On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 13:49:41 -0600, "Jim"
wrote:

My personal opinion of the Wrights is much less than what will be created by
the press in the up coming weeks. I think that the 2 greatest things that
they gave aviation were "controllability" and the efficient propeller, after
that I honestly don't know if they contributed much.

The Wright brothers also invented a highly effective wind tunnel for
testing different wing types and shapes. In effect, they took a
highly rigorous, scientific approach to achieving 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.

Brazilian Santos-Dumont (sp?) is also credited for flying first. I
wouldn't even doubt that many of these people really did fly. But the
real issue was whether it was controlled flight. Uncontrolled flight,
such as that done by hot air ballooning is a much older achievement.

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
should have the right to patent and protect it, then ultimately profit from
your efforts. I feel like they kind of acted like a dog in the manger after
their initial success while others picked up the ball and made advancements.
I would be prouder of the Wrights if they would have continued to work for
the pure advancement of aviation. If they had maybe they would have
actually realized their goals of profitting from their achievements such as
Curtiss ultimately did.

You know, with every major advancement in technology, there seem to be
a slew of early lawsuits disputing intellectual property. The early
days of radio had the famous DeForest versus Armstrong patent cases in
which Armstrong actually lost despite the fact that DeForest was
unable to demonstrate that he understood his own patents in court.
Despite this, DeForest was able to "win" on a technicality and
invalidate Armstrong's patents.

Look at all the ridiculous patents issued for hyperlinking and other
such areas of prior art. And now look at what the Wright Brothers
went through.

See my point?


Jake Brodsky,
PP ASEL IA, Cessna Cardinal N30946, Based @ FME
Amateur Radio Station AB3A