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Except that the Wright brothers would never have pursued powered flight without the prior pioneering example of Otto Lilienthal: "Of all the men who attacked t
by kibwen 3y ago
Except that the Wright brothers would never have pursued powered flight without the prior pioneering example of Otto Lilienthal:
"Of all the men who attacked the flying problem in the 19th century, Otto Lilienthal was easily the most important. ... It is true that attempts at gliding had been made hundreds of years before him, and that in the nineteenth century, Cayley, Spencer, Wenham, Mouillard, and many others were reported to have made feeble attempts to glide, but their failures were so complete that nothing of value resulted." ~ Wilbur Wright, 1912
- eesmith 3y agoWhat is your point? That the Wright brothers were not pioneers of flight? In that case, Winton also was not a pioneer in the automobile industry, as he too built on previous work. The Benz Patent-Motorwagen came out a decade before Winton's first car, which in turn built on previous work. Yet Winton called himself a pioneer. And people at the time definitely considered the Wrights pioneers. Eg, the Aero Club of the United Kingdom gave them gold medals in 1908 for their "pioneer work".