Unlocking the Sky : Glenn Hammond Curtiss and the Race to Invent the Airplane

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Summary: what a great story!
Review: This is a fantastic book about a little-known inventor and entrepreneur who helped change the world. It has excitement, wonderful, colorful tales of adventure, plus I learned a whole new side of the origin of the airplane. The author did a very nice job of evoking the period: a lot of amazing people like Alexander Graham Bell and Henry Ford swirl through this tale focusing on aviation great Glenn Curtiss. I would highly recommend this book even if you're not an aviation buff. I don't know what some of the other picky reviewers are quibbling about. I just really enjoyed this story and the way it was written. There's also a great review that first drew my attention to it in the Boston Globe.

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Summary: a great tale of adventure
Review: This is a fun, exciting and entertaining book--one of the best nonfiction stories I've read. Glenn Curtiss had an amazing life and overcame an astounding set of obstacles to make a major contribution to the modern airplane. Best of all, Shulman is able to bring the story alive--deepening and broadening our understanding of how the airplane came to be and how technologies evolve. You don't have to be an aviation buff or even a history lover to thoroughly enjoy this page-turning tale. I highly recommend it.

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Summary: Terrific
Review: This is a terrific book. You'll see other reviewers trying to rationalize their way out of having their view of the Wrights altered. If I found any shortcomings in this book, they would be (1) there's an awful lot more it could have covered about Curtiss (but Shulman himself directs the reader to "Glenn Curtis, Pioneer of Flight" by Roseberry), and (2) more could be said about the good things the Wright brothers did (but we have shelves full of books about that). The work the Wrights did leading up to, and including, the 1903 flight was great. While they didn't invent wing warping, or the biplane design, they deserve a great deal of credit for how they worked through the problems of getting a plane to fly. Their skill as aviators, alone, would justify them a place in history. (Their planes killed enough other people to prove just what good flyers the Wrights themselves must have been.) It's sad that they then became locked into the view that, having found one solution to the stability problem, they had exclusive rights to all solutions. That their ridiculously broad patent was ever granted, and even worse that it was upheld, proves a lot about what was wrong with the patent system. (And still is.) But instead of actively participating in the worldwide explosion of aircraft development, they pursued a most unadmirable path of secrecy and monopoly. Even when it became clear that world was simply leaving them behind, they wouldn't give it up. It's also extremely sad that at least some of the mud that an old and bitter Orville slung at Curtiss has unfairly stuck. However, whatever you believe, I highly recommend that you read this book and then decide for yourself. History is NEVER as simplistic as what we were all taught in gradeschool. There's far too much intriguing information in this book to let anyone else's opinion make you pass it by.

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Summary: Unwaiveringly BIASED and UNBALANCED
Review: Throughout this book Mr. Shulman denigrates the contribution of the Wright Brothers. His bias is so prevalent throughout the book that I found myself shaking my head as I read blatantly contradictory statements within 5 lines of each other. The author's opinions and accusations are either based on his limited research or his intentional omission of fact. If you're even considering buying this book, I would direct you to the author's own words following a completely inane paragraph of conjecture about Orville Wright............"Or perhaps not." That about sums up this biased inaccurate ploy concealed in the history section.

Rating:
Summary: Unwaiveringly BIASED and UNBALANCED
Review: Throughout this book Mr. Shulman denigrates the contribution of the Wright Brothers. His bias is so prevalent throughout the book that I found myself shaking my head as I read blatantly contradictory statements within 5 lines of each other. The author's opinions and accusations are either based on his limited research or his intentional omission of fact. If you're even considering buying this book, I would direct you to the author's own words following a completely inane paragraph of conjecture about Orville Wright............"Or perhaps not." That about sums up this biased inaccurate ploy concealed in the history section.

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Summary: Curtiss Still an Enigma
Review: With this book's sub-title of Glenn Hammond Curtiss and the Race to Invent the Airplane I had hoped that it would tell me more than it does about the complicated character of Curtiss. While Shulman's description and insights of the Wright/Curtiss legal battles are good, Shulman never seems to quite get his arms fully around Curtiss as a man.