"For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man. My disease has increased in severity, and I feel that it will soon cost me an increased amount of money if not my life. I have been trying to arrange my affairs in such a way that I can devote my entire time for a few months to experiment in this field." (Wilbur Wright, 1900)

A lot of time has been spent covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, listeners can get caught up on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute. And they can do so while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

The lives of Wilbur and Orville Wright are quintessential American stories. Growing up in America's heartland, the boys lived very ordinary lives with five other siblings and worked printing and repair jobs that involved tinkering with tools and bicycles. But at the end of the 20th century, one of the brothers' passions became an obsession - especially for Wilbur, who would later write, "My brother and I became seriously interested in the problem of human flight in 1899".

The Wright Brothers initially underestimated the difficulties involved in flying, and they were apparently surprised by the fact that so many others were working on solving the "problem of human flight" already. Decades before their own historic plane would end up in the National Air and Space Museum, Wilbur and Orville asked the Smithsonian for reading materials and brushed up on everything from the works of their contemporaries to Leonardo Da Vinci.