My dad has been reading David McCullough's The Wright Brothers, and though he has enjoyed it immensely, he wishes there was more information on the technical side of their work. McCullough is an excellent historian, but he tends to focus on the human/social side of things; my dad is an electrical engineer, so the technical details fascinate him as much as the interpersonal stuff does. Does anyone know of any books that cover the technical aspect of the development of flight leading up to and including the Wright brothers? I hope this is the right place to ask this.
I don't now if this is what your dad is looking for, but I hope so:
Notebook of the Wright's 1901 wind tunnel data at the Franklin Institute: https://www.fi.edu/history-notebooks
Google Image of the Wright's Patent: https://www.google.com/patents/US821393
Image of Wright's Patent from the National Archives: http://www.archives.gov/global-pages/larger-image.html?i=/research/recover/images/wright-brothers-002-l.jpg&c=/research/recover/images/wright-brothers-002.caption.html
Unfortunately, the original of the Wright's Patent is missing: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/the-wright-brothers-famous-1903-flying-machine-patent-is-missing/265041/
Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers at the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/collection/wilbur-and-orville-wright-papers/about-this-collection/
“I once thought the aeroplane would end wars." (Orville in a letter to his friend Lester Gardner dated August 28, 1946): http://wrightstories.com/wrights-perspective-on-the-role-of-airplanes-in-war/
Wright Stories Web Site: http://wrightstories.com/wright-brothers-stories/
