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In the American imagination, Wilbur and Orville Wright are "earnest, young bicycle builders who attacked an age-old technological problem with fresh, ingenious thinking and dedication." There is plenty of truth to this, writes Seth Shulman, but it also obscures an important fact: The first flyers were so secretive and desperate to cash in on their invention that their behavior actually "retarded" the development of aviation. One of their most brutish acts involved a punishing legal fight with Glenn Hammond Curtiss, the inventor of the aileron (wing flaps that stabilize an aircraft in flight), retractable landing gear, pontoons, and much else. Unlocking the Sky suggests that Curtiss deserves at least near-equal billing with the brothers from Dayton. He performed the first public flight in the United States, sold the first commercial airplane, and piloted the first flight from one American city to another. "Curtiss surely belongs in the pantheon of America's greatest entrepreneurial inventors," writes Shulman. Yet he's virtually forgotten today, except by aficionados of aviation history. He comes across as a pioneering hero on these pages--and the Wright brothers as thuggish would-be monopolizers. This may be revisionist history, but it's a history that perhaps could stand revising. --John J. Miller
From Publishers Weekly
Journalist Shulman (Owning the Future) gives readers a jumbled but compelling revision to accepted aviation history in this study of American aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss. A bicycle builder like the Wright brothers, he was second into the air (1908), but invented more of modern aviation technology and built better airplanes. This did not keep the Wrights (particularly Orville) from suing Curtiss on the questionable ground that their patent gave them a monopoly of airplane building in the U. S. Shulman's account presents Curtiss as the Little Guy vs. the Corporate Monopolists and uses "non-fiction novel" techniques (e.g., assigning Curtiss present-tense internal dialogue) in a way that calls unnecessary attention to them. It also tries to cram too many subjects into a modest length, but in the end it succeeds in offering the general reader an up-to-date overview of Curtiss's remarkable achievements. 8-page b&w photo insert.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Catching the wave of current anti-Wright scholarship as exemplified by Herbert A. Johnson's Wingless Eagle: U.S. Army Aviation Through World War I, this study reviews the remarkable public career of Glenn Hammond Curtiss and his bitter legal feud with Orville and Wilbur Wright, a contest (1909-17) that pitted the virtues of open, shared access to technological change against the powerful economic force of monopoly ownership. Shulman charges that the Wright patent suits discouraged aeronautical experimentation, dampened potential investment in the industry, and contributed to America's unpreparedness on the eve of World War I. In contrast to Dayton's "greedy spoilers," Shulman's subject emerges as a man of energy and genius whose accomplishments include being the first to make a public flight, the first to fly from one city to another, the first to receive a pilot's license, the first to sell a commercial airplane, the first to design and build an aircraft that would fly the Atlantic Ocean (in May 1919, predating Charles Lindbergh by eight years), the originator of 500 inventions, and the favored recipient of aviation's highest awards. Shulman's facile writing style and gift for presenting a suspenseful narrative more than compensate for his somewhat idolatrous approach to Curtiss's life. Recommended for all aviation collections, especially in public libraries. John Carver Edwards, Univ. of Georgia Libs., ClevelandCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Scientific American
The list of Glenn Hammond Curtiss’s achievements as a major figure in the early history of aviation is long and impressive. He was, journalist Shulman writes, "the first to make a public flight in the United States, the first to sell a commercial airplane, the first to fly from one American city to another, and the first to receive a U.S. pilot license, to name just a few of his accomplishments." Shulman makes his biography a suspense story by tracing Curtiss’s long and bitter legal battle with Orville Wright, who charged Curtiss (and many others) with patent infringement. "Ultimately, the case would cripple the development of the youthful aviation industry, especially in the United States." Now, however, one can see that a number of Curtiss’s "seminal contributions are still in use in airplanes today, including everything from wing flaps and retractable landing gear to the enclosed cockpit and the design of the pontoons used on seaplanes," whereas "virtually none of the Wright brothers’ aeronautical designs has stood the test of time."
Editors of Scientific American
From Booklist
Shulman presents the story of Glenn Curtiss, a leader during the fledgling decade of aviation, which saw the airplane extend its flying range from 100-foot hops in 1903 to 100-mile cruises by 1914. Iconic to aviation acolytes but without the Wright brothers' wider fame, Curtiss was in the forefront of aviation design. To lend the story vibrancy, Shulman relates it in the present tense, enhancing the sense that although air flight was an inevitable technological development in the abstract, in actuality it was the outcome of much trial and error by several experimenters. There's no gainsaying the Wrights' first achievement of flight, but Shulman dramatizes how Curtiss rapidly outdistanced them technologically. The Wrights' innovations were obsolete by Wilbur's death in 1912, whereas many of Curtiss' inventions, such as ailerons and retractable landing gear, became lasting elements in aircraft design. With the Kitty Hawk centenary approaching, Shulman's lively work provides balance to the celebration. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
From Book News, Inc.
A prolific writer on science, technology, and the environment, Shulman recounts the efforts during the early 20th century to design and fly a heavier-than-air vehicle, but more important, the battle to control the right to use or sell the technology. Among those sharing the stage with Curtiss are Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Samuel P. Langley, and of course those Wright boys.Book News, Inc.®, Portland, OR
American History
Shulman tells a fascinating, fast-paced story and does an admirable job of balancing the historical scales.
New York Times Book Review
An enlightening exploration of the dissonance of history and mythology
Boston Globe
Great storytelling and a knack for rekindling all-but-forgotten historic scenes.
Book Description
Unlocking the Sky tells the extraordinary tale of the race to design, refine, and manufacture a manned flying machine, a race that took place in the air, on the ground, and in the courtrooms of America. While the Wright brothers threw a veil of secrecy over their flying machine, Glenn Hammond Curtiss -- perhaps the greatest aviator and aeronautical inventor of all time -- freely exchanged information with engineers in America and abroad, resulting in his famous airplane, the June Bug, which made the first ever public flight in America. Fiercely jealous, the Wright brothers took to the courts to keep Curtiss and his airplane out of the sky and off the market. Ultimately, however, it was Curtiss's innovations and designs, not the Wright brothers', that served as the model for the modern airplane.
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