Discoveries
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"The Wright brothers' first flight was not reported in a single newspaper
because every rookie reporter knew what could and couldn't be done."
- Edward Murrow
The discovery of human flight represents one of the most impressive technological achievements in existence. There simply was no historical precedent; the problem called for true ingenuity.
As the 1800s were drawing to a close, the race to create a workable flying machine was being addressed by many experts in the field (1). Large groups of engineers and scientists, many representing an extraordinary accumulation of knowledge, brought the latest technological advances to the table. The experts focused on creating specialized parts - the best wings, the best engines, and so on - and they had plenty of money backing them up. Like a ship, which is designed for stability so that errant waves do not tip it over, the experts based their designs on V-shaped wings so that wayward gusts of wind would not tip their flying machines over. To them, what mattered was stability - and their designs repeatedly failed.
Many people thought that Samuel Langley, a physicist and secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, would be the first person to discover human flight (2). Langley had an impressive track record, having been elected as a member of the esteemed American Antiquarian Society and being awarded the prestigious Prix Jules Janssen, the highest award of the French astronomical society. Langley had developed a degree of success with unpiloted flying models, which he powered with steam engines. The zenith of his aviation achievements occurred in 1896, when his unpiloted Number 5 model flew 1000 meters, ten times farther than any precious heavier-than-air flying machine. Based on this success, Langley was awarded $70,000 USD (which would equate to $2,162,317 USD today) to develop a piloted airplane.
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Langley's Number 5, an unpiloted flying machine. |
Rolling in cash, Langley invented a piloted flying machine called the Aerodrome. He recruited a pilot named Charles Manly along with a team of specialized designers to create a powerful 50 horsepower engine for his flying machine. The Aerodrome emphasized stability and was tested only in calm air. Manly tested the Aerodrome in 1903, and it failed, dumping the unfortunate pilot into the Potomac River on two occasions. Yet even if it had successfully flown, it is now recognized that the Aerodrome's emphasis on stability rendered the pilot unable to control the airplane properly, and a crash would have been inevitable.
The Wright Approach
In contrast to experts such as Langley, Orville and Wilbur Wright had no advantages in experience or financial backing when it came to discovering human flight (3). In fact, neither of them completed their high school diplomas (although Wilbur was awarded one his after death).
The Wright brothers gained experience in a variety of projects that appeared unrelated to flight. In 1889, they designed and built their own printing press using pieces of scrap (some of which came from their backyard). In 1892, given that the US was in the middle of a bicycle craze, they opened a bicycle shop where they sold, repaired, and modified bicycles, learning the trade inside and out; they even created their own bicycle brand.
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The Wright brothers. |
In 1896, the year that Langley flew his unpiloted Number 5 model, the Wright brothers became seriously interested in flying. That same year, German aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal also died while flying one of his famed gliders (4). Lilienthal had favoured pilot control over stability, which was the same approach that Wilbur and Orville took; Lilienthal's death aside, they realized that many of the experts over-valued stability in the air. Thus, rather than focus on the best wings, engines, or stability in the air, the Wright brothers focused on developing a system of absolute and reliable pilot control.
Like a bicycle, Wilbur and Orville recognized that the key to human flight was to give the pilot full control, to let the human brain maintain the stability of the aircraft by using its already-evolved ability to continuously adjust to the ever-changing air conditions. This led them to develop a three-axis control system, which allowed the pilot full control over the three critical flight dynamics parameters (roll, pitch, and yaw). In 1901 and 1902, the Wright brothers extensively tested their three-axis control system through hundreds of piloted, glider-based flights.
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First flight of the Wright Flyer, 1903. |
Finally, in 1903, the Wright brothers were ready to create a piloted, powered flying machine. Rather than spend inordinate amounts of money on a souped-up engine, they enlisted the assistance of their shop mechanic, Charlie Taylor, and built a lightweight engine with only 12 horsepower, in just 6 weeks. Later that year, at Kitty Hawk, the Wright brothers piloted the Wright Flyer for 59 seconds, the world's first piloted, powered, and controlled flight in history. The total cost of the airplane came in at less than $1000 USD.
On Discoveries
So the central question is this - why did so many experts such as Langley fail to discover human flight, as opposed to the Wright brothers, who succeeded?
Experts such as Langley divided the work, relying upon teams of designers to build the most technologically advanced and specialized parts. They thought of airplanes as ships at sea, which are inherently stable since tipping over is to be avoided at all costs, and so they focused on stability. The designers did not build their own flying machines, and nor did they fly them; everything was disconnected and they did not understand the whole process.
In contrast, the Wright brothers did nearly all the work themselves, relying upon their own designs and skills to build their machines, which allowed them to embrace the whole process, to see how everything - the wings, the engines, and pilot control - fit together. They thought of airplanes as bicycles, which are inherently unstable and under complete control of the rider, which lead to the invention of three-axis pilot control. Importantly, they piloted their flying machines themselves.
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The Wright brothers sacrificed aircraft stability for full, three-axis pilot control. |
So the Wright brothers embraced the process from start to finish, from design to construction to piloting, which is part of the reason they succeeded. Still, there may be another reason - for years, many people throughout the world believed that the Wright brothers were making their accomplishments up, with many experts and media sources calling them "bluffers," or even outright liars. The brothers ignored the background chatter, preferring to focus on their work. It was not until 1908 that they were finally recognized as the authentic discoverers of piloted, powered, and controlled flight. Quite simply, many experts were mystified that such an innocuous duo had come out of nowhere to succeed where many others had failed. They could not believe it.
Yet that is how the greatest discoveries are made, from the most unlikely and modest of origins, from those who lack both specialized expertise and fame...by embracing the whole process and ignoring the background chatter.
And that is how the Wright brothers learned to soar, sky-high.
Solace.
References
(1) Greene. 2013. Mastery. Penguin Books.
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pierpont_Langley.
(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers
(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Lilienthal
