Charles E. Taylor: 1868-1956; The Wright Brothers Mechanican

Dayton, OH: Prime Digital Printing, 2002. Second printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Lorrie Lynn DuFour (Artwork). Format is approximately 8.75 inches by 11.25 inches. [3], ix, 195, [1] pages. Illustrations. Appendices: A.-Chronology of Charlie Taylor; B.-The Taylor Family; C.-How Charlie Machined the 1903 Engine; and D.-Propellers are Really Wings. Notes. Bibliography. Index. DJ flap text also printed on the inside of front and back boards. Inscribed by DuFour on the title page. DJ is in a plastic sleeve. Howard R. DuFour worked in the defense industry in Dayton during WWII and also worked on the Manhattan Project. He became a master model maker and joined Wright State University in 1976. He held several patents. Peter Unitt was a USAF flight test project manager and engineer. The book is a biography of his life before, during and following the years with the Wright brothers. This biography details the life of an innovator who built the engine powering the Wright brothers' successful 1903 Flyer. His lifetime spanned the advent of 2,800 horsepower radials, jet engines, two World Wars, and supersonic flight. On September 20th, 1894, a young man, his wife, and new son, left Kearney, Nebraska, to start a new life in the Gem City: Dayton, Ohio. Little did he realize the part he was about to play in creating the first of these so-called "four-bangers", for a pair of contemporary geniuses, surnamed Wright. Charlie Taylor was hired in 1901 by the Wright brothers to work in their latest bicycle shop. Around Christmas 1902, "the boys" asked him if he could build an engine, a gasoline-powered four-banger to sustain them in flight with their 1903 airplane. When interviewed later in life, he testified that he replied to their request, "I can and I did it." Charlie Taylor was approaching 40 when he "did it". He left this life just before man ventured into space. His story spans almost 90 years, from the American Civil War to the Korean War. Told out of the context of Charlie's life, the building of the 1903 engine would simply be an interesting historical fact. Within the context of his life it becomes a human and, to some extent, everyman's story.