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As I understand it, the biggest innovation the Wright Brothers brought to the goal of powered flight was the understanding that the biggest hurdle was not propu
by AceyMan 7y ago
As I understand it, the biggest innovation the Wright Brothers brought to the goal of powered flight was the understanding that the biggest hurdle was not propulsion but control.
In a nutshell, most others of the era (not counting Santos-Dumont!) were striving to get more power with an assumption that once aloft with sufficient power that flight would "just 'happen."
Meanwhile, the Wrights knew more power was coming, and instead focused on the more important truth that if the operator couldn't control the ship it didn't matter at all how much power was available, how much lift was generated or how efficient the propeller was.
To this day the three-axis controls they settled on are fundamental to all conventional aircraft. (Though the weird "twisting wing" solution for roll control couldn't scale and so the aileron mechanism was a huge improvement.)
- bluGill 7y agoCorrect, control was their innovation. However control without enough power isn't useful. It is possible (albeit very unlikely) someone in the 1300s was able to build a controllable glider much like the wright brother's but lacking any means of propulsion it would be impractical and forgotten to history. I'm not discounting their innovation, just stating that it depending on propulsion. Once propulsion was there it was inevitable that someone would figure out control in a few years when they realized more power wasn't enough.