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Wright Brothers
- History of Their Reputation, Invention, and First Flight
- Narrated by: Chris Newman
- Length: 1 hr
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Wright Brothers
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Publisher's summary
Orville and Wilbur Wright were 2 American air travel leaders who are commonly credited with developing, structure, and flying the world's first effective motor-driven plane. On December seventeenth, 1903, four miles (6 kilometers) south of Cat Hawk, North Carolina, they made the first regulated, supported flight of a powered, heavier-than-air airplane with the Wright Leaflet. The brothers were also the first to develop airplane controls, leading the way for fixed-wing powered flight.
The Wright brothers customized their flying device, the Wright Leaflet II, in the year 1904 to 1905, to perform longer-running and more aerodynamic flights, followed by the Wright Leaflet III, the first totally useful fixed-wing airplane.
Their preliminary patent in the USA didn't claim to be the creation of a flying device, but rather a system of aerodynamic control that customized the surface areas of a flying automobile.
Let’s see what else happened in their lives, and how they have impacted our civilization with their keen aviation skills.
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-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
Wilbur and Orville Wright are two of the greatest innovators in history, and together they solved the centuries-old riddle of powered, heavier-than-air flight. Glenn Hammond Curtiss was the most talented machinist of his day; he first became the fastest man alive when he perfected the motorcycle, then turned his eyes toward the skies to become the fastest man aloft. But between the Wrights and Curtiss bloomed a poisonous rivalry and a patent war so powerful that it shaped aviation in its early years and drove one of the three men to his grave.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Exceptional
- By Ken on 05-16-15
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Stealth
- The Secret Contest to Invent Invisible Aircraft
- By: Peter Westwick
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 97
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 86
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 86
On a moonless night in January 1991, a dozen US aircraft appeared in the skies over Baghdad. To the Iraqi air defenses, the planes seemed to come from nowhere. Each aircraft was more than 60 feet in length and with a wingspan of 40 feet, yet its radar footprint was the size of a ball bearing. Here was the first extensive combat application of Stealth technology. And it was devastating.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good Overview of the original development
- By Amazon Customer on 08-01-22
By: Peter Westwick
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Chasing the Demon
- A Secret History of the Quest for the Sound Barrier, and the Band of American Aces Who Conquered It
- By: Dan Hampton
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 195
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 175
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Story4 out of 5 stars 174
In the aftermath of World War II, the United States accelerated the development of technologies that would give it an advantage over the Soviet Union. Airpower, combined with nuclear weapons, offered a formidable check on Soviet aggression. In 1947, the United States Air Force was established. Meanwhile, scientists and engineers were pioneering a revolutionary new type of aircraft which could do what no other machine had ever done: reach mach 1 - a speed faster than the movement of sound - which pilots called "the demon."
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not at all what it purports to be
- By John A Stevenson on 11-20-18
By: Dan Hampton
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Harnessing the Sky
- Frederick "Trap" Trapnell, the U.S. Navy's Aviation Pioneer, 1923-1952
- By: Frederick M. Trapnell Jr., Dana Trapnell Tibbitts
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
A pilot of calculated courage, "Trap" entered the Navy when test pilots were more like stuntmen than engineers. Airplanes had not yet come into their own as weapons of war, and they had an undeveloped role in the fleet. His vision and leadership shaped the evolution of naval aviation through its formative years and beyond. When the threat of war in 1940 raised an alarm over the Navy's deficiency in aircraft - especially fighters - Trap was appointed to lead the Flight Test Section to direct the development of all-new Navy airplanes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Superb Book
- By Peter H. Christensen on 09-27-19
By: Frederick M. Trapnell Jr., and others
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Last Days of the Concorde
- The Crash of Flight 4590 and the End of Supersonic Passenger Travel
- By: Samme Chittum
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 83
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
On July 25, 2000, a Concorde, the world's fastest passenger plane, was taking off from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris when it suddenly burst into flames. An airliner capable of flying at more than twice the speed of sound, the Concorde had completed 25 years of successful flights, whisking wealthy passengers - from diplomats to rock stars to corporate titans - between continents on brief and glamorous flights. Yet on this fateful day, the chartered Concorde jet, en route to America, crashed and killed all 109 passengers and crew onboard and four people on the ground.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Solid Introduction
- By Reggie on 03-03-19
By: Samme Chittum
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Empires of the Sky
- Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men's Epic Duel to Rule the World
- By: Alexander Rose
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 22 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 206
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 184
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Story5 out of 5 stars 184
At the dawn of the 20th century, when human flight was still considered an impossibility, Germany’s Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin vied with the Wright Brothers to build the world’s first successful flying machine. As the Wrights labored to invent the airplane, Zeppelin fathered the remarkable airship, sparking a bitter rivalry between the two types of aircraft and their innovators that would last for decades, in the quest to control one of humanity’s most inspiring achievements. And it was the airship—not the airplane—that led the way.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Actually, a One-Sided Story
- By JP on 08-03-20
By: Alexander Rose
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The Great Air Race
- Death, Glory, and the Dawn of American Aviation
- By: John Lancaster
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 103
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
