The Wright Stuff

Recounted through a well-selected collection of photographs, this discussion relates a succession of advancements and risk taking, chronicling the evolution of space tourism. Traveling back to the almost simultaneous beginnings of aviation and rocketry, this analysis highlights the crucial names in the industry, honoring them with "The Wright Stuff" awards for their contributions. Illustrating how today's tickets to space have been made possible not just by entrepreneurs and engineers but also by the efforts of artists, regulators, politicians, and some of the earliest aviators, this exploration also touches on today's rapid expansion phase of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space flights. Clearly depicting how a commercial business can emerge in this swiftly growing field, this unique investigation also provides examples of how space tourists are helping to create reusable technologies of benefit to all.

Bob Wright's personal story, from his 20 years as president and CEO of NBC and his total transformation of the company, to the foundation of Autism Speaks, an advocacy and research funding organization that he and his wife started after one of their grandsons was diagnosed with the condition.

Ian Wright is one of the English game's great football heroes. He is an England international and the leading marksman and trophy-winner for Arsenal. Yet he also regularly collects yellow cards, and is rarely out of the headlines. From humble beginnings to the heights of international stardom, this is the story of the rise of a boy from South London who has as many enemies as he has friends; of a role model who never forgot his roots; of a superstar, hungry for success, but almost denied the chance to play professional football by blatant discrimination and his own hot-headedness.

Young and healthy, Victor J. Wright was only fifteen years old in 1976 when he broke his neck playing football at John Muir High School in Pasadena, California. He had severed the vertebrae at the second level, right under his brain. Many suffering this injury would have died, but Wright survived. In The Wright Stuff, author David D. Rutherford, Wright's former classmate, friend, and former newspaper reporter, tells Wright's story--from his birth, through his injury and hospitalization, and beyond. This biography narrates how Wright was one of the first quadriplegics to earn a college degree and how he cofounded a nonprofit organization that provides relief efforts to victims of natural disasters around the world. It shares how Wright donates books and audiovisual materials to local libraries and has inspired numerous squads from his high school alma mater to victory. In 2013, he was ordained a minister by the Association of Fundamental Ministers and Churches. Though Wright has experienced a host of challenges throughout the years, he credits his faith in God and the loving care of his family and closest friends for being allowed to live the past four decades in a way that has inspired thousands and has made him a community treasure.

The former CEO of NBC “reflects on his years at the pinnacle of network television, and also on the Wrights’ work as co-founders of Autism Speaks” (Palm Beach Daily News). Named president and CEO of NBC at the age of 43, he faced a two-headed dragon: on one hand, distrust from the network people deeply skeptical of the “suit” from GE, their new corporate parent; and on the other, fiscal oversight demands from a cautious, conservative institution reluctant to invest heavily in a media business they didn’t understand. For the next 20 years, he managed to navigate the fine line between the two and in the process completely reinvent—and save—the network. His name is Bob Wright. Under his leadership, a traditional network, struggling to survive a changing landscape, was transformed into a $45 billion cable and internet giant. What does someone like that do when he retires? If he’s Bob Wright, he starts all over again. At almost the exact same time as Bob’s NBC reign was winding down, his grandson Christian was diagnosed with autism, a condition then poorly understood. Baffled by a lack of medical knowledge and community support, Bob and his wife Suzanne founded Autism Speaks, which in short order became the leading advocacy and research funding organization for this mysterious condition that so devastates families. As the two story lines unfold in The Wright Stuff, readers will gradually see that both endeavors—revitalizing NBC and building Autism Speaks—reflect the same key management tenets that apply to any organization facing disruptive change. A portion of the proceeds from this book will be donated to advance autism research.

From "America's nerviest journalist" (Newsweek)--a breath-taking epic, a magnificent adventure story, and an investigation into the true heroism and courage of the first Americans to conquer space. "Tom Wolfe at his very best" (The New York Times Book Review) Millions of words have poured forth about man's trip to the moon, but until now few people have had a sense of the most engrossing side of the adventure; namely, what went on in the minds of the astronauts themselves - in space, on the moon, and even during certain odysseys on earth. It is this, the inner life of the astronauts, that Tom Wolfe describes with his almost uncanny empathetic powers, that made The Right Stuff a classic.

The #1 New York Times bestseller from David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize—the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly—Wilbur and Orville Wright. On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two brothers—bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio—changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe that the age of flight had begun, with the first powered machine carrying a pilot. Orville and Wilbur Wright were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity. When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education and little money never stopped them in their mission to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off, they risked being killed. In this “enjoyable, fast-paced tale” (The Economist), master historian David McCullough “shows as never before how two Ohio boys from a remarkable family taught the world to fly” (The Washington Post) and “captures the marvel of what the Wrights accomplished” (The Wall Street Journal). He draws on the extensive Wright family papers to profile not only the brothers but their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them. Essential reading, this is “a story of timeless importance, told with uncommon empathy and fluency…about what might be the most astonishing feat mankind has ever accomplished…The Wright Brothers soars” (The New York Times Book Review).