The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, began publishing the West Side News from 1889, a small four-page newspaper. Their printing venture lasted until 1896. Their father, Milton, was a Bishop in the church and his wife, Susan, was a well-educated woman. It was she who stimulated the Wright Brothers interest in mechanical things. In 1990, the brothers successfully tested their 50-pound biplane glider in Carolina, and subsequently made a number of revisions. Controlled, powered flight had seemed impossible until Orville Wright took off on the 17th, December 1903. The key to the Wright Brothers' success was that their engineering had gone beyond the trial and error methods of their contemporaries. Having only very limited resources they showed great scientific ingenuity. When their test flights did not produce as much lift as they had expected, they went back to first principles and carried out a series of scientific experiments, starting with the bicycle balance and moving on to their famous wind tunnel experiments. They were the first to understand how the lift from the aerofoil changes in flight, and the first to design their propellers as a form. of aerofoil. Despite the financial burdens of all their research, testing, and the many aircraft built, the Wright Brothers were never financed by outsiders. The bicycle was a hot item at that time, and their bicycle shop financed everything. The first passenger to ever fly in an airplane was Charles W. Furnas who was taken aloft by Wilbur Wright on May 14, 1908 for a flight of 28.6 seconds duration. Orville and Wilbur flew together only once in their airplane for their father to see, but decided it unwise, because if they crashed, no one could carry on their work. The Wright Brothers inherited an aptitude for independent judgment, personal courage and mechanical talents of superior caliber. Two older brothers, Reuchlin and Lorin and a sister Katharine, went on to college, while Orville and Wilbur had only high school educations, and never officially graduated. However, their solid scientific methods had set free the ancient dream of human flight. The first American to fly after the Wright Brothers was Glenn H. Curtiss, who flew his 'June Bug' for the first time on June 20, 1908. The first airplane purchased by the American Government was a Wright Biplane. What is the passage mainly about?