The Wright brothers’ real story, cosmic chronology, and what happened to the megafauna: Books in brief

Abstract

Wright Brothers, Wrong Story William Hazelgrove Prometheus (2018) In December 1903, the first 12 seconds of controlled, human-powered flight took place near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. That triumph is engraved in history; less so, the story of Wilbur and Orville Wright, the uber-geeks behind it. In this gripping dual biography, William Hazelgrove argues that theirs was no partnership of equals, as Orville claimed: it was Wilbur who rewrote the science of aeronautics. Hazelgrove delves into their experimental tinkering and family dynamics, but the real story here is that, as he eloquently puts it, one brother was a poet, and the other a scribe.