The First Across the Continent

摘要

There Were Two Of Us in the shed that served as a hangar at the Wright brothers flying school that bright June morning: Al Welsh, the Wrights' chief instructor, tinkering with one of their tomato-can engines, and me, an eager kid holding a wrench for him. When the tall man in the well-cut business suit strode in, he looked more like a stockbroker than a nut who'd try to fly from ocean to ocean in one of Wilbur and Orville's motorized matchsticks. Cal Rodgers was an impressive man. Firm-jawed, confident, and, at 32 almost twice my 16 and a half years, he quickly became my idol. He spent part of June 1911 learning to fly, and at the end of the month, he made me a proposition.