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First in Flight?
www.americanscientist.org ^
| Nov 2003
| David Schneider
Posted on 10/15/2012 9:41:50 AM PDT by ThinkingBuddha
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To: ThinkingBuddha
And yet those others weren’t able to accomplish anything with their machines.
2
posted on
10/15/2012 9:44:03 AM PDT
by
driftdiver
(I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
To: driftdiver
And yet those others werent able to accomplish anything with their machines.It reminds me of people who say "the Vikings really discovered America centuries before Columbus"; however, the Vikings apparently didn't tell anybody.
3
posted on
10/15/2012 9:49:42 AM PDT
by
Sans-Culotte
( Pray for Obama- Psalm 109:8)
To: driftdiver
I hadn’t heard of the steam-powered plane before! Interesting!
To: ThinkingBuddha
Unlike the others, the Wright Brothers invented the science of Aeronautics by their systematic and carefully reasoned approach to heavier-than-air flight.
The Wrights’ famous first flight was the last flight of the day at Kittyhawk. All the others that day had failed. On the last flight, the Wright Flyer became airborne under its own power and flew 120 feet. Higher and longer flights were made on the following days.
The Wright's achievement was not seen as important at the time by the media of the day, but the Wright's being home for Christmas was.
To: driftdiver
Similar inventions tend to come at the same time all over the place. It really comes down to a matter of luck and access to resources and funds.
6
posted on
10/15/2012 9:59:18 AM PDT
by
cripplecreek
(What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
To: ThinkingBuddha
The Wrights were the first to do controlled heavier-than-air flight.
To: ThinkingBuddha
Article to diminish their achievement, First sustained powered flight.
8
posted on
10/15/2012 10:00:24 AM PDT
by
dila813
To: ThinkingBuddha
What I find interesting about Whitehead is that people have built replicas of his 1901 'airplane' and have flown them. Makes it a little harder simply to dismiss the affidavits and newspaper articles about his 1901 flights.
But - hey - I'm no expert.
9
posted on
10/15/2012 10:00:42 AM PDT
by
Scoutmaster
(You knew the job was dangerous when you took it)
To: driftdiver
And yet those others werent able to accomplish anything with their machines. ...except be first to fly a powered heavier-than-air craft, which one of them was.
And truly, the Wright Flyer didn't accomplish much either, except to fly further and more reliably than any HTA craft had done before. I don't minimize this, it was a great accomplishment. The Wrights' accomplishment, really, was to demonstrate sufficient engineering and design skills to reliably repeat the experiment. All the developments in aircraft technology immediately following the flight at Kitty Hawk were based on their design, including the brothers' own work with Glenn Curtiss.
10
posted on
10/15/2012 10:01:39 AM PDT
by
Oberon
(Big Brutha Be Watchin'.)
To: Sans-Culotte
It reminds me of people who say "the Vikings really discovered America centuries before Columbus"; however, the Vikings apparently didn't tell anybody.
They weren't interested in telling anyone but they did leave plenty of evidence behind.
11
posted on
10/15/2012 10:05:23 AM PDT
by
cripplecreek
(What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
To: ThinkingBuddha
dunno. i kinda favor Gus whitehead myself, fellow nutmegger and all.;-)
12
posted on
10/15/2012 10:15:41 AM PDT
by
camle
(keep an open mind and someone will fill it full of something for you)
To: cripplecreek
They weren't interested in telling anyone but they did leave plenty of evidence behind. I don't doubt they were there. But it was not a discovery. More like a secret. Columbus and the explorers who followed him were the real discoverers.
13
posted on
10/15/2012 10:18:29 AM PDT
by
Sans-Culotte
( Pray for Obama- Psalm 109:8)
To: ThinkingBuddha
No, the Wright brothers were credited with performing the worlds first manned, powered, controlled and sustained flight. All of these elements were necessary before flight could become a practical and useful technology. that's the true signifigance of their achievement.
CC
14
posted on
10/15/2012 10:21:50 AM PDT
by
Celtic Conservative
(Q: how did you find America? A: turn left at Greenland)
To: Oberon
Lots of people flew before. The landing is the tricky part.
15
posted on
10/15/2012 10:27:37 AM PDT
by
driftdiver
(I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
To: driftdiver
As with Columbus, The Wrights may well not have been the “first” but they were the first entrepreneurs to do it, the first significant doers of the deed, the first to make it commercially useful.
16
posted on
10/15/2012 10:34:59 AM PDT
by
arthurus
(Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson)
To: ThinkingBuddha
I have NEVER considered the simple act of buoyancy to be “flight”.
17
posted on
10/15/2012 10:42:21 AM PDT
by
SJSAMPLE
To: arthurus
The Vikings attempted settling in Newfoundland but failed. However the first southern Europeans didn’t do so hot either. What the southern Europeans did do was keep trying.
18
posted on
10/15/2012 10:44:11 AM PDT
by
cripplecreek
(What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra
Obama invented the airplane with a windmill on top of it. Didn’t work though.
19
posted on
10/15/2012 10:59:33 AM PDT
by
SC_Pete
To: cripplecreek
There was literally no room in N.America for the Vikings settle. By the time other Europans started colonizing in the 17th century 80% of the human population had died off due to old world diseases. Plenty of room then.
20
posted on
10/15/2012 11:03:56 AM PDT
by
DManA
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