heroes to me.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic! A real page turner...
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The first reviewer might be correct in saying that the author could have provided more details on the many innovations Curtiss made to flying machines, but I never thought about it until I read his review. The book is really enjoyable as it is. I agree that you don't have to be an airplane buff to enjoy this. It is just a good read. I had no idea prior to reading this book that advancement in manned flight progressed so quickly at the beginning of the century. I don't believe that type of progress has been seen since. I'd recommend this book to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Great read and it helps take you into the social settings
Review: I was actually reading this book while visiting Kitty Hawk, NC. I'm amazed how bitter and close minded people still are. The Wright Brothers did some amazing things. After they solved the basic problems they then went and hid for a few years to lock up patents and hold a monopoly on air travel. The French are passionate about their version of who invented flight. I think a lot of people were solving the same problem once light gas engines were put into the equation. I personally think the Wright brothers had a very clever control system but the wing warping and how it was tied into the rudder was pretty dangerous. Glen Curtis put wheels and pontoons on an airplane. He also flew the first flight AND won at the Rheim fly in beat three other Wright flyers which came in last. The fight over aviation reminds me some of the fight with computers. Thankfully in aviation no one owned a monopoly so traveling by plane is safer than any other mode of transportation statistically. Hopefully my computer will not crash on me before I finish this review. :-)
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting look at impact of patents
Review: In the epilogue the author writes "At its core, the long, bitter fight between Glenn Curtis and the Wright brothers pitted the virtues of open, shared access to innovation [Curtis] against the driving economic pressure for monopoly ownersip [Wrights]." This sentence really summarizes the book. It is more about patents and legal wrangling than about aviation. But the topic of patents and how they are interpreted is important to today's world and many would argue (although the author does not get into this) that a similar battle is taking place today in the information world, in particular with Microsoft playing the part of the Wright brothers. The book is fairly short and a worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book
Review: Probably the best book on aviation I've read in a long time. The author's story approach is terrific, and he combines that with a tremendous talent for writing prose that teases you ahead with every line. You won't put the book down until you've completed it. If you didn't know who Glenn Curtiss was, you will by the end of the book. And you won't be disappointed.
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