The First Airplanes Had No Wheels

But first . . . It's a Launch Party, and you’re invited!

You're invited to a Launch Party for my new novel, The Paper Balloon. The party will be held at 331 N. Church Street in Bowling Green, Ohio on March 15th, 2026. We'll begin at 1:30 and linger as long as we're still having fun.

If you’ll be anywhere near Bowling Green on Sunday, March 15, I would love for you to join us as we celebrate the launch of The Paper Balloon. We’ll serve pizza, I’ll take a few minutes to introduce the story behind the novel, and signed copies will be available at a special launch-day discount for anyone who would like one.

We’re planning for a full house, so bring a friend and come enjoy the beautiful 1892 historical house at Paskvan’s, 331 N. Church Street in Bowling Green — just about an hour from Lima, where the historic paper balloon incident first took place. Parking is available in the Municipal Parking Lot across the street.

Please RSVP to cherie@CherieHarbridgeWilliams.com with your name and the number in your party so we can be sure there’s plenty of pizza waiting for you.

I’m looking forward to celebrating together!

AND NOW, let me share a bit of history that completely captivated me while researching The Paper Balloon:

Did you know the first airplanes didn’t have wheels? They rested on skids—like a sled—and there were no seat belts, either.

You’re probably familiar with the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, who ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. They approached flight the same way they approached mechanics—methodically. They built wind tunnels, tested wing designs, and made countless experimental flights before achieving powered flight in 1903. After that breakthrough, improvements came quickly.

The 1909 Wright Flyer—the first airplane sold to the U.S. Army—still had no wheels. It landed on long, narrow skids made of spruce wood. Interestingly, those wooden skids were painted silver. Why? Because the Wright brothers were in fierce competition to produce the first airplane reliable enough for military use. If their rivals believed the skids were metal, they might copy the idea. (Today we’d call that industrial espionage.)

  The brothers knew spruce was strong, flexible, and less expensive than metal—and they wanted to keep that advantage to themselves. In fact, the painted skids fooled more than just competitors. In a YouTube video filmed in the basement of the Smithsonian, Adam Savage of MythBusters fame once referred to the Flyer’s “metal” skids during a maintenance segment. The museum staff member gently corrected him: “No, they’re wood.”

There’s a related episode I mention in the book—here’s a glimpse.

After the Army purchased the 1909 Wright Flyer, pilot Lt. Benjamin Foulois (pronounced Fa-loy) made a hard landing that cracked one of the skids and sent the plane into a wild spin. He was nearly thrown from his seat. Though uninjured, he was badly shaken. He had already witnessed a fatal crash and understood the risks all too well.

Foulois promptly wrote to his superiors requesting two things: wheels and a seat belt. The Army approved the seat belt—but denied funding for wheels, insisting they should have been included in the original design. To Foulois, that decision felt like a sentence—forcing pilots to fly a fragile machine they already knew could fail. He was furious.

His response to that letter is both surprising and telling. You can read the rest in The Paper Balloon--or in the history books.

AT THE HEART OF THE NOVEL is a true story: an Army mechanic-turned-pilot and a young girl whose lives intersected at a train station in Lima, Ohio.

I’d love for you to step into this remarkable chapter of history with me. The book releases March 15 and will be available on Amazon, at the Launch Party, and on my website:

www.CherieHarbridgeWilliams.com.

(Note: You can pre-order the eBook now, but the paperback version may not show up on Amazon until the release date.)