Paul,

I regret that I don't have more time to research these subjects more
thoroughly. I do enjoy debating aviation history, especially from this era.
I'll have more time to get you specifics of Curtiss's "black box" in a few
weeks. Schedule's pretty full right now.

The short explination of the "black box" was that it was a sheet metal box,
painted black, and positioned behind Curtiss's seat near his shoulders. Its
prupose was reported to be to hide a yoke similar in construction to the Wright
hip-cradle device. The yoke was actuated by movements of the pilot's
shoulders, rather than hips, but essentially served the same function of
actuating the roll-control system. I don't know the specific aircraft that it
was used on off the top of my head. There are more details in The Papers of
Wilbur and Orville Wright (McFarland, 1953), and I'll try to look them up as
soon as I have a chance. There's also an interesting section in that text
which includes Lorin Wright's letters to Orville regarding his recon. mission
to gather info. on Curtiss's rebuilt (modified) Langley #5.

I must admit that my knowledge of this particular period of Wright history is
not as strong as my knowledge of 1893-1902. I've spent the last 7 years
conducting research toward building my 1902 glider and have had little time to
go much farther with serious depth.

What is regrettable about the Wrights' story is that Wilbur died at such a
critical stage in the development of the machine. If the brothers had been
able to sell the flyer as a military secret in 1906 as they planned, certainly
they would have made more improvements in 1906 & 1907. Thier focus post 1908
seems to have been on making the planes more stable and more efficient.
However, I can personally tell you that its almost impossible to try to build
and fly that type of machine by oneself, or even with semi-skilled help.
Orville needed Wilbur as much as Wilbur needed Orville. Without the two of
them, the basic problems of control and efficient lift may have taken another
50 years to discover. Both Curtiss and Bleriot, as well as Voisin and Farman
added to the science, but before the Wrights, they were either on the wrong
track, are were not on the track at all.