The Flying Men and Their Impact on Literature. Speaks of Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright

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Who knows when a human first dreamed of flying like a bird . It is important to

recognize flying, its effect on people and their communication has changed because of flight. I

believe that the invention of airplanes just enhanced the way people communicate and how they

relate. Literature as a form of communication, was one of the many things that was only

improved by the invention of the airplane, because of several reasons.

Who invented the airplane? Orville Wright (1871 - 1948) and Wilbur Wright (1867 -

1912) American airplane inventors, brothers. 'Their interest in flying aroused by Lilienthal's

glider flights of 1890's.'(Rosenblum 7). In addition to Lilienthal's influence, between the time

Langley flew his scale models and the time his full-size Aerodrome plunged into the Potomac

River, the two bicycle builders from Dayton, Ohio were busy experimenting with gliders. Wilbur

and Orville Wright had first becomed interested in flying machines as children when their father

brought home a whirling toy .

Fascinated, they wound up the rubber band on the cork and paper

toy to watch it fly again and again. They built and flew their own versions. 'Throughout their

lives, the brothers experimented with mechanical things Wilbur would come up with the ideas

and Orville would analyse and implement them.' (McMahon 23).

The two brothers opened a shop in 1896 to build and repair bicycles. The same year,

Otto Lilienthal was killed when his glider crashed and the Wrights began to search the problems

of human flight. After reading all the information they could find in Dayton, Wilbur wrote to the

Smithsonian Instituion to ask for all the information it had on aeronautics. The brothers showed

pure dedication. They read books, works by Lilienthal's The Problem of flying, Practical

Experiments in Soaring, Chanute's Process in Flying Machines,