ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is a story about the Wright brothers and the world-changing work they did in Dayton, Ohio. Many excellent books about the Wright brothers already exist, such as Tom D. Crouch’s comprehensive and wonderfully written The Bishop’s Boys. This book tells the story with a tighter focus on what Wilbur and Orville did in and around Dayton and the places you can visit today to learn more about them and Dayton as they knew it.

Dayton is lucky to have many people who care about the story of the Wright brothers and want to share it with the pubic. Dawne Dewey, head of Wright State University Special Collections and Archives, and John L. Armstrong, Wright State archive/reference manager, gave valuable assistance in researching pictures and documents from the university’s incredible collection of Wright family materials.

Wright “B” Flyer volunteer pilot Tom Walters took me up in Wright “B” Flyer Inc.’s one-of-a-kind lookalike of a 1911 Wright Model B and helped me wrap my head around certain aeronautical concepts. The whole Wright “B” team, all volunteers, deserves thanks for maintaining, operating and supporting a machine that offers riders the wind-in-your-hair experience of pioneer flight.

Edward J. Roach, historian at Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, aided my research by sharing his not-yet-published manuscript for The Wright Company: From Invention to Industry, the first book to focus on the Wright brothers’ company.

Nancy Horlacher, local history specialist for Dayton Metro Library and the friendly staff in the library’s magazine and local history rooms helped me track down a wide variety of historical materials—even searching other libraries’ collections to find them.

Tony Sculimbrene, executive director of the National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA), recruited me to be NAHA’s communications director just as the project to preserve and restore the historic Wright Company factory site was taking off. Brad White, principal at Hull & Associates, graciously gave NAHA nearly unlimited access to the site. Wandering through the now-empty buildings, straining to hear the echoes of men and women building Wright airplanes and digging into the factory’s history is what inspired me to write this book.