Orionworks - Steven Vincent Johnson <[email protected]> wrote:
> In case you might be interested, A new book on the Wright Brothers > recently came out, by David McCullough. > I've read it! I signed up to get the Kindle edition before it even came out. It isn't bad. It covers the "lost years" from 1906 to early 1908 in more detail than most biographies. During those years, the Wrights did not fly. They spent most of their time negotiating business deals and improving the motor. It is frustrating to think of it. In this book, it is frustrating to read how Wilbur had to spend nearly as much time convincing investors and customers that the airplane was a real, viable product, as he spent inventing the thing. I still say they could have cut short the time by doing better demonstration flights, and by using the photos and affidavits they collected from the flights. They were not experts in motors. They should have had experts working on that, which they concentrated on the airplane itself. They could not hire experts because they did not have the capital they needed. All that changed in August 1908 with the public flights in France and Washington DC. In the spring of 1908 they returned to Kitty Hawk for flight testing. Kitty Hawk was difficult to reach in those days. Some famous reporters made the effort to get there, and they published accounts of the test flights saying "it is all true, the Wrights can fly!" but the public still did not believe it. They should have conducted those tests in Dayton, in full view of the public. It would have brought about the recognition they needed months earlier. Here is one of the news reports from Kitty Hawk, Arthur Ruhl, "History at Kill Devil Hill", Collier's, 30 May 1908: https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/exhibits/wright/htmlFiles/HKDH.html This is accurate and detailed, except that it ignores the fact that dozens of people had seen the earlier flights, and many had signed affidavits testifying as much, including a bank president. The reporters should have believed those people. They never interviewed them or expressed any curiosity. Even the local Dayton papers ignored them. - Jed
