Unlocking the Sky

by Shulman, Seth

• ISBN13: 9780060196332
• ISBN10: 0060196335
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-08-15
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Seth Shulman has worked for two decades as a writer and editor specializing in issues of science, technology, and the environment. His work has appeared in Nature, Discover, Smithsonian, Rolling Stone, Technology Review, and the Atlantic Monthly, among many other publications. He is the author of three books. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts

Table of Contents

Prologue Langley's Folly	1	(24)
PART I REWRITING AVIATION HISTORY
Intrigue at Hammondsport	25	(16)
Wrights and Wrongs	41	(19)
America or Dust	60	(21)
PART II REACHING FOR THE SKY
Captains of the Air	81	(22)
Sky Dancing	103	(19)
Flight of the June Dug	122	(22)
Sky King	144	(25)
PART III WARPED WINGS
Grounded	169	(17)
Flight of a Hero	186	(19)
New Beginnings	205	(18)
Epilogue All But the Legacy	223	(8)
Appendix A Partial List of Inventions by Glenn Curtiss	231	(4)
Sources	235	(10)
Acknowledgments	245	(2)
Index	247