No period in history has seen greater technological advancement than the 20th century. One of the most graphic illustrations of that is the story of powered flight.

On December 17, 1903, two brothers from Dayton, Ohio, made aviation history. Bicycle manufacturers Wilbur and Orville Wright completed a short airborne hop over the sandy dunes of the Kill Devil Hills at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The flight of just a few yards was the coming of age for technology and marked a major turning point in a period of history which had begun with the Industrial Revolution.

The enormity of the change that followed is still difficult to grasp even today.

The story of that first flight and the lives of the Wright brothers is told in this superbly-researched work which makes sense of the aerodynamic theory established by the Wrights .

It also details the complex lives of the brothers and their family, which was presided over by the domineering figure of their father, Bishop Milton Wright, a radical clergyman whose constant warring with his own church was to influence his sons' outlook on life and distract them from their history-changing work.

Teetotal, non-smoking and disinterested in women, the story of the two eccentric geniuses, is beautifully told in more than 500 pages.

Many writers could easily have become bogged down in technological detail, but not Mackersey.

He leads us through their fascinating lives, leaving out very little, but keeping the story moving along at pace.

There are so many twists and turns that at times it could almost seem to be a work of fiction. However, Mackersey's authoritative style and penchant for research breaks through the myth surrounding the brothers.

This is the definitive book on the Wright brothers and the birth of powered flight.

Well worth the cover price.

Updated: 10:04 Wednesday, December 17, 2003