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Dumont (and all early flyers) used headwinds to increase effective airspeed at takeoff. Does that disqualify him? The Wrights also of course used headwinds an
by dev_tty01 3y ago
Dumont (and all early flyers) used headwinds to increase effective airspeed at takeoff. Does that disqualify him? The Wrights also of course used headwinds and then added catapults to reduce their dependence on ideal headwinds to enable faster progress in a wider range of conditions.
For decades most orbital rockets took off in an easterly direction, effectively using the earth's rotation as a catapult. Does that disqualify them as successful orbital flights?
- mixmastamyk 3y agoYou are making it complicated on purpose. It's actually pretty simple. Did you take the airplane out, start it up, and take off? Like a modern, independent airplane? Or did you shoot it out of device first, because it wasn't able? And not even particularly important, by the way. The last time this kind of argument was novel to me was in the mid-nineties at Slashdot.
- dev_tty01 3y agoAs I said, the Wright's did not use the catapult in 1903. Three years before Dumont's 1906 flight of 60 metres, they flew well over 250 meters without catapult assist at takeoff. In 1904 they also flew over 400 meters without catapult assist. After that flight they started using a weight-powered catapult to simplify takeoffs and speed development. So yes, it is simple. The Wrights flew without "shooting it out of a device" years before Dumont. The Wright Flyer was also capable of lateral control, like a modern, independent airplane.