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Old December 19th 06, 06:05 AM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
Peter Dohm
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Default It Was 103 Years Ago This Week - 001index.jpg (0/1)

"Mitchell Holman" wrote in message
...
"Ray O'Hara" wrote in
:


"Mitchell Holman" wrote in message
...


--

What started it all...........




if you go to the smithsonian you can impress your friends by pointing

out
the "flyer" is hanging higher than it ever flew.



Or that while the US invented the airplane,
it was France that made all the major advances
with it for the next decade.





The enabling technology had just reached a level at which there were a
number of contenders, some of whom were French, at the time of the Wrights'
first flight--so that there was an element of luck in being first, in
addition to the obvious hard work and dedication.

However, from what I have heard, the Wrights and the US Patent Office were
also the principal reason that aviation technology in the US was virtually
frozen for the next decade. That allowed the French, who were and still are
very strong contenders in engineering and medicine, to make most of the
contibutions to aviation.

Regrettably, there is reason to suppose that the same is now happening to us
with regard to computer software--although the beneficiaries appear to be
different.
Peter
Just repeating what I have heard