On Fri, 25 May 2001, Alberto Monteiro wrote:
> I think this will be an endless debate, because I will
> never concede that the First Airplane be something
> that wasn't public and that wasn't self-launched.
The ONLY way the Wright Brothers' work can be defined as "not public" is
if one indulges in the Eurocentric arrogance that characterized the
beginning of the 20th century and defines the "public" as "the
intelligensia of Paris." :-) In other words, family, friends, neighbors,
potential investors, the US Patent Office, and local newpapers in Ohio
don't count as public. I.e. they're not people who "count."
<friendly tweak>
And people wonder where Americans learned their arrogance!
</friendly tweak>
(Bear in mind we're not asking the lay public to verify something as
esoteric as an experimental chemical reaction, say...just whether or not a
big thing made of wood and metal can fly around in the air. No
specialized knowledge required.)
> As for the later [which seems the kernel of the
> argument] let me pose a question: who will be the
> first cloned human being?
>
> If, for example, someone creates a human being by
> taking a cell, changing the DNA a little bit, and
> then growing the baby, this will not be a clone.
>
> But if, in the future, *all* "clones" are done this
> way, with some minor changes in the DNA, this will
> *not* force us to accept that first pseudo-clone
> as "the first clone".
That kind of depends on whether the definition of "clone" changes,
actually, but I'm not sure it's a relevant example.
> That's why I claim that self-launch is essential
> for the *first* airplane, and not essencial after
> the self-lauch problem was solved. The problem that
> was posed in the XIX century was: "Can Man make a
> heavier-than-air machine that flies by itself?"
>
> If the question was simply "Can Man fly?" then
> it was answered much earlier by the balloons.
Here's the thing: for either the Wright Bros. or for Santos-Dumont, you
have to fudge a little bit to claim they built an "airplane" at all.
Santos-Dumont's plane was self-launching but couldn't really go
anywhere--surely a requirement for any working airplane. The Wright Flyer
of 1905 wasn't self-launching, but it could fly for as long as the gas
held out--upwards of 20 miles--and was pretty manueverable to boot. Both
planes proved that man can make a heavier than air machine that flies by
itself, if in slightly different ways.
Let's look at it another way: though self-launching, the Santos-Dumont
plane could not satisfy the dream of sustained, maneuverable flight.
Nobody dreaming of flight could be satisfied with a measly few hundred
meters. The Wright Flyer, though, could satisfy that ambition as early
as 1905.
The one thing that's indisputable is that the Wright Bros. did what they
did first.
Needer needer needer! ;-)
Marvin Long
Austin, Texas
