Wind and Sand: The Story of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk

by Lynanne & Paula Degen Wescott, Paula Degen

The Wright Brothers story of the first powered flight as told through their own words and pictures.

Genres: History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1984

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The camp near Kitty Hawk

Opening: Few great inventors have left behind them so complete and enthralling a record of their work and their thoughts, or seen their triumph ignored for so long as did the Wright brothers, the unassuming, persistent bicycle mechanics of Dayton, Ohio. The sharp clear photographs alone would be a great achievement, especially since they made them with their own hands, employing the bulky equipment of the period, on glass plates. The collection in this absorbing book, together with its extracts from the Wright diaries and letters, deals mainly with the four crucial years, from 1900 through 1903, in which they developed the world's first successful airplane. They called it a "flying machine" without comic intent, since in the usage of the day an "aeroplane" was merely a wing, a fragile, cambered, cloth-covered wooden frame. The setting is the remote, thinly-settled, windswept Outer Banks of North Carolina.

This is a short yet fascinating history of those flight experiments and final breakthrough in the years 1900-1903 in Kill Devil Hills. Mainly letters and diary entries from the brothers. Hattip to Wandaful for the memorial park link.











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[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know why I didn't have high expectations for this book but I thoroughly enjoyed it! I love the selected photographs (and the size of them) and excerpts from letters, diaries, and lectures. I also love that it was broken down into years.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The photos in this book are fantastic. The fact that there are so many from the period is amazing, although the brothers were fastidious in documenting everything they did, including being their own photos with exposure and aperture notes. They help bring the story to life. Then the text fills in the details to tell the tale of the first motorized flight. A great way to learn about the events before and after December 1903.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

great pictures and text mostly from Wright Brothers letters and diaries