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The author have got many facts downright wrong: Wrights were actually very secretive and they were reluctant to publish anything before they got the patent. The

by sytelus 10y ago

The author have got many facts downright wrong: Wrights were actually very secretive and they were reluctant to publish anything before they got the patent. They were so adamant about the patent that they didn't do any public demonstration of flight for years until they were literally forced by competing claims. In those times people making claims for "heavier than air" flights were numerous and it was hard to take anyone seriously unless they do demonstration. They not only chose not to do so until they got patent but also did almost nothing to enhance their technology meanwhile. Their contribution except for first flight is very marginal and their rest of the lives are dominated by nothing but patent worries, bringing massive lawsuits on others and getting royalties. They also made a very generic patent claim essentially asserting that any system that produces lift is covered by it. This produced a lot of friction in bringing new innovations to market leaving USA significantly behind of Europe. I admire Wrights thoroughly for their vision, hard work and making miracle happen through their miger resources but saying that no one would have noticed if they saw first airplane in air is bogus. Reference: https://www.amazon.com/Wilbur-Orville-Biography-Brothers-Transportation/dp/0486402975 https://www.amazon.com/Wilbur-Orville-Biography-Brothers-Tra...

sillysaurus3 10y ago
Another (completely unrelated) tidbit from that time in history: There were two competing schools of thought regarding flight. One was the modern school of thought: that pilots should be given control. The other was inherent stability, the idea that planes could be made to balance themselves in the air with no input from a pilot. I just think it's interesting how difficult it is to see good ideas when they haven't been invented yet. And how easy it is to relentlessly pursue bad ideas.
- geon 10y ago
  Planes do balance themselves. Stability was traditionally achieved with a carefully placed center of gravity. Modern fighter planes are unstable, but are stabilized by computers, not the pilot.
jayjay71 10y ago
This is fascinating. I can't believe I never knew this.
simo7 10y ago
On top of all these mistakes...there is also the very American mistake of believing Ford invented the car. When I've read it I knew I had to take all the rest with a big grain of salt :|
- masklinn 10y ago
  > there is also the very American mistake of believing Ford invented the car. I don't quite see that since the author dates the quote to 20 years before Ford's popularisation of automobiles, he obviously couldn't have been the inventor of something being investigated by a congressional committee long before his age. Then again, the "report" is an anachronistic piece of fiction: http://www.snopes.com/history/document/horseless.asp http://www.snopes.com/history/document/horseless.asp
  - simo7 10y ago
    I am referring to "Twenty years before Henry Ford convinced the world he was onto something". No need to convince anybody since Ford started manufacturing and commercializing cars roughly 10 years after his peers in Europe.
    - masklinn 10y ago
      > No need to convince anybody since Ford started manufacturing and commercializing cars 10 years after his peers in Europe. Closer to 20 and he was neither pioneer of production-line manufacturing (that was Olds) nor of US car manufacturing (that's Duryea followed by Studebaker). The something he was on to was the moving assembly line (where the posts are fixed and the assembly moves around), inspired by slaughterhouse butchery lines.
    - pbhjpbhj 10y ago
      The thing Ford was on to was one-job production lines (where each worker does one job-atom and the work moves to the next stage) wasn't it? IIRC Ford's project was to make the car affordable to those of more modest means, so "everyone" could have a car. If you look at the quote then this interpretation makes more sense IMO - the quote clearly considers the position that cars were being made commercially 20 years before Ford. TL;DR the Ford point is he democratised car use in the face of congress's earlier consideration that such widespread use would kill agriculture and people. (Mind you the congress memo quote seems pretty right on).
JD557 10y ago
> Wrights were actually very secretive and they were reluctant to publish anything before they got the patent. I believe that this was not true for Santos-Dumont[1] though. I wonder if he had more media coverage at the time. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont
- masklinn 10y ago
  It's not true of most other aviation pioneers, because they were either independently wealthy or well-funded. The Wright brothers were self-funded but not really wealthy, their flyers were their path to wealth so the secrecy was understandable.
  - restalis 10y ago
    "most other aviation pioneers, because they were either independently wealthy or well-funded" Wrong! One of them was Traian Vuia, struggling with financial difficulties which significantly delayed both the plane development and its final public demonstration in Paris! Other not so wealthy pioneers are Percy Pilcher, Lawrence Hargrave, Samuel Franklin Cody, Otto Lilienthal, Aurel Vlaicu, and many others.
danbmil99 10y ago
> Their contribution except for first flight is very marginal Absolutely untrue. The Wright Brothers brought their breakthrough into the market in a big way, becoming a (not the only) major manufacturer of commercially available, working, reliable aircraft. True, they fought patent battles, and in the end their reliance on wing warping (covered well by their patents) held them back when it became clear that ailerons were the way foreward - but they certainly were more than just experimental researchers. They truly did usher in the age of practical, heavier-than-air flight.
- chaostheory 10y ago
  If they didn't focus mainly on patents and secrecy, maybe they could have seen that ailerons were the future. If the US didn't enter WWI, the US aircraft industry could have stagnated under the Wrights. They just weren't building and innovating anymore. They were just suing everyone.

