The Wright Brothers by David McCullough - listened to this one as an audio book actually, which was spectacular, given it's narrated by the author hisself, a man with a voice which just fucking screams "i am a really, really old, really, really wise mother-fucker"
a more favorable portrayal of the brothers than birdmen, which looked equally at glenn curtiss and at a much longer period (mccullough's book ends a few years before wilbur's premature death and thus skips their transformation largely into businessmen and patent cry-babies ) - their sister katherine and father, a noted clergymen, also get a lot of attention - interestingly, though brought up by a man of faith, the faith their father taught them (unsurprisingly, given their accomplishments) was an exceedingly scientific one - their childhood home had no bible quotes on the walls nor bookshelves limited to religious texts, but instead was filled with far-ranging tomes on nature, literature, art, etc. - the reverend was perfectly fine with them skipping school if they decided to instead to read a book or tinker with an invention or walk through the woods
highly recommend this in audio-book form for all ye miserable commuters out there