Unlocking the Sky

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.

First Sentence

By midafternoon on December 8, 1903, dozens of spectators have gathered on the sunny banks of the Potomac River south of Washington D.C. They have come to glimpse the future.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Unlocking the SkyElectronic resourceHarperCollins2008-01-01
• Unlocking The SkyHarperCollins2002-09-03
• Unlocking The SkyHardcoverHarperCollins2002-09-03
• Unlocking the SkyHarper Perennial2003-09-16
• Unlocking the SkyPaperbackHarper Perennial2003-09-16
• Unlocking the SkyHarperCollins Publishers2008-01-01