Summing up the story of the Wright Brothers as told by David McCullough in his new book The Wright Brothers, New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin writes: "Relying on their imaginations, inexpensive materials, bicycle-related ideas about steering and modest sums they earned at the shop, they would ultimately embarrass the Smithsonian and its grandiose, government-funded flying experiments that were conducted on (and generally flopped right back into) the Potomac."
What a fascinating angle on the story of the invention of the airplane — that it shows a triumph of private ingenuity over big government.