by sytelus 10y ago

sillysaurus3 10y ago

Another (completely unrelated) tidbit from that time in history: There were two competing schools of thought regarding flight. One was the modern school of thought: that pilots should be given control. The other was inherent stability, the idea that planes could be made to balance themselves in the air with no input from a pilot. I just think it's interesting how difficult it is to see good ideas when they haven't been invented yet. And how easy it is to relentlessly pursue bad ideas.

geon 10y ago
Planes do balance themselves. Stability was traditionally achieved with a carefully placed center of gravity. Modern fighter planes are unstable, but are stabilized by computers, not the pilot.

jayjay71 10y ago

This is fascinating. I can't believe I never knew this.

simo7 10y ago

On top of all these mistakes...there is also the very American mistake of believing Ford invented the car. When I've read it I knew I had to take all the rest with a big grain of salt :|

masklinn 10y ago
> there is also the very American mistake of believing Ford invented the car. I don't quite see that since the author dates the quote to 20 years before Ford's popularisation of automobiles, he obviously couldn't have been the inventor of something being investigated by a congressional committee long before his age. Then again, the "report" is an anachronistic piece of fiction: http://www.snopes.com/history/document/horseless.asp http://www.snopes.com/history/document/horseless.asp
- simo7 10y ago
  I am referring to "Twenty years before Henry Ford convinced the world he was onto something". No need to convince anybody since Ford started manufacturing and commercializing cars roughly 10 years after his peers in Europe.
  - masklinn 10y ago
    > No need to convince anybody since Ford started manufacturing and commercializing cars 10 years after his peers in Europe. Closer to 20 and he was neither pioneer of production-line manufacturing (that was Olds) nor of US car manufacturing (that's Duryea followed by Studebaker). The something he was on to was the moving assembly line (where the posts are fixed and the assembly moves around), inspired by slaughterhouse butchery lines.
  - pbhjpbhj 10y ago
    The thing Ford was on to was one-job production lines (where each worker does one job-atom and the work moves to the next stage) wasn't it? IIRC Ford's project was to make the car affordable to those of more modest means, so "everyone" could have a car. If you look at the quote then this interpretation makes more sense IMO - the quote clearly considers the position that cars were being made commercially 20 years before Ford. TL;DR the Ford point is he democratised car use in the face of congress's earlier consideration that such widespread use would kill agriculture and people. (Mind you the congress memo quote seems pretty right on).

JD557 10y ago

> Wrights were actually very secretive and they were reluctant to publish anything before they got the patent. I believe that this was not true for Santos-Dumont[1] though. I wonder if he had more media coverage at the time. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont

masklinn 10y ago
It's not true of most other aviation pioneers, because they were either independently wealthy or well-funded. The Wright brothers were self-funded but not really wealthy, their flyers were their path to wealth so the secrecy was understandable.
- restalis 10y ago
  "most other aviation pioneers, because they were either independently wealthy or well-funded" Wrong! One of them was Traian Vuia, struggling with financial difficulties which significantly delayed both the plane development and its final public demonstration in Paris! Other not so wealthy pioneers are Percy Pilcher, Lawrence Hargrave, Samuel Franklin Cody, Otto Lilienthal, Aurel Vlaicu, and many others.

danbmil99 10y ago

> Their contribution except for first flight is very marginal Absolutely untrue. The Wright Brothers brought their breakthrough into the market in a big way, becoming a (not the only) major manufacturer of commercially available, working, reliable aircraft. True, they fought patent battles, and in the end their reliance on wing warping (covered well by their patents) held them back when it became clear that ailerons were the way foreward - but they certainly were more than just experimental researchers. They truly did usher in the age of practical, heavier-than-air flight.

chaostheory 10y ago
If they didn't focus mainly on patents and secrecy, maybe they could have seen that ailerons were the future. If the US didn't enter WWI, the US aircraft industry could have stagnated under the Wrights. They just weren't building and innovating anymore. They were just suing everyone.