The Wright Stuff

A distant cousin has been nudging me back into doing some genealogy work lately. It is so frustrating though because for every tantalizing lead I find, there are a hundred other leads I could pursue. How to narrow down the useful/interesting ones presents a problem.

My maternal grandfather's line goes back to a man named Samuel Creed Wright. He died in Memphis in 1860. Last night at dinner I was talking about this to my son and his suggestion is that I start with THE Wright brothers and research back from THEM, to see where we intersect because it would be very cool to be related to them, however distantly. Have I mentioned that my son is a flight zealot?

I guess if you go distant enough, we're all related anyway, so why not?

Happy Wright Brothers' Day

One hundred and six years ago today, man achieved controlled powered flight. The two bicycle mechanics pushed their ideas in the air and a new age for man was born.

Their first flights were really short, and at first read don't seem like much. Twelve seconds? Alert the Media? But try to jump up in the air and stay up longer than a split second. Yeah. Doesn't work.

It is hard to believe that in under 100 years we went from Kitty Hawk to the moon. And now, a little over 100 years after the first flight, we can travel in space and glide back down. Did you realize that the space shuttle is simply a glider?

Thank you Wilbur and Orville for being persistent. Thank you for all of those who came after them to build on their ideas and designs.