The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving into History (Epic Fails #1)

Description

Although the Wright Brothers are now celebrated as heroes for their groundbreaking contributions to science and engineering as the first men to successfully manage powered, piloted flight, their eventual success was built on the back of a lot of nosedives. It took the self-taught engineers years of work and countless crashes before they managed to remain airborne for a mere twelve seconds! In this hilarious first installment of the Epic Fails series, Ben Thompson and Erik Slader take readers through the the Wright Brothers' many failed attempts at flight before achieving their groundbreaking success, laying the foundation for aviation as we know it today. The Epic Fails series explores the humorous backstories behind a variety of historical discoveries, voyages, experiments, and innovations that didn't go as expected but succeeded nonetheless, showing that many of mankind's biggest success stories are the result of some pretty epic failures indeed.

Ben Thompson is the author of eleven books on various awesome historical subjects including the Guts & Glory series, and has appeared on television programs for the History Channel, Discovery, and the American Heroes Channel. He has written for Cracked, Fangoria, Soldier of Fortune, and The American Mustache Institute, currently owns four swords (if you count a letter opener shaped like Glamdring the Foe-Hammer), and can occasionally beat the Star Wars Trilogy arcade game with a single quarter. Erik Slader is the creator of "Epik Fails of History" a blog (and soon-to-be podcast) about the most epic fails... of history. Visit Erik online at erikslader.com

[A] tribute to the spirit of invention. -- Booklist A fact-filled title sure to boost the confidence of aspiring inventors. . . VERDICT An informative and humorous addition to middle school STEM biography collections. -- School Library Journal Information-book fans and skeptics alike will want to get in on the ground floor of this promising new series. -- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (BCCB)