Montgomery was a fascinating guy, and, in my opinion, well worth learning more about. No affiliation, etc., but I can recommend this book:Originally Posted by Jim Heffelfinger
http://www.amazon.com/Quest-Flight-J.../dp/0806142642
Not to mention William Wellman's slightly-obscure classic movie, Gallant Journey. I don't know Montgomery's story well enough to attest to the accuracy, but it's a very enjoyable film.
Hal Bryan
EAA Lifetime 638979
Vintage 714005 | Warbirds 553527
Managing Editor
EAA—The Spirit of Aviation
JJ Montgonery is indeed quite a character and would have continued developing his designs had he not ventured too fast to earth.
Thanks Hal for the plug of Harwood/Fogle book. Chapter 52 has a big block of this book inhouse for sale at the Golden West event. Chapter member Thom Taylor is the builder of the replica. Much re-engineering has delayed the project and the replica will be incomplete while on display. I will put together an article and photos for pubs.
jim
You know the internet is amazing - here is the movie - ON YOUTUBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE-2pviy_4Q
Last edited by Jim Heffelfinger; 06-04-2013 at 04:10 PM.
I lived in San Diego for a year during which I learned to fly at Montgomery Field, so I know the story of John M. who as a teenager may well have built and flown a controllable hang glider at Otay Mesa southeast of town. It is hard to know for sure, no photos or iron clad proof but a good chance that he did it, and before the Wrights flew theirs.
Of course he didn't have powered controlled flight before the Bros. but unlike some of the other myths who are said to have flown, John M. did go on to develop real flying airplanes, and pretty good ones.
Ironically, if he had known about the rising air currents as the incoming sea breeze flows over the shoreline, he might have soared there. Hang gliders can stay aloft easily at Torrey Pines near La Jolla and there is even a small glider strip there. I did some hang gliding near there myself, great fun.
I hate to be the contrarian, but I find all the claims of controlled flight prior to the Wrights to be dubious in the extreme.
Not that it couldn't have happened, but that it would have been disregarded considering what happened after Kitty Hawk.
The Wright brothers were, gently speaking, jerks of the highest order. Once they flew and got the patents, they immediately stopped building and flying and started suing the crap out of anyone building an airplane with six axis of control.
They even had the hubris to bid to sell the Army aircraft with the condition that they not be given a demonstration until they were paid in full for the contract (which the Army didn't go for).
In Europe the French claimed they were lying (resulting in the first public display of a Wright aircraft); the Germans went through some really circuitous path of obscure academic papers to allow manufacture; the Brits studiously ignored the Wrights, and poor Glen Curtiss spent as much time in court as he did making engines and aircraft in the USA. It is because of the Wrights that the USA flew French planes in WWI, as in the USA aviation was the domain of lawyers and ground to a halt.
It was only after WWI that the federal government stepped in and forced a patent pool on the Wrights to relieve the death stranglehold on the neck of aviation.
If there had been anyone that had produced a credible aircraft before the Wrights, no matter how dodgy the documentation, it would have been jumped on and the inventor brought into court to testify to the fact, no matter how reluctant they might have been.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
You know, Frank, that's an excellent argument. Most folks are probably aware that, as part of the patent fight, Glenn Curtiss "rebuilt" Sam Langley's Aerodrome in an attempt to show the Wrights weren't first. Surely, if Whitehead's plane worked, that would have been introduced, too. Supposedly, a museum in Connecticut used to have a picture of the plane in flight...in 1910, that picture should still have been around.
Ron Wanttaja
Excellent post Frank.
The premise is interesting, but I think there are quite a few inaccuracies in this post. The Wrights flew in '03, '04, and '05, and there were quite a lot of eyewitnesses to their flying especially in '05, and various published accounts. Huffman Prairie was a public place, and if you wanted to go see them fly they couldn't stop you. They stopped flying in '06 and '07 to try to sell their aircraft to the military, but while they insisted on a signed contract before giving a demonstration they did not insist on pre-payment. In '08 they started flying again and flew a lot for a few years (and built a lot of airplanes). They were certainly secretive and stuffy, and litigious, but it's going a bit far to call them jerks. Read their diaries and private writings and you will not have that impression. They were far ahead of everybody else in aviation for the first few years, and believed that they deserved their just reward. While they didn't help aviation much after 1910 I wouldn't feel too sorry for Glenn Curtiss (who certainly would've been more fun to be around!), there was nothing "poor" about him. He made a fortune in aviation, and built plenty of aircraft and engines during that time. "Death stranglehold"? I don't think that's accurate, there was a lot going on in US aviation leading up to WW1, though certainly not the innovations that were going on in Europe. But I don't think you can lay too much of the blame on the Wrights, some would say that the US made some of the same mistakes in the 1930s in the lead-up to WW2 (for instance Europeans held the altitude record from 1932 until 1951, and speed record from 1924 until 1947). The Wrights and many other innovators in aviation and other fields were far from perfect, but everything has to be kept in perspective, and seldom is there a simple story behind the abridged history that is too often taught. It was a great period in history, with great characters and amazing events, and one must be careful about throwing around too many generalisations.
Last edited by Andrew King; 06-16-2013 at 11:47 PM.
Six "directions," maybe--up, down, left, right, roll left, roll right--but only three axes: longitudinal, lateral, pitch.an airplane with six axis of control.
Stephan, you're right - six directions on three axis.
Andrew, I'd say that stranglehold is quite accurate in describing what the Wright brothers had on the neck of aviation in the USA.
There was no serious manufacturing of aircraft in the USA until after WWI. Not that the technology wasn't there - the Europeans were using Wright and Curtiss innovations as much as they came up with their own - but the legal hurdles were too extreme to allow the likes of Nieuport, Sopwith, Albatross, Fokker, or SPAD factories to exist.
One can't say there wasn't an interest in aviation in the USA like there was in Europe as an excuse, either.
Had their tactic been to seek monetary compensation for use of their patents for aircraft produced rather than to demand injunction against manufacture to begin with my opinion of them would be much higher. And it would make more sense, as a company would have assets on which to seek recompense from.
The Wright brothers did fly and put on demonstrations - most famously in France, and mostly as a way of shutting up those who claimed they were lying. And later they did found a flying school here in Alabama (on what is now Maxwell AFB), but at the end of the day they weren't pushing for flying as much as protection of intellectual property.
Curtiss was certainly a PITA; playboy motorcycle racer and engine designers typically are. And yes, he built aircraft and dared the Wright brothers to sue (most boldly about the aileron). However, he was building aircraft and flying them regularly, showcasing them to the public (granted for self-promotion as much as for anything else). I think he delighted in counter-suing them just for the fight of it.
That said, in all the court battles if there had been a credible example of controlled powered flight out there that pre-dated the Wright brothers it would have been jumped on and triumphed around the world - out of jealousy as much as for the money.
Last edited by Frank Giger; 09-15-2013 at 01:34 AM.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
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