Unlocking the Sky - by Seth Shulman (Paperback)

From the Back Cover

Unlocking the Sky tells the extraordinary tale of the race to design, refine, and manufacture a manned flying machine, a race that took place in the air, on the ground, and in the courtrooms of America. While the Wright brothers threw a veil of secrecy over their flying machine, Glenn Hammond Curtiss -- perhaps the greatest aviator and aeronautical inventor of all time -- freely exchanged information with engineers in America and abroad, resulting in his famous airplane, the June Bug, which made the first ever public flight in America. Fiercely jealous, the Wright brothers took to the courts to keep Curtiss and his airplane out of the sky and off the market. Ultimately, however, it was Curtiss's innovations and designs, not the Wright brothers', that served as the model for the modern airplane.

Review Quotes

"[A] compelling revision of aviation history." - Houston Chronicle

"An enlightening exploration of the dissonance of history and mythology." - New York Times Book Review

"Shulman has written a captivating story ... of aviation's earliest days." - St. Paul Star-Tribune

"Shulman tells a fascinating, fast-paced story and does an admirable job of balancing the historical scales. " - American History

"Great storytelling and a knack for rekindling all-but-forgotten historic scenes." - Boston Globe