Unlocking the Sky:
Glenn Hammond Curtiss and the Race to Invent the Airplane
Seth Shulman
Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (September 16, 2003)
Centered loosely around an experiment to get Professor Langley’s famed failure of a flying machine (often dubbed Langley’s Folly) off the ground, some 11 years after its fateful demise, Unlocking the Sky is an interesting framed narrative that reconsiders both the history of aviation as well as our contemporary approach to invention and discovery.
For the most part, it succeeds wonderfully, using this narrative device to tell the story of Glenn Hammond Curtiss, who is arguably one of the most important figures to modern aviation— yet someone who was more comfortable tinkering in his workshop than stepping into the limelight. For this reason, this treatment that centers on various experiments and airplane constructions is a brilliant way to capture a man who was at home in these situations. Unlocking the Sky treats readers to an amazing era of aviation history and discovery in the way that it must have been interesting to the people involved— discussing ideas, adjusting the size of wings and propellers, hoping the wind will die down, and the like. We are placed in the workshop with these pioneers of aviation to experience the wonder of getting a piloted airplane to fly, and turn, and land— all to the cheers and roars of the entire world watching.
What did I learn from Unlocking? First off, Orville and Wilbur Wright were pretty bizarre, and were definitely jerks. Second off, Curtiss invented a variety of things that are still in use in aviation today— the seaplane, ailerons, landing gear, etc., etc. So, next time you read Jimmy Buffett’s Where is Joe Merchant, see that seaplane on the cover and think to yourself, “boy, that would be great to own a seaplane,” thank Curtiss (he’s dead now, but thank him in spirit), as well as Buffett’s cover artist.
As someone who is relatively terrified of flying, I was hoping that Unlocking the Sky could actually unlock the sky and make me want to get on an airplane. If this is your hope as well, might I suggest valium or a hypnotist? However, if you are hoping for an easy summer read that might give you some learnin’ in an interesting way, Unlocking the Sky will only cost you a couple of sittings.
In other news, I am drafting a letter to Harper Collins Publishing to offer a lawsuit based on their false advertising— as the sky still remains firmly locked for me.
The drawbacks to the book are twofold. At times, despite its attention to an all-American figure of an under-educated yet brilliant hands-on inventor, the voice gets a bit pretentious and overblown at times. Personally, I am no fan of this type of writing— especially in a biography— but it also doesn’t gibe well with the formation of the framed narrative and flashbacks that work so hard to present Curtiss in his true environment.
The other problem, which I have found in other biographies (or biography-type works as this isn’t truly a bio) is that it gets stuck on its thesis. In order for us to be interested in these people, the author needs to give us something to hook our teeth into besides “this person was alive.” In the case of Pollock it was “he was a lonely and depressed drunk,” and after a while reading Jackson Pollock; An American Saga I kept repeating to myself “I get it, I get it, I get it.”
Here, the messages are: “Orville and Wilbur Wright were jerks, Curtiss was a kind and generous spirit, and all inventions are an accumulation of ideas— an evolution of group thinking over time— not just a lone ‘a ha!’ in a lab someplace.”
At times during Unlocking, I thought “I get it, I get it, I get it.”
What is perhaps the most interesting facet of the book, besides the crafted storytelling, are the questions it poses regarding technological progress, invention, patents, and patent law. Our system of protecting ideas, meant to foster advancement of technologies, oftentimes becomes a hindrance to progress. In the case of the airplane, the Wright brothers’ patent was so broad they expected to receive royalties on any manned airplane. Far from promoting advancements in a new technology, this legally-imposed monopoly had people in great legal battles and personal turmoil during their development of the technologies that would lead to the jets and airplanes we have today.
It makes one wonder in today’s climate of searching out medical advancements and environmental solutions if the patent laws as they stand don’t fully suit our needs. As we all know, once lawyers and corporations get involved, it is hard to compete with their resources and money— even if you are in the right. Indeed, Curtiss was ordered to stop working on airplanes more than once by judges and the letter of the law, and without the help of Henry Ford’s legal team would have never got many of his ideas off the ground— literally.
Excuse me, I couldn’t resist.
Finally, as with all biographical material, I return to the book De Kooning: An American Master. In a similar approach, the authors attempt to get the reader into the studio to see de Kooning at work; at home with his art and struggles with creating powerful works. Shulman uses a similar tactic here in trying to get the reader into the workshop, centered on some pivotal experiments, and using these as a point of departure for presenting back story. De Kooning, is pulled off much, much better— the difference? Unlocking the Sky will cost you a few days of reading this summer, De Kooning, you will be lugging around to the pool and the beach until Labor Day.
Reviewed by Kurt Eidsvig
Eidsvig is an important contributor to Wazoo. Eidsvig, we have seen your art. We have seen your reviews. Where are your poems?
To hear Eidsvig's poems, attend one of his Boston Poetry Slams or satisfy yourself at his website, www.kurtcoleeidsvig.com.
