Yeah, and McCullough's account does get across some of the 'why' about why that was so.swishnicholson wrote: Interesting to see how much they were loved abroad well before they were admired at home.
Has to be said that even McCullough's enthusiasm for the boys seems to wane, once they had 'only' learned to fly (that it was their own patient learning of flightcraft, and NOT principally the vaulting superiority of their aircraft, that separated "the boys" from the other flyboys, was another incisive point McCullough brings out).
Feels like the sluggish US adulation was due to a mix of things:
- While they did rack up testflight hours, their total public flight days, and time in the air, was kind of surprisingly modest - which makes sense in retrospect, but would somewhat mute the impact of their feat.
- They were the farthest thing from sexy - neither married, they didn't have girlfriends....
- Neither was exactly PT Barnum
The military's/government's shortage of enthusiasm seems less defensible - McCullough seems to say that Uncle Sam took an "all our eggs in one basket" approach that left the Brothers' egg out of the basket - to the US's eventual detriment
