Aloft at Last: How the Wright Brothers Made History

Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful flights in an engine-powered, heavier-than-air machine at Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903. In just 12 seconds, they accomplished a feat men had been attempting for hundreds of years. Although the odds against their success were great, the flying, as it turned out, was the easier part of their success. Achieving the credit and the financial reward for their invention took them far longer than designing and building their practical airplane. Based on her weekly Wright Brothers series for The Virginian-Pilot, Kidder explores the life and times of these famous, but often frustrated, aviation pioneers.

Freelance writer Chris Kidder, wrote for dozens of regional and national magazines and newspapers. She was the author of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, a book of Peter Hornby photography, and a former co-author of five editions of the Insiders' Guide to the Outer Banks. She lived on Roanoke Island.