The brothers, five years apart in age, grew up to do everything together. Though Wilbur was much more dominant he wrote better and seemed a natural leader he and Orville were careful to share whatever opportunities came their way. After the 18-year-old Wilbur was hit with a hockey stick (by a 15-year-old future murderer, whose victims would include his parents and brother) and suffered debilitating facial injuries, he gave up on the idea of leaving Dayton for a higher education. Instead, he lived out his teens as a recluse and reader. Then he and Orville developed a love of bicycles, learned to make them and started their own business.
This well written book shows many connections between aerial travel and locomotion by bicycle, which at