The incredible, untold story of the men who risked their lives in the first transcontinental air contest—and put American aviation on the map.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Very entertaining/informative book
- By D. Littman on 12-09-22
By: John Lancaster
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Fly by Wire
- The Geese, the Glide, the Miracle on the Hudson
- By: William Langewiesche
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
On January 15, 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport in New York when a flock of Canada Geese collided with it, destroying both of its engines. The plane's pilot, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, managed to glide it to a safe landing in the Hudson River. It was an instant media sensation---the "Miracle on the Hudson"---and Captain Sully was the hero. But how much of the success of this dramatic landing can actually be credited to the genius of the pilot?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Abridgement
- By Roy on 04-27-10
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The Flight of the Century: Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of American Aviation
- Oxford University Press: Pivotal Moments in US History
- By: Thomas Kessner
- Narrated by: Bob McGraw
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 70
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4 out of 5 stars 58
In late May 1927 an inexperienced and unassuming 25-year-old Air Mail pilot from rural Minnesota stunned the world by making the first non-stop transatlantic flight. A spectacular feat of individual daring and collective technological accomplishment, Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris ushered in America's age of commercial aviation.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Flawed but Worthwhile
- By Ray Daniels on 11-11-22
By: Thomas Kessner
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The Flight 981 Disaster
- Tragedy, Treachery, and the Pursuit of Truth
- By: Samme Chittum
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
On June 12, 1972, a powerful explosion rocked American Airlines Flight 96 a mere five minutes after its takeoff from Detroit. The explosion ripped a gaping hole in the bottom of the aircraft and jammed the hydraulic controls. Miraculously, despite the damage and ensuing chaos, the pilots were able to land the plane safely. Less than two years later, on March 3, 1974, a sudden, forceful blowout tore through Turk Hava Yollari (THY) Flight 981 from Paris to London. THY Flight 981 was not as lucky as Flight 96: it crashed in a forest in France.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Fill fill fill...
- By Rodney on 02-15-22
By: Samme Chittum
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Drive!
- Henry Ford, George Selden, and the Race to Invent the Auto Age
- By: Lawrence Goldstone
- Narrated by: Christopher Price
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
From the acclaimed author of Birdmen comes a revelatory new history of the birth of the automobile - an illuminating and entertaining true tale of invention, competition, and the visionaries, hustlers, and swindlers who came together to transform the world. With a narrative as propulsive as its subject, Drive! plunges us headlong into a time unlike any in history, when manic innovation and consumerist zeal coalesced to forever change the way people got from one place to another.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Ford Detractor.
- By Eric Johnston on 08-15-22
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To Conquer the Air
- The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight
- By: James Tobin
- Narrated by: Boyd Gaines
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
To Conquer the Air is a hero's tale of overcoming obstacles within and without that plumbs the depths of creativity and character. With a historian's accuracy and a novelist's eye, Tobin has captured the interplay of remarkable personalities at an extraordinary moment in our history. In the centennial year of human flight, To Conquer the Air is itself a heroic achievement.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A great story
- By Jere on 05-30-03
By: James Tobin
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The Crash Detectives
- Investigating the World's Most Mysterious Air Disasters
- By: Christine Negroni
- Narrated by: Christine Negroni
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 274
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 247
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Story4 out of 5 stars 245
In The Crash Detectives, veteran aviation journalist and air safety investigator Christine Negroni takes us inside crash investigations from the early days of the jet age to the present, including the search for answers about what happened to the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. As Negroni dissects what happened and why, she explores their common themes and, most important, what has been learned from them to make planes safer.
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2 out of 5 stars
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MISSLEADING TITLE.
- By Daniel Schneider on 11-02-16
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China Clipper: The Age of the Great Flying Boats
- By: Robert Gandt
- Narrated by: Thomas Block
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 95
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
When the China Clipper shattered aviation records on its maiden six-day flight from California to the Orient in 1935, the flying boat became an instant celebrity. This lively history by Robert Gandt traces the development of the great flying boats as both a triumph of technology and a stirring human drama. He examines the political, military, and economic forces that drove its development and explains the aeronautical advances that made the aircraft possible.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Never been this disappointed
- By doug reiter on 08-09-21
By: Robert Gandt
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Soaring to Glory
- A Tuskegee Airman's Firsthand Account of World War II
- By: Philip Handleman, Lt. Col. Harry T. Stewart Jr.
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 104
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
He had to sit in a segregated rail car on the journey to army basic training in Mississippi in 1943. But two years later, the 20-year-old African American from New York was at the controls of a P-51, prowling for Luftwaffe aircraft at 5,000 feet over the Austrian countryside. This is the remarkable true story of Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr., one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. Award-winning aviation writer Philip Handleman re-creates the harrowing action and heart-pounding drama of Stewart's combat missions....
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3 out of 5 stars
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Disappointed these extraordinary Men...
- By Damian on 04-20-20
By: Philip Handleman, and others