Lively full-color illustrations and fun-to-read text combine in the attractive Explosion Zone books to tell the stories of important inventors and their discoveries. Interesting narrative relates the ways in which these imaginative men approached their discoveries. Stories are supplemented with easy-to-understand explanations of the scientific principles underlying each phase of their inventions. Two-page spreads feature sidebars called Here the Science, presenting short and clear explanations of the how the inventions work, based on principles of physics and chemistry. Young readers will find sufficient detail in the many illustrated explanations so that they can build models for themselves and investigate principles of science and technology first hand. Working out of their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, Wilbur and Orville Wright begin experimenting with gliders, developing a variety of wing designs and methods for controlling glider flight. For flight tests they travel to a windy hill in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. After much trial and error, they succeed in constructing a workable glider. They take their next giant step in 1904, attaching a gasoline engine to a glider, thus building the first successful airplane.