A greater Appreciation

[JETBOUND]

My dad recently sent me this email and I thought I'd share it here on the board.



Thank God for flight!

An open letter from a Boeing 767 Captain


On my 50th birthday my oldest son presented me with a gift of the Wright Brother’s Diaries. Reading their collection of letters are striking and your mind quickly fly’s away to a world that seems so long ago. An “ancient” world with challenges that seemed incredibly over whelming. This year we will all celebrate the 100th anniversary of powered flight. Wow! 100 years! The lifespan of but one mature man. Just think of all that has happened in that 100 years. When I was a student I was instructed by an individual who he himself was instructed by Orville Wright. Three short generations from when flight began. As we approach this anniversary it is more than a milestone, it is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Just imagine what life would be like without flight. Imagine a transcontinental or even a trans oceanic trip without flight. Imagine how different this world would be without quick access to far away places. Could you attend that distant graduation? Would you vacation where you do? How about those distant visits for business or relatives? How often would they happen? The world has truly shrunk and the level of commerce, culture, and ethnic integration that before was unfathomable is now reality. And flight has made it all possible.

The dynamic nature of and depth of change in the aviation industry has few rivals. From that early Wright flyer, engineering and entrepreneurs have taken us to incredible heights. Boeing is responsible for designing and manufacturing the magnificent machine that I fly --- the Boeing 767. Wilbur and Orville would be “blown away” with the accomplishments of Boeing and of this aircraft. I am honored and privileged to pilot this craft for a living and thank Delta Air Lines for being wise enough to have chosen these Boeing products.

Ultimately, however, all thanks falls on the Wright Brothers for gifting all mankind with the miracle of flight. All of us who have ever slipped the surly bonds owe them our gratitude, respect, and admiration. Flight has changed my life. Flight has likely changed every reader’s life as well!

Now, as your Captain I would like to say “Welcome, and come on aboard.” “Fasten your seatbelts, and lets go fly!” Oh, in this next 100 year flight we may experience a bump or two, but if the advances are as great in the next century as they were in the first 100 years, hang on---- we are in for a thrilling ride!

 

[hhab]

"Ultimately, however, all thanks falls on the Wright Brothers for gifting all mankind with the miracle of flight. All of us who have ever slipped the surly bonds owe them our gratitude, respect, and admiration"


Nice letter.

Not to step on anyones toes here, but as far as the Wright Bros, I will give them credit for conducting the first confirmed ( a New Zelander was most likely the first one ) nonpublic ( they wanted to keep it secret ) motorized flight with principles and ideas mostly from other aviation pioneers.

 

[avbug]

Very good. The wrights were not the first to fly nor the first to conduct powered flight. They were the first to conduct powered, controlled flight, with attending documentation. They were also the first to kill someone with a powered, controlled airplane.

 

[hhab]

They were also the first ones ( probably ) to sue other inventors and competitors. They tried real hard to hinder further advancement in aircraft design for the next 20 years after their first flight.....

 

[Vladimir Lenin]

Didn't the russians fly first in this manner (powered and controlled), albeit undocumented? Or was it the french?
Oh, and does Ford's sudden alliance with everything Wright brothers seem awfully commercialized to anyone else?

 

[tarp]

Heaven forbid that History record that two white Americans be credited with anything. Please let's get the records straight, submit those pictures, diaries, drawings of all the efforts of the Russian, NZ, Australian, French and Germans.

The only person who in my estimation does not get enough credit is Octave Chanute. Chanute was like the shuttle diplomat of Aeronautics. He really never created an idea but he was everyone's sounding board and obviously a great conductor of information.

In the 7 years before the Wright Bros first powered, controlled flight, everyone was working on Lillienthal's idea of man flying. Mouillard and Tissander (France) wrote to Chanute. Chanute talked and visited with the Illinois and Indiana gliders (James Means, William Butusov and AM Herring). Wilbur initiated his own dialogue with Chanute with a letter in 1900.

What galled the entire world is that two high school educated, bicycle shop owners from Ohio with no real financial or national motivation got all the facts together and created a flying machine. These two school boys proved that Lillienthal's tables of lift and wing shape were wrong. The aeronautical "engineers" of the time went ballistic at this notion until the Wright Glider managed to outperform any previously designed glider by a factor of 3 or 4. With this new idea of lift, the brothers then turned to propulsion and invented new propellors and hand built (actually Charlie Taylor - their machinist in the bicycle shop) an engine that no other manufacturer would touch.

Chanute even went to France to give a speech to the Aero-Club de France in 1902 and told the folks there EVERYTHING about the Wright's effeorts. Everything down to the mathematical design for the glider! The Club exclaimed that no American's would steal the promise of flight from the French - who had given the world ballons and were the LEADERs in aviation.

Ferber, Bleroit, Archdeacon, Voison and Hargrove of Australia all started immediately on plans to design an airplane with the only motivation to be the "first" claim on powered flight.

S.P. Langley was aghast at the Wright Brothers. He had arranged all these magnificent government fundings for his airplane and he more than all the others needed to be first in powered flight! He had more financial funding than all the other engineers combined.

