Following the footsteps of the Wright brothers involves several well-trod trails. First I would like to thank the good folks at the Wright Memorial in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Then, of course, the staff of the manuscript division of the Library of Congress, for access to the papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Dayton Public Library and the archivist at the National Air and Space Museum. The Smithsonian, for allowing me to examine the Wright Flyer from 1903, and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, for an amazing visit to the Wright family home and Wright bicycle shop. Of course to Steven L. Mitchell and the good folks at Prometheus Books, for having the vision that a book on the Wright brothers requires. To my family, for support and everything else that keeps a writer above his garage. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, for taking their recalcitrant son to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, for many family vacations, which included numerous trips to see where the Wright brothers flew. My fascination began there.