13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

In, “The Wright Brothers”, by David McCullough I was most surprised to hear that the brothers became entrepreneurs in their 30s. They were living at home, and Wilbur hadn’t even begun his university career. I always think that I need to accomplish all of my goals by the time I’m thirty, but it’s nice to be reminded that you don’t need to have your life together before you hit that age. I admired Wilbur the most because despite his misfortunes with his accident he was able to turn that down time into something incredible. He educated himself in aviation and essentially began the path of leading to creating the first motor operated airplane. I also admired that both brothers were determined and hardworking. The thing that I least admired about Wilbur is that he was more serious and didn’t really seem to enjoy life by relaxing and living in the moment, he was always just working and planning what to do next. Both the Wright brothers encountered failure when they developed the Wright Flyer and the media didn’t support them because Americans didn’t believe that mankind should fly. They ventured out to France, where they conducted practice runs with the Wright Flyer, thus establishing education and aromatics, providing longer flight times for the Flyer.

The competencies I noticed were that they never gave up hope, they wanted to stay patriotic and within the United States when they first created the airplane but moved overseas until America was ready to accept the fact that mankind can fly. The also didn’t give up when developing the first plane. They worked really hard at crafting the glider and getting it just right, rather than giving up the first few times it failed.

The only part that confused me was when Orville’s friend told him that he and is brother were an example of how far people without any advantages could advance in the world, because they did have advantages. They of course had intelligence, but they were also driven and focused. They worked ten years on the airplane, perfecting it, and never gave up when they were turned away by many of the first people that they offered their airplane to.

If I were able to ask the Wright brothers two questions it would be, what they hoped would come of airplanes, and are they surprised how universal and popular airplanes are 100+ years later. I would ask them what they hoped airplanes would become worldwide, because I am sure they had expectations and ideas of what their invention would become. And then I would ask about how they feel about how airplanes are used today. There are more than 100,000 flights all over the world each and every day. It is one of the main methods of transportation, and the most popular apart from cars. I am curious to know if they are surprised, or if they expected their invention was going to be the beginning on a new era.

I already mentioned that the Wright brothers were very hardworking, and that I admired Wilbur because all he did was work, study, and explore in order to perfect his work. I think they both valued hard work, and that you must put in hard work in order to achieve your goals. I absolutely share that opinion. I am a work-a-holic, all because I have goals that I want to achieve to better my life and my family’s lives.