But in the end, two hayseeds - simple young enthusiasts from Ohio endied up doing it. They had no claim to financial gain, they were just simply the first. Later they created a company that would gain financially but Glenn Curtis made sure they would never really be successful - he was the first to sue in court that the Wright Brothers were second and that his old friend Mr. Langley was indeed the first powered flight. Claiming Langley's work was sabotaged due to the military nature, Curtis tried to convince the courts that Langley should be awarded status.

History has constantly tried to be re-written to steal glory from the Wright Brothers. I don't know why? I personally am enthralled with their story. This is exactly the same thing as James Watt and the steam engine. Does anyone want to argue about this Englishman? Or was it Papin, the displaced Frenchman who actually came up with the idea of steam power - maybe Savery or Newcomen?

So go ahead - claim whatever you want every time somebody mis-states that the Wright's were first in man-powered flight. Give the glory to whatever nationality you think is better than the USA. I know in my head from what I've read that the first practical airplane would have been years later in development if not for the Wrights. The Wright Brothers (it can be said) are the inventors of the modern aeroplane, period. They brought it all together, they made it work and they documented it. Done.

 

[avbug]

So goes the conspiracy set by the wrights to present history that way, any how.

There's no denying that the wrights earned their place in history...but the story as it's often touted isn't accurate.

Lilienthal and Chanute were both extremely important to the development of the wrights, and other advances that fueled early aviation. Not only to the wrights, but to others, in other nations.

The russians? C'mon! Really.

 

[AeroBoy]

Poor Samuel Langley. His airplane design was valid, and his engine was leaps and bounds over the Wrights', but his insistance on catapulting the airplane from a houseboat literally sunk his chances. Years later Curtiss flew Langley's airplane with a set of floats, proving that Langley would have indeed been the first to fly if he would have chucked the catapult idea. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess...

 

[avbug]

Hindsight is 20/20 I guess...

Technically, I believe that is a matter of personal hygiene, isn't it?

 

[hhab]

"Heaven forbid that History record that two white Americans be credited with anything. Please let's get the records straight, submit those pictures, diaries, drawings of all the efforts of the Russian, NZ, Australian, French and Germans"


-----Very few disagree that Wright Bros had the first CONFIRMED flight. I do not either.

Richard Pearse, New Zeland, did probably the first one though.....

http://chrisbrady.itgo.com/pearse/pearse.htm


There are many pioneers that deserve credit for their early research.
Sure, the WB put it together, But then they tried, and was largely succesfull, in suing most other manufactors claiming their patent on wing-wrapping, (obsolete after just a few years) and their way of controlling flight ( their way, a dangerous method to say the least...) was to have patent-right over all further inventions related to controlled flight in the future........

------


"But in the end, two hayseeds - simple young enthusiasts from Ohio endied up doing it. They had no claim to financial gain, they were just simply the first. Later they created a company that would gain financially but Glenn Curtis made sure they would never really be successful - he was the first to sue in court that the Wright Brothers were second and that his old friend Mr. Langley was indeed the first powered flight. Claiming Langley's work was sabotaged due to the military nature, Curtis tried to convince the courts that Langley should be awarded status."

---G.Curtiss became involved in the rebuilding of Langley airplane after Simthsonian approached him in 1913. The suit you are talking about: Curtiss vs Wright, to nullify first flight occured in 1914. By that time the Wight company was allready largely a succsessfull company due to their fierce and harsh business practices based on their ridiculous patent claim. If the Wright company ( with Orville Wright in charge ) would had spent a fraction of the time ( he spend trying to knock out competitors,) to pursue advancement in aviation, I belive his company could have been very succsessfull.

 

[enigma]

I'm with TARP. Show me the records. I want to see the enginering data compiled by the others. I want to see all of the experimentally derived data about lift, drag, propulsion and control that the others produced, documented and save.

The Wrights held their data close to their vest, but in the intervening 100 years, it has surfaced. They produced enough solid facts to give themselves claim to the title of "inventors" even had they never flown, because their engineering was correct and documented.

Yes they did try to protect their discoveries, Glenn Curtis tried everything under the sun to get around their patents to the point of colluding with the Smithsonian Institute to "prove" that Langley was the first to achieve controlled/powered flight. Curtis could only make the Langley machine fly after extensive re-working/re-enginering. The Langley machine that Curtis flew was dramatically different to the original Langley flyer. Curtis did invent the aileron in an attempt to get around the Wrights lateral control patents (wing warping). BTW, Aviation Week showed a picture recently of an F18 with warping wings. The Wrights were Wright!!

Men, these facts are not really disputable. The data is there. The Wright Brothers achievements can be proven by both fact and deed. Others may have also flown a powered, controllable machine, but there is no documentation.

This debate was settled in 1947 when the Smithsonian finally conceeded that the Wrights had accomplised the first flight and asked for the original Flyer.

