5. Why did Wilbur and Orville Wright achieve success before
their contemporaries?
Wilbur and Orville Wright achieved
success before their contemporaries because of their engineering prowess and
their persistent mindset of improvement. Firstly, Wilbur and Orville were
inventors and builders from an early age. Entrepreneurs by nature, the men
dabbled in different business ventures, learning how to construct, run, and fix
all types of machines. As young men running a print shop, “they were probably
best known for their unique presses, constructed from tombstones, folding buggy
tops, and other spare parts,” (page 57). Both brothers had a solid knowledge
base in the mechanical workings of a bicycle, which, as the book discusses on
page 60, bears a lot of similarities with the principles of a plane. From years
of running their bicycle shop in Dayton, they had grown accustomed to building
and fixing parts with precision and consistency, knowledge that helped them as
they began to design and build very precise parts for their planes.
Secondly, the brothers were always
improving their machine and gathering ideas for their next model. Instead of
going home and giving up on the idea of inventing a flying machine, they
analyzed each failure that they experienced and applied what they had learned
from each downfall to their next attempt. What’s even more impressive is that
many people at this time didn’t think flight was even possible, but the Wright
brothers had a vision and the confidence and persistence to achieve that
vision. In order to learn what would work, they had to first spend a lot of
time learning about what didn’t work. When the 1900 aircraft was unsuccessful
in sustaining flight, they increased the wing size and changed the fabric
covering the wings. When they realized that these bigger wings were unable to
hold their shape in the air, they added reinforced the trusses and changed the
camber to strength the wings. “Their key to technical innovation involved
learning from mistakes as well as successes and incorporating lessons learned
with each machine into the next,” (page 63).
6. How did the United States government and other countries
respond to the Wrights’ efforts to sell their invention?
After
the Samuel Langley fiasco in 1898, the U.S. government was hesitant to meddle
in the field of aviation again. Having already lost $50,000 to that failed
project, losing even more money would be a huge embarrassment for the
government. If they were going to invest any more resources in aviation, they
would want stone cold proof that their money was going to go towards something
worthwhile this time around. The Wright brothers knew that their machine and its
secrets needed to be diligently guarded to ward off any other aspiring
inventors from duplicating, so they were very tight lipped about their success
to the press. Photographs of the plane or its flight were seldom shown.
Probably most cumbersome to their marketing strategy was the fact that they
refused to perform a demonstration flight to prove their claims until a
contract had already been signed. To the U.S. government, the Wright Brothers
could have been more imposters like Langley, claiming that they had invented a
flying machine without actually having done so.
Other
governments felt similar to that of the United States. “No government would
sign a contract without a demonstration flight,” (page 83). Britain’s army were impressed with the
ideas and claims of the brothers, but decided they should develop their own
flying machine in Britain now that these brothers said it was possible. France
dabbled in negotiation with the brothers as well, but did not sign a contract.
Finally in 1908, five years after the brothers had initially attempted to file
a patent on their flying machine, the U.S. government accepted a bid from the
Wright Brothers, after creating a specific requirement list for what the
government needed in a flying machine. After the contract was signed, the U.S.
government finally had the opportunity to see a demonstration flight.
7. When and what was La Grande Semaine d’Aviation de
Champagne and what significance does it have in aviation history?
La
Grande Semaine d’Aviation de Champagne was a week-long flight exhibition event
that took place from August 22-29, 1909 in Plains of Bethany. This event marked
the first time in history that the entire public got to see an airplane fly.
Before this point, the press would talk of aviation and its possibilities, but
it was hard for a common man to believe that the airplane would change society
without seeing the new invention for himself. Although the Wright Brothers did
not participate as pilots, they did allow their planes to be featured. Other
aviation specialists that provided planes for the event included the Voisin
brothers, Antoinette, Farman, Bleriot, Fernandez, and Kluytman.
In
addition to being the first public exhibition of flight, this event allowed the
public and potential investors to compare and contrast the different airplanes.
Each manufacturer produced an airplane with a different strength, such as turn
maneuvering or pitch stability. The plane manufacturers were each hoping to
show that their design was superior to the others, and should therefore garner
the most contracts and business. The final goal of the event was for the pilots
to compete for the James Gordon Bennett Trophy for the longest and fastest
flight. This award was presented to Glenn Curtis for his flight of 32 miles,
averaging speeds of 46.5 mph in the air (page 118).
This
event reinforced a spirit of competitiveness in airplane manufacturing. Gone
were the days of only being able to choose from a few models of planes. Each
year, more men were acquiring the technology to build and market a flying
machine. The desire to develop the best invention, especially in the face of competition,
always pushes progress along and has had a huge significance in aviation
history. Without fear of losing one’s stake in the industry, manufacturers
might not have made some of the critical advances in flight over the last
century.
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