In a previous article, "Jim" said:
Imagine Langley's engine on Wright's aircraft! Too bad the Wrights didn't
accept Langley's offer to listen to his speech at the SI. I believe the

If they had, I bet the Smithsonian would *still* be claiming that they
used Langley's ideas to achieve their first flight.

Several Austrailian websites claim that it was the Aussy's who made the
first powered flight, who ever it was doesn't even interest me, so many
people were working on the same basic idea at the same time that it was
bound to happen.

There are lots of claimants. The difference is that without
controllability and without further development, they did their flights
and put the craft back in the barn, and the science of flight got
absolutely nothing out of their so-called achievements. The Wrights
started with barely controlled hops and a few years later were flying
figure 8 courses and staying aloft of hours at a time.

The course of advancement of the science of flight stretches in an
unbroken line through Lilenthal through the Wrights and up to today. It
doesn't include all the pretenders to the throne who did little and
contributed nothing.

One area that I feel that the Wrights could of acted better was with their
lawsuits with Curtiss. I will grant you that if you invent something, you

True. There is a good reason why after the Wrights went public, most
aviation development started happening in Europe.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"Zero Tolerance" in this case meaning "We're too stupid to be able to
apply conscious thought on a case-by-case basis".
-- Mike Sphar