Description
Book SynopsisA fascinating window into Wilbur and Orville Wright‘s legendary Wright Company, its place in Dayton, its management struggles, and its effects on early U.S. aviation.
Trade Review“[Roach] closes a major gap in our understanding of the brothers, drawing on an untapped cache of corporate records and the scattered papers of business associates to produce a history of the Wright Company set in the larger context of American business, labor, urban, and industrial history. His book is a fresh, honest, and well-researched view of Wilbur and Orville’s experience as the president and vice president of the Wright Company, respectively, detailing the rise and fall of a firm that in different hands might have dominated an infant industry.” * Business History Review *
“The Wrights were excellent self-taught engineers who achieved success through a process more akin to tinkering than systematic research and development. They were poor businessmen, however, as this fine discussion of their stint as ‘captains of industry’ illustrates.” * American Historical Review *
“Roach has produced what will become the standard work on the subject, and
The Wright Company deepens our understanding of early American aviation history in several valuable ways. …General readers interested in these aspects of twentieth-century transport and aviation history will benefit from reading Roach’s work, as will specialists.” * Journal of Transport History *
“The book explores the one area of the career of the Wright brothers that remains least well known. It casts new light on the business career of the Wright brothers, and on the history of the Wright Company and the men who led it.… Taken as a whole, the book offers a concise and readable history of an important topic that has received all too little attention.”
“As a specialist in the history of flight for over the past 30 years, I thought I had encountered everything there was to know about the Wright Brothers and their essential role in the birth and development of the airplane and the American
aircraft industry. I was wrong. Edward J. Roach’s new book fills in many gaps in the story where none of us knew there even were gaps. This new study is a major contribution to aviation historiography.”
“A well-researched and fascinating look into an often forgotten chapter in aviation history…. This detailed biographical, corporate, and industrial history is nicely illustrated with historical photos and advertisements.” * Library Journal *
“Roach’s study digs deeper than technological and business history. By casting his narrative in an urban historical context and painting the sociocultural elements that affected the business, the author contributes to a clearer understanding of how seemingly unrelated elements affected the development of the Wright aircraft business.” * The Historian *
“Roach’s chronicle of the birth, growth, and subsequent marginalization of the Wright Company adds a new and critical piece to the story of America's most famous sibling inventors. Recommended.” * Choice *
“Edward Roach’s work The Wright Company: From Invention to Industry examines one of the least studied time periods in the brothers’ careers. Wilbur and Orville may have been brilliant intuitive engineers, but they were not brilliant intuitive entrepreneurs. Their inexperience with the world of big business, plus their energy-draining defense of their patent, left them behind as others pioneered the
aircraft industry. This book is a valuable addition to the literature on the Wright brothers and the early history of the aircraft industry in the United States.”
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The Wright Company: From Invention to Industry provides an in-depth look at the character and disposition of Wilbur and Orville Wright and the impact their lack of business acumen had on their company and the industry they were a part of. The Wright Company story leads to a better understanding of the larger emerging aviation industry of the early twentieth century.”
Table of Contents* List of Illustrations * Preface * Acknowledgments * Introduction * One: "We Will Devote...Our Time to Experimental Work" Creating the Wright Company * Two: Bringing an Aeroplane Factory to Dayton * Three: "A Substantial, Commodious, Thoroughly Modern Factory" The Wright Company Enters the Market * Four: "Our Machines Are Sold on Their Merits" Patents, Profits, and Controversy * Five: World Records for Wright Aviators The Exhibition Department * Six: To Change or Not to Change Creating New Airplanes and New Pilots * Seven: Turning Buyer Attention the Company Way Advertising * Eight: Managing the Wrights' Company * Nine: "It Is Something I Have Wanted to Do for Many Months" Exit Orville * EpilogueThe Wright Company's Legacy * Notes * Bibliography * Index
