I recently finished reading "The Wright Brothers" by David McCullough
1. After reading the biography on the Wright Brothers, a duo I knew almost nothing about, there were lots of pieces of information that surprised me in the text. One that really surprised me was the sheer amount of innovation and improvements of past models they made together that were unheard of at the time that contributed to their achievement of first ever successful human aircraft flight such as their improvements over the Zeppelin Airship and the invention of the wing-warping glider. I admired their dedication to their goal and how willing they were to put themselves in danger to test out their planes. What I least admired was that they refused to donate their famous "flyer" aircraft into the Smithsonian museum. There was much adversity and failure in regards to their goals. Many newspaper outlets published their failures and they were frequently ridiculed by peers, they also suffered many failures attempting to make the plane, even being involved in the first aircraft crash, but not getting seriously injured.
2. The Wright Brothers had many competencies that are worth sharing, but I think that their strongest competency was their innovation and drive. They worked on air crafts for several years before finally building the first successful one in 1900.
3. I was confused when it got a little technical with the building of the airplanes. I am not too familiar with the structure and all of the names of the plane parts they used and those parts were a little confusing to comprehend
4. How confident were you when you tried the airplane out for the first time? I want to know because they are putting their lives in real danger by testing out these new airborne inventions.
Did you think this was going to transform the way humans would travel long distances forever? I want to know if they were aware of the extent of their achievements.
5. I am sure that the Wright brothers believed in hard work as one of the most important things a person can do. Without putting in serious effort, they never would have invented one of the most important inventions of the 20th century.
I read this book for the first reading reflection and thought it was a great read. I like the questions you would have asked them. I remember feeling that they were so ahead of their time on so many things. I agree that hard work was one of the most incredible things that they did over the course of inventing and improving not only the mechanics of the flying machine, but also their mastery of the art of flying. Glad you go to read this one.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds really interesting. The Wright brothers are a perfect examples of learning from failures and to work hard to achieve what you want. I have heard their story yet I feel like I should also read this book to know more about them.
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