I thought that there were lots of people having a go at flying around this time. There were mostly failures because the whole exercise was like those "Junkyard War" contests with the added edge that none of the contestants had actually seen a plane, much less had experience with building or flying one. The Wrights seem to have brought a more quantatative, systematic, approach to what they were doing compared to most other builders -- they were not just making a plane but developing the technology to make planes.
There's been some TV programs recently on people's attempts to build a replica of the Wright Flyer. Most don't seem to work at all well -- I've seen attempts to fly planes that are seriously out of balance and have dubious control authority (the stab's too small, is too close to the fuse and its got too much travel and as for the "wing warping" who knows what those rigs are doing!). The more successful groups seem to be the ones that approach the problem as an aircraft design exercise and who probably did some very subtle tweaks to the design to make it work The Wrights themsevles never really seemed to crack the control and stability problem, their planes were regarded as deathtraps, and I think it was left to a French person to come up with the first plane that'd we'd recognize as such. Publicity is a powerful tool. Edison is creditied with the "invention of the electric light bulb" by most Americans. He didn't, but his organization was the first to make a light bulb that lasted long enough to be practical and was capable of being manufactured. The Wrights, like Joseph Swan, pioneered an important technology but it took others' work to reinvent it to the point where it was truly usable. (Don't get me started about computers............) Martin Uher ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dennis and Marion Hipperson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "[EMAIL PROTECTED] com" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 3:16 AM Subject: Re: [RCSE] Thoughts on the Wright Bros. Centennial > Well maybe, as the Smithsonian Conspiracy shows they woked hard at becomng > know as the fathers > of aviation. But were they, try this > http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/pearse.html > (snip) RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
