The 105th annual renewal of why we're in this forum

[The Inspector]

WILBUR-

Come out to the shop-
I just had a heck of an idea!!
Orv

[Holedigger]

Because if we blather on about warbirds with our spouses, they, in general, roll their eyes and change the subject!

[Bill Greenwood]

Inspector, great post. It has been so long that we take genius for granted sometimes.

[CH2Tdriver]

And to think that 105 years ago it was this TELEGRAM sent by Orville to his father in Dayton and subsequently to the world that the first powered flight had occurred read:

176 C KA C8 33 Paid. Via Norfolk
Kitty Hawk, N C Dec 17
Bishop M. Wright

7 Hawthorne St

Success four flights thursday morning all against twenty one mile wind started from Level with engine power alone average speed through air thirty one miles longest 57 seconds inform Press home Christmas. Orevelle Wright .

Imagine we had WIX and the 'net back then? It would be up with the first pic minutes after the first flight, and around the world in seconds!

Pete

[vg-photo]

Not bad for a couple of bicycle shop guys, eh.

[RareBear]

While I watched the National Geographic program on the recovery of "Dottie Mae". the wife was in the other room watching HGTV. Later when I mentioned wanting to go to Walterboro, SC, to see the Tuskeegee Airmen memorial at the airport there, she just rolled her eyes. She has a very low tolerance for warbird stuff.

Walt

[The Inspector]

I don't have to worry, no wife (and NEVER AGAIN!) and the cat doesn't care what I look at-

[JDK]

Lobs grenade...

Why do we commemorate the Wrights as they crashed on their first flight?

Would someone else have flown, eventually, if they'd failed?

Do we need to overlook their crippling effect on aviation, particularly US aviation, in their efforts to protect 'their invention' and their aggressive litigation?

Why didn't they just continue to develop aircraft instead of fighting other inventors? Is that just hindsight, or an attitude issue?

I'll tip my hat to the Wrights for their analytic approach to developing an aircraft - what came later was rather sour; only the poor effort of the Smithsonian was worse, IMHO.

Just something to think about! As they say, discuss...

[The Inspector]

A great deal of their issues were self inflicted and were quite likely an outgrowth of their pretty strict Calvanistic paternalistic upbringing. And probably just plain hard headedness at seeing 'their' invention being usurped by seemingly every other yahoo in the world-sort of the mentallity you find in petulant 3 year olds-I find very little evidence that they had any social life or skills, and I would guess few friends and it, in the end is very sad that they had to sell out to a conglomerate of empire builders and forced to share their name with their
#1 enemy, Glen Curtiss in a company that withered and died too soon from money wringers who owned the company but didn't care about furthering aviation, just 'get that Dollar, it's broke? dump it'

But, also remember that we went from a single flight of 122 feet ending in the first hard landing to stepping on the moon in less than 66 years.

[Robbie Roberts]

Hey- I got my ASEL 5 years ago Yesterday!

And have logged about an hour a year since... Time for another student loan & Instrument training!

Robbie