The Wright Brothers
#689 of 2,654 all-time
The Wright Brothers
David McCullough
10 people recommended it in 4 threads, 2015–2025.
What people on Hacker News said
I had no idea what it took to make flying a thing until that book. We definitely take for granted how much those two men changed the world.
Highly recommend for the exact qualities you're looking for: the mechanics of how things that we take for granted actually got built and what the world they were made in was like
one of the things most fascinating to me was their attempts to sell an airplane to the US army and other business related things. You'd think inventing the airplane would bring quick financial rewards but it was a long road.
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough - The invention of flight.
wonderful book on the Wright Brothers, easy to read, shows that persistence and logic thinking pays out.
but it focuses on the actual tasks undertaken by the Wrights as they developed their first few airplanes.
Shows how Orville and Wilbur surpassed the leading researchers of the day to be the first to achieve controlled, powered flight. Does a great job of describing their work ethic and research process.
Where it comes up
- Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things 2025 · 6 recommendations
- Ask HN: Books you read in 2015? 2015 · 2 recommendations
- Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time? 2018 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models? 2017 · 1 recommendation