One last point, the patent that the brothers earned for controllable flight held up. The war to end all wars changed the legal landscape by forcing all applicable patents into a pool because of national security. It was only this "pooling" of patents that gave anyone else the legal right to fly. By that time, one of the brothers had died, and the other apparently recognized the reality of the situation. I forget who died and who lived, but the survivor lost stomach to fight on. Ironically, the patent pooling ended up in the combination of the two fueding sides. The went from the "Hatfields and McCoys" to the Curtis-Wright Aeronautical Company.

regards,
8N

PS Many great books on these subjects exist. I recommend " The Bishops Boys", it is one of the better books written for the general public.

 

[hhab]

"Men, these facts are not really disputable. The data is there. The Wright Brothers achievements can be proven by both fact and deed. Others may have also flown a powered, controllable machine, but there is no documentation"


---Nobody here never diputed the fact that they did the first documented flight........



"This debate was settled in 1947 when the Smithsonian finally conceeded that the Wrights had accomplised the first flight and asked for the original Flyer. "


------If I remember correctly, O Wright had the original Flyer shipped to some museum in England. It was delivered to Smithsonian only after they ( Smithsonian ) wrote a letter of apology after very long negotiations, some of this because Wright wanted a promise from Smithsonian never to mention or accnowledge that any design prior to the Flyer was ever capable of powered flight.....


"Curtis did invent the aileron in an attempt to get around the Wrights lateral control patents (wing warping). BTW, Aviation Week showed a picture recently of an F18 with warping wings. The Wrights were Wright!!



-------Try wing warping on a dc-3, 4,6, or any other larger design made before advancement of modern tecnology....There was a reason why the Wrigh Bros early discarged the wing warping design in favor of aileron very early on..... The tail less flying wing consept was also made early on but modern tecnology made it safe / efficient...

It is far from a cut and dry case about Wright accomplishments vs other pioneer like Curtiss. There are tons of books and documentations available in favor of both sides.
The question I ask my self is who made the most contribution for aviation in the early days of aviation. The Wright Bros might be high, but not on top of that list......

 

[enigma]

HHAB, I just reread the entire string. It seems to me that you just want to disagree, and that you have some bone to pick with history.

I'll give you the last word. My last is to say this, the people who were alive and had a direct interest in who got the credit eventually decided that the Wrights had in fact been first. In fact, if the Smithsonian had not tried so hard for so long to prove that Langley had been first, there would be very little question about it. The Smithsonian had a large investment in both money and prestige with S.P. Langley, and they tried for almost a half a century to discredit the Wrights. They eventually did the honorable thing and put the credit where it belonged. If they, having a stake in the outcome, could decide that the issue was settled, why can't modern men do the same?

regards,
8N

 

[avbug]

The smithsonian did what they did, and said what they did, and part of a bargain to get the airplane for display. They sold out in exchange for an artifact. Their stance isn't necessarily altruistic support of historical accuracy, but payment for goods received.

 

[enigma]

The smithsonian did what they did, and said what they did, and part of a bargain to get the airplane for display. They sold out in exchange for an artifact. Their stance isn't necessarily altruistic support of historical accuracy, but payment for goods received.

Now,now, you're just being disagreable because you're a cake donut eater with a complex.

Back to the subject, can you refer me to a good book about the Smithsonians part of the situation? It's been decades since I read anything on the subject. Maybe I need to do a little refresher.

later, cake eater,
8N

 

[hhab]

"HHAB, I just reread the entire string. It seems to me that you just want to disagree, and that you have some bone to pick with history."

--- Not at all.

"I'll give you the last word. My last is to say this, the people who were alive and had a direct interest in who got the credit eventually decided that the Wrights had in fact been first. In fact, if the Smithsonian had not tried so hard for so long to prove that Langley had been first, there would be very little question about it. The Smithsonian had a large investment in both money and prestige......"


---- Maybe we are in fact talking around eachother and in fact meaning the same thing, but from what I can read from your posts you give me the impression ( I might have been wrong ) that someone claimed Langley was first to achieve powered flight.

Just to make sure:
No one ( not G Curtiss or any directors of Smithsonian ) ever disputed that the Wrights did the first confirmed powered flight.
Curtiss vs Wright case was to prove that Langlays machine was CAPABLE of powered flight.

That would have proved that there was other ways of controlling latheral controll and that the Wrights patent would only have been limited to wing-warping.
The Wrights managed to patern the whole IDEA of latheral control, that is ( quote ) to claim the idea of roundness in a tire patent.
So I will put the blaim for the dispute between Wright v/s anyone ( the long,long "fight" btw Wright and Smithsonian included ) to the person signing that patent ;-)

Sure, they put principles and ideas received from other pioners, and their own, made a useful Flyer w/ first confirmed flight ( and I will give them credit for that ) but would they have been able to do it by themself w/o help from ex Chanute and Langley? Would they still have been first?
So, because of their first ( confirmed ) flight they got patent-right for a whole CONCEPT reaching FAR beyond what they invented.
Then they used this patent against any competitors they could reach and effectivly slowed down advancements in aviation for the next 20 years. ( Except for filing lawsuits, the Wrights did not do much progress after the Flyer........)