I wonder how many times the Wright Brothers heard this statement or
something like it.

I agree the challenges are great and his statement ignores many
engineering issues that are required for adding additional weight to
the airplane (i.e. Additional wing area required, Addtional structure
required, the Addtional weight of these additional structures) I can
come up with many well reasoned and logical reasons why it won't work.

I think the Wright brothers were probably in the same boat when they
started, But their greatest acheivement was their ability to solve
difficult problems and question and attempt to prove or disprove all
the known issues. They started off with little understanding of
engineering and design (related to aircraft) and were clueless as to
the what it would take to acheive flight, So they taught themselves in
a way that no one else had and as result were successful.

I remember when the Rubik's cube 1st came out I had no Idea how it
could do what they it did. After I had disassembled it it seemed easy.

I am careful to tell people what the can't do, while most will fail. A
few are just clueless and crazy enought to be succesfull.

Brian