When I was a little boy, my heroes were Wilbur and Orville Wright. They lived over a hundred years ago, before there were any airplanes. As boys, they liked to tinker around in their workshop, and I loved to tinker at my workbench. They were bicycle mechanics, and I loved mechanical things. They built and flew airplanes before anybody else knew how, and I loved things that fly. I've studied the Wright brothers and I've learned some interesting things about them. They were very curious and always wanted to know how things worked. They had powerful imaginations and could see things in their minds that didn't exist yet. The Wright brothers were also very creative and they could make amazing things out of ordinary things. Orville and Wilbur's parents liked it when their children made things, and they were always helping them find answers to their questions. Their mother knew how to use tools because her father was a carriage-maker. She made toys for the boys and taught them to use tools. One day, Mr. Wright brought home a toy for them to play with. It was a stick with a propeller on it, wound up with a rubber band. It flew like a helicopter, except there were no helicopters then. Orville and Wilbur played with the flying toy until it wore out. Then they figured out how to make flying toys of their own. When the Wright brothers were older, they had a bicycle shop. They designed a better bicycle than anyone had thought of. Lots of people bought their bicycles. When they were grown men, they wanted to learn how to make real flying machines. No one had been able to make a good one yet-one that could be controlled so the pilot could steer it. No one had figured out how to make a flying machine stay in the air for more than a few seconds. But Orville and Wilbur wanted to make one with an engine on it. So they got to work building engines and flying machine parts. On a winter day in North Carolina, more than a hundred years ago, the Wright brothers were successful-they made a flying machine that actually flew! Imagination and hard work make their dream come true. The next time you see an airplane in the sky, think about two curious boys who kept asking questions, kept learning all they could, and kept trying again and again until they figured out how to make great things that fly. Excerpted from Every Kid Needs Things That Fly by Ritchie Kinmont All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
