Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-297) and index.

The Wright myth -- Preflight -- The biographer -- The letter 1948 -- The murderer 1884 -- Steam bugs 1896 -- Typhoid 1896 -- Inventors 1900 -- School of one 1900 -- Flight -- The pilgrim 1900 -- The Wright sister 1900 -- Kill Devil Hills-October 18, 1900 -- The mentor 1901 -- Dangerous times 1901 -- Return to Kitty Hawk 1901 -- Wilbur unleashed 1901 -- Tunnel vision 1901 -- The Smithsonian 1902 -- The movable rudder 1902 -- United States patent office 1903 -- The Western Society of Engineers 1903 -- The great embarrassment 1903 -- Great things-September 23, 1903 -- The photograph-December 17, 1903 -- Landings -- Flyers or liars 1906 -- Death in the sky-September 17, 1908 -- Return to Eden 1908 -- The injunction 1910 -- Warped by the desire of great wealth 1911 -- Final flight 1912 -- The great flood 1914 -- To fly again 1914 -- Hammondsport, Indiana 1915 -- Middle of the Atlantic Ocean 1928 -- A test of wills 1930 -- The lone eagle 1934 -- The battle of Britain 1940 -- The authorized biography 1943 -- Washington, DC 1943 -- Mabel Beck 1948 -- Wright brothers, wrong story.

"This book is the first deconstruction of the Wright Brothers' myth. They were not -- as we have all come to believe--two halves of the same apple. Each had a distinctive role in creating the first 'flying machine'."--Provided by publisher.