Richard J. Goodrich

Lighter-than-Air: West Coast Aviators and the Dawn of Flight.

Although the claim that the Wright brothers made America's first powered flight is well-entrenched in history books, two months before Orville Wright lifted off the sands of Kitty Hawk a physician named August Greth flew the country's first motorized aircraft—a dirigible—over San Francisco. Greth's audacious feat inspired imitators; soon men like Tom Baldwin, Roy Knabenshue, and Lincoln Beachey dueled for aerial supremacy in their own airships. Unlike the Wrights, who refused to offer a public demonstration of their flying machine, the California aviators barnstormed across the country, performing at fairs and expositions and thrilling millions with their daring flights.

Based upon his new book, L. A. Birdmen, historian Richard Goodrich offers an entertaining account of the contributions of these West Coast pilots and explains why, in the first decade of the twentieth century, these men rather than the Wright Brothers were America's pilots.