Kitty Hawk, December 17, 1903

Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, Dedication of the Wright brothers home and shop in Greenfield village, Dearborn, Michigan, April sixteen, nineteen hundred thirty-eight., 1938?

Taking to the Skies: The Wright Brothers and the Birth of Aviation:

On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers were the first men in history to make powered, sustained and controlled flights in an airplane. The machine, engine and propellers were all of their own design and construction. It was bitterly cold that morning and a gusty 27 mile-per-hour wind scoured the sand dunes. It seemed unsafe to try their flying machine but Orville and Wilbur Wright decided to start from the level ground before their camp. As was typical of all of their efforts, the Wright brothers carefully and methodically made their preparations.

The Flyers: In Search of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Adams, Noah. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2003. 

Inventing Flight: the Wright Brothers and Their Predecessors. Anderson, John David.Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.

Gentleman Amateurs: An Appreciation of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Bernstein, Mark and Ron Rollins (Editor). Dayton, OH: Dayton Daily News, 2002. 

The Bishop's Boys: A Life of the Wright Brothers. Crouch, Tom. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2003. 

First Flight: The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Airplane. Crouch, Tom. Harpers Ferry, WV: National Park Service Division of Publications, 2002. 

Kitty Hawk and Beyond: The Wright Brothers and the Early Years of Aviation - a Photographic History.Geibert, Ronald et al.Lanham, MD: Roberts Rinehart Publisher, 2003.

First to Fly: The Unlikely Triumph of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Tobin, James. London: John Murray, 2003. 

To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight.Tobin, James.Riverside, NJ: Simon & Schuster, 2004.

How We Invented the Airplane: An Illustrated History. Wright, Orville and Wilbur Wright. Minneola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1998. 

Miracle at Kitty Hawk: The Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Wright, Wilbur and Orville Wright, Fred C Kelly. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, Inc., 2002.

A short film of Wilbur Wright in 1909 can be viewed here.—Elizabeth Periale

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