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Thread: Flight before wrights?

  1. #51

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Posts
    2,575
    I agree with one part of what Frank says, that if there was anyone who really flew a controlled powered flight before the Wrights, and could prove it, then they would have likely done so in court when a lot of money was at stake.
    And to believe that Whitehead really flew when we have no real photo of it, and no surviving plane or even surviving engines of his; is asking us to have faith beyond a reasonable doubt.

    I don't agree with Andrew that the Wrights were secretive, they made many flights in public places; people were so set in doubtful ways that they didn't even conceive of what real flight was and didn't want to believe reports of it.

    I am sure that if I had invented the airplane, just like any other inventor, like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Coca Cola, I would patent it and want to profit from my genius and hard work. That is the American way, nothing wrong with that.
    Frankly it seems to me that a Curtis aileron is different than wing warping, but the courts repeatedly held that it was only a version of the Wright design and upheld the Wrights patent.

    By the way, I just read an article on propellers that said the old 12 foot wooden props of the Wrights were about 80 % efficient and the best ones today are only about 5% better after a 105 years. We should admire the work of two geniuses and not be jealous of it.
    Last edited by Bill Greenwood; 09-16-2013 at 03:22 PM.

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