The Flyers, Noah Adams
The Flyers, Noah Adams
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The Flyers
In Search of Wilbur & Orville Wright

Author: Noah Adams

Narrator: Noah Adams

Unabridged: 5 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/07/2003


Synopsis

“It takes only nineteen seconds to walk the distance of the first powered flight. But when I was there the wind was up and cold on my face, and I felt as if I’d entered the black-and-white photograph I’d been seeing all my life. The sand is light gray, there’s a spill of surf in the distance. Wilbur, running at the right of the plane, and Orville, the pilot, are in dark suits. The propellers blur against the sky as the machine rises. . . .”

So begins Noah Adams’s adventure in search of Wilbur and Orville Wright, a journey that takes him across the country as he follows in the footsteps of the famous brothers in an attempt to know them more deeply, not just as inventors and pilots but as individuals as well.

Adams, one of our most distinctive and talented storytellers, traveled thousands of miles and interviewed scores of experts and individuals to piece together his story. He finds a local boat captain to ferry him to Kitty Hawk, along the same route that Wilbur took in 1900, and spends several days talking with descendants of the families who first welcomed the Wright brothers a century ago and helped them conduct their gliding experiments. To experience first-hand the thrill of being in the air, Adams himself goes hang-gliding in the Outer Banks.

To understand the aerodynamics of lift and drag and how the famous 1903 plane was constructed, he visits Ken Hyde, a Virginia pilot and vintage aircraft builder who is creating the world’s most accurate reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer. Adams goes to the prop shop and handles the tools and materials that the Wrights used to build their gliders and planes, and later he visits the wind tunnel at Langley Air Force Base where Hyde’s reproduction was tested for the first time.

He also travels to France to visit the old racetrack at Le Mans where Wilbur startled the European aviation community with his demonstration flights in 1908, and he spends a few days at Wisconsin’s Oshkosh Fly-in, where builders of experimental aircraft and owners of vintage planes gather every year to dazzle the crowds. Adams himself takes to the air in a restored Ford Tri-Motor, America’s first airliner, which took its maiden flight seventy years ago.

In Adams’s book we encounter the Wright brothers in a way that no writer has introduced them before. Through the lens of his own experiences as well as original reporting, letters, diaries, and other primary source material, he helps us understand the talent and intensity of the brothers and their family, including the fascinating, deeply complex, and at times tragic bond between Orville and Katharine, his younger sister.

The Flyers is a wonderfully rich narrative that brings an unprecedented spirit of immediacy to one of history’s most dramatic stories.

About The Author

Noah Adams, the longtime host of All Things Considered, is a correspondent for National Public Radio. He is the author of Piano Lessons, Far Appalachia, and Saint Croix Notes. He lives in the Washington, D.C., area with his wife, Neenah Ellis.Visit www.TheFlyers-Book.com


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mariah on December 10, 2022

This book is exactly what the subtle suggests. Adams goes to where the wright brothers (and sister) went. He describes the scene and the terrain then and now. He only lightly mentions the politics and court battles but now when I read about those, I will be able to place them in a physical context.......more

Goodreads review by Lynne on October 27, 2022

Fortunately, it is not a long boring book. Honestly, my expectations were minimal but this was just a very dull read.......more

Goodreads review by Terri on March 28, 2018

I’ve read several books on the Wright Brothers and have loved all of them. This one wasn’t the best, but it was still interesting.......more

Goodreads review by Sandy on February 16, 2017

While the Wright Brothers success in building a flying machine is a historical event of the largest magnitude, this book seemed a bit dry to me. I do want to read another book on the subject since air travel has changed the world.......more

Goodreads review by Jan C on November 15, 2009

Very enjoyable and thought provoking book. I had read his previous book, Far Appalachia, which I also enjoyed. He goes great detail about some of the pictures. And I suppose he is right to. In the picture taken of the first flight he tells us about the footprints in the sand at Kill Devil Hills going......more