Wings #2 Questions 2, 3, and 5 by Jonathan Smithers

2. How did this new field of aviation affect science?

In the years leading up to the first flight and shortly after the first flight, most work was done by engineers. The Wright brothers functioned as engineers, they were just trying to get solutions to questions, or problems, that they had with flight. Many other people after the Wright brothers were trying to improve the aircraft, they did not really think about the science behind it, they just knew that it worked, and used that to their advantage.

Even though much of the work done on the airplane was without a thought about the science behind it, it had a huge impact on science. Aircraft experimentation led to great strides in the understanding of fluid dynamic and aerodynamics.

3. Who took the lead in establishing aviation as a business and what effect did it have on the rest of the world?

The French took the lead by far in establishing aviation as a business, specifically a man by the name of Louis Bleriot. Besides the Germans, the French spent the most of aviation. The Germans spent $28 million and the French spent $22 million between 1908 and 1913 on aviation, the country that spent the next most was Russia and they only spent $12 million. The United States only spent $435,000 in that same time period on aviation. The French produced over 1,023 aircraft between 1909 and 1913, with Bleriot’s company producing a large majority of those aircraft. Between 1909 and 1914 Bleriot’s company created over 800 aircraft. (Wings pg. 126)

5. In your opinion, did the Wright Brothers’ patent suits affect the progress of aviation?

I think that the Wright Brother’s patent suits affected the progress of aviation in both a positive and negative way. It negatively affected aviation in the fact that they were unwilling to share their ideas and invention with others. This caused many other aircraft manufactures to think about other ways to do the same thing. Basically, they forced other aviation companies to “reinvent the wheel”; and reinvent the wheel they did. The Wright Brother’s wing warping system was crucial to the success of their aircraft, and they would let anyone else use the same design. This forced other manufactured to invent their own methods of stabilizing the aircraft. This is somewhat positive in the manner that it forced other companies to come up with inventions to solve the same problems.