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One More Chapter on the Wrights Invented What? "After having for twenty years capitalized upon this as your own work I do not see how you can give a correct account of this without bringing yourselves into open censure" - -Dr. George Spratt to Orville Wright, 1922, on the development of the Wright flyer. Dr. Spratt as an Inventor A control wing aircraft built in 1939 by Dr. George Spratt's son, using the doctor's designs The concepts behind Spratt's amazing control wing invention were beyond Wilbur Wright's understanding, as clearly revealed in his letters to the doctor. Contrary to what we are taught, it was Spratt's ideas that the Wrights used to build their wind tunnel. Link here to great youtube videos of Spratt's control wing in flight and a few derivations of his invention. . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDtn6bXiroo   Dr. Spratt's Relationship with the Wrights An early friend of the Wright brothers, Dr. George Spratt wrote his last lette...

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....