GPO

NASA SP-4112. This fascinating collection of original essays in celebration of the Wright brothers' first flight 100 years ago grew out of presentations by a group of prominent scholars in 2003 at a conference sponsored by the NASA History Division and held at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Edited by Virginia P. Dawson and Mark D. Bowles, this volume focuses on the careers of some of the many men and women who helped to realize the dream of flight both through the atmosphere and beyond. These accounts are original and compelling because they examine the history of flight through the lens of biography.

Featured essays include those about famed aviatrices Bessie Coleman and Amelia Earhart to such notable luminaries in aviation and aerospace as Juan Trippe, Charles Lindbergh, Eddie Rickenbacker, Johnny Miller, Donald Douglas, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., Curtis E. LeMay, Willy Ley, Hugh Dryden, Wernher von Braun, Robert Gilruth, and even replicating the 1902 experimental glider flights of the Wright Brothers.

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xv

1- Bessie Coleman: Race and Gender Realities Behind Aviation Dreams
AMY SUE BIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

2- She Flew for Women: Amelia Earhart, Gender, and American Aviation
SUSAN WARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

3- Sharing a Vision: Juan Trippe, Charles Lindbergh, and the Development of International Air Transport
WILLIAM M. LEARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

4- The Autogiro Flies the Mail! Eddie Rickenbacker, Johnny Miller, Eastern Airlines, and Experimental Airmail Service with Rotorcraft, 1939–1940
W. DAVID LEWIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

5- Donald Douglas: From Aeronautics to Aerospace
ROGER BILSTEIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87

6- Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American Hero
ALAN L. GROPMAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109

7- Curtis E. LeMay and the Ascent of American Strategic Airpower
TAMI BIDDLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127

8- Willy Ley: Chronicler of the Early Space Age
TOM D. CROUCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155

9- Who Was Hugh Dryden and Why Should We Care?
MICHAEL GORN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163

10- Wernher von Braun: A Visionary as Engineer and Manager
ANDREW J. DUNAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185

11- Godfather to the Astronauts: Robert Gilruth and the Birth of Human Spaceflight
ROGER LAUNIUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213

12- Celebrating the Invention of Flight in a Hands-On Way: Replicating the 1902 Experimental Glider Flights of the Wright Brothers
EDWARD J. PERSHEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .257

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .273

LIST OF ACRONYMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .279

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .281

THE NASA HISTORY SERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .301