The Wrights Discovered What? Another Chapter
Was the Wrights' "original" research original? The aspect ratio of the wing “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” -Galileo Galilei "There are no secrets." Glenn Hammond Curtiss Gull in flight. Credit NOAA Wilbur Wright became seriously interested in aeronautics after Otto Lilienthal, the great German aviation pioneer, lost control of his glider and died from the crash in 1896. Lilienthal's glider experiments had brought him just to the point, it's said, that he planned to attempt manned, powered flight. Otto Lilienthal in flight. Credit: National Air and Space Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution Apparently, Wilbur saw the opportunity to continue where Lilienthal left off. Accordingly, he stated his intention, when he wrote to the Smithsonian for information in 1899, to take the level of aviation at that point in time and "add his mite....