How can something so Wright seem so wrong?

I just finished the Wright Brothers biography by David McCullough on the plane back from Calgary (On a plane! How ironic. Or not). It was an excellent book but it left me confused and disappointed.

As a child, I had a Wright Brothers biography that I read multiple times. It was an inspirational tale of two industrious brothers, who came from humble beginnings and through hard work and determination created the first motorized flying machine. They were devoted to their family, especially their sister Kate, and triumphed over all adversity.

Of course, as an adult I assumed this was whitewashed, just like my biography of Mickey Mantle, All-American Boy and all-round upright citizen. It turns out that upright was not correct either figuratively or in many cases literally. Nobody could be that virtuous.

But when I read this book about Wilbur and Orville Wright, I was surprised to find that my old biography had actually understated the case. They weren't just hard-working and industrious; they were ingenious and resourceful and patient and scientific. They invented and constructed whatever they needed out of whatever materials were available to them. As for adversity, the obstacles they faced were far beyond what I'd read or imagined. Kitty Hawk was a nightmare of a place to work. Though it offered the perfect conditions for the flying part at times, everything else was just as easy as you can imagine building a high-tech workshop and living quarters on a barely inhabited, mosquito-infested sand bar would be.

And about their family? They were each others' support system. They took care of Kate and their father, and vice versa. They worked together almost perfectly. They were also crazy smart, honest, humble, forthright, unfailingly polite, virtuous in every sense of the word, and completely comfortable in their skins. They even had a sense of humor, for god's sake. They did it for neither the money nor the glory; all they wanted was to succeed where so many others had failed. And their triumph was thrilling and complete.

It's an amazing story. You'd never believe it if it were fiction.