Special commemorative original edition reprint collector set of rare volumes celebrates a century of flight. A chronologically organized look at aviation pioneers' Wilbur and Orville Wright's plans, progress, achievements, and setbacks, documented in two illustrated volumes spanning 50 years' worth of letters, papers, notes, drawings, and compelling photographs. Taken from the detailed correspondence and numerous diary and notebook excerpts, wind table tunnels, and more

Two volumes, 2,000 total pages from cover-to-cover, and yet it’s still a good read. So long as you’re into the subject. The majority of it consists of letters between Wilbur Wright and his mentor Octave Chanute, in which Wright describes their technical progress, then their years of legal battles to protect their exclusive patent rights to the airplane. Ultimately the patent battle killed their friendship only a few months before Chanute’s death, and just two years before Wilbur’s. There’s also plenty of badly reproduced Wright glass-plate photography and drawings, along with technical detail of Wright flying machines. ( )