THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, June 25, 1995                  TAG: 9506220585
SECTION: COMMENTARY               PAGE: J2   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Book Review 
SOURCE: BY BARRETT R. RICHARDSON 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   69 lines

FIRST IN FLIGHT

FIRST IN FLIGHT

The Wright Brothers in North Carolina

STEPHEN KIRK

John F. Blair. 330 pp. $16.95 paper.

STEPHEN KIRK believes that his book, First in Flight, would not have pleased publicity-shy Orville Wright, who went to great lengths to avoid reporters when developing his flying machines and later tried to steer away from biographers.

Orville wanted the emphasis placed on technical aspects of his invention rather than on personal details of its inventors.

But what might have irritated Orville and his brother Wilbur is sure to delight and inform readers. As the centennial of the first powered flight nears, interest in the Wright Brothers will intensify, and Kirk's book adds perspective to a major scientific achievement that revolutionized transportation - and warfare - in the 20th century.

First in Flight is more than a history of early flight. It also provides a rich description of the pristine pre-development days of North Carolina's Outer Banks and profiles the Life Saving Service (forerunner of the Coast Guard) and its connection with the Wright Brothers. Most intriguing is Kirk's account of how the press covered - and sometimes ignored - the Wrights' activities at what is now Kill Devil Hills.

Kirk traces development of the Wrights' flying machines in great detail and portrays the day-to-day life of the brothers on the Outer Banks in the years immediately before and after Orville's historic flight of Dec. 17, 1903.

The Wrights' search for a suitable area for their glider trials was based on the need for strong winds and a remote area where tests could be performed away from big-city media. North Carolinians, whose license tags boast ``First in Flight,'' can thank the Weather Bureau for bringing the Wrights to their state. With some advice from the bureau, the Wrights found Kitty Hawk perfectly suited to their needs. South Carolina, which was also eyed as a site for flight, blew its chance when Myrtle Beach ignored a letter from the Wrights requesting information.

According to Kirk, the Wrights viewed North Carolina primarily as a kind of sportsman's vacation spot, with their flight experiments having secondary importance. The conditions at their early camp were primitive, and the brothers were beset by bedbugs, wood ticks and mosquitoes.

Kirk chronicles the confusion that ensued after the brothers attempted to telegraph a message from Kitty Hawk to their father in Dayton, Ohio, to ``inform press'' of their flight. The controversy over who first reported what and when may never be settled, but Kirk airs the various possibilities in an entertaining fashion. There is no doubt, however, that the Virginian-Pilot landed what was the scoop of the century, a story, though fraught with errors of detail, that captured the significance of the event.

A member of the Associated Press, the Virginian-Pilot offered the story to 21 newspapers. Only five asked that it be sent to them. Of them, only the New York American and the Cincinnati Enquirer published the story on Dec. 18.

Once people saw that heavier-than-air flight was possible, flying was no longer a matter for neglect or derision, and a serious race began to perfect machines to propel man through the skies. First in Flight captures the preliminaries of that race in a style that blends scholarship with whimsy. MEMO: Barrett R. Richrdson is a retired staff editor who teaches English part

time at Tidewater Community College. by CNB