Although the Wright Brothers are now celebrated as heroes for their groundbreaking contributions to science and engineering as the first men to successfully manage powered, piloted flight, their eventual success was built on the back of a lot of nosedives. It took the self-taught engineers years of work and countless crashes before they managed to remain airborne for a mere twelve seconds! In this hilarious first installment of the Epic Fails series, Ben Thompson and Erik Slader take readers through the the Wright Brothers' many failed attempts at flight before achieving their groundbreaking success, laying the foundation for aviation as we know it today. The Epic Fails series explores the humorous backstories behind a variety of historical discoveries, voyages, experiments, and innovations that didn't go as expected but succeeded nonetheless, showing that many of mankind's biggest success stories are the result of some pretty epic failures indeed.

A hilarious nonfiction look at two of history's most epic "failures": the Wright brothers, whose countless crashes and biggest failures led to ultimate success.

About the Author
Ben Thompson is the author of eleven books on various awesome historical subjects including the Guts & Glory series, and has appeared on television programs for the History Channel, Discovery, and the American Heroes Channel. He has written for Cracked, Fangoria, Soldier of Fortune, and The American Mustache Institute, currently owns four swords (if you count a letter opener shaped like Glamdring the Foe-Hammer), and can occasionally beat the Star Wars Trilogy arcade game with a single quarter. Erik Slader is the creator of "Epik Fails of History" a blog (and soon-to-be podcast) about the most epic fails... of history. Visit Erik online at erikslader.com


Book Information
ISBN 9781250150561
Author Ben Thompson
Format Paperback
Page Count 128
Imprint St Martin's Press
Publisher St Martin's Press
Weight(grams) 124g
Dimensions(mm) 189mm * 127mm * 9mm