Short story of how the first flights were made possible

David McCullough published a book a few years ago about the Wright brothers, who invented the airplane in the first decade of the 20th century. I wasn't aware of all the details of this story before, and some parts of it seem very interesting and instructive on what it takes to create a novel invention.

The Wright brothers owned a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio with only one employee besides themselves. They covered all of their research expenses out of their own pocket. The shop brought in only about $2,000 a year, equivalent to $74,000 in current dollars.

In the modern age of VCs, any similarly ambitious venture would instantly find venture capital and at a minimum would allow the inventors to dedicate 100% of their time to R&D. To be fair, it should be noted that after their initial success, the brothers received offers to finance their work but consistently refused them, wishing to maintain full control over their research.

The Wright brothers owed much of their success to the fact that throughout their work, they never cut corners and did not try to dodge difficult work. In 1901, having built their first glider, they set a goal to spend as much time in the air as possible to learn to control it well. Otto Lilienthal, who had been building gliders in France for decades, totaled no more than 4 hours of flight time. The Wright brothers made about a thousand flights in their first year, probably flying more time than Lilienthal did in his entire career.

Lilienthal’s hand glider flight, Berlin c. 1895

To make their trials as effective as possible, they found a location in North Carolina, more than a thousand kilometers from their workshop, that had a unique combination of characteristics: there were sand dunes stretching for kilometers and blown by constant winds. This place allowed the brothers to make flights one after another without fear of crashing from a height of 5-10 meters.

Sand dunes in Outer Banks, NC

After their first season of testing they’ve concluded that the basic aerodynamic formulas for lift accepted at the time were incorrect. Returning to their workshop, in their free time from repairing bicycles, the brothers built their own wind tunnel from an old box and a compressor to correct the wrong data. Wind tunnels were already known at the time, but for some reason, were not widely used. The brothers spent two months giving a piece of iron different shapes and measuring its lift and drag in the tunnel.

Replica of the 1901 wind tunnel

These experiments allowed them to build a glider in the next year, 1902, that had much better stability and control than their first model. By that time, the brothers had significantly outpaced all competitors, but were still virtually unknown. The NYT (among others) published articles stating that controlled flights were impossible and should not be expected in the near future. (Remind anyone of the arguments agains AGI being possible?)

NYT article from 1903

In 1903, the brothers decided to start experimenting with powered flights but could not find a suitable engine. This did not stop them, and their only employee, mechanic Charlie Taylor, built them their own engine with 12 horsepower (they needed at least 8). With this engine and the experience gained from the previous two gliders, the brothers managed to build their first working airplane. On December 17, 1903, it made the first successful flights.

Day of the first flight

In 1904, the Wright brothers continued to refine their airplane, and in 1905, they built the first model capable of staying in the air for a couple dozen minutes and making well-controlled turns.

After this, the brothers stopped test flights and spent the next two years trying to find buyers for their airplanes. Such a business approach seems unthinkable nowadays. In the case of the first airplanes, this was a result of skepticism from the public about the very possibility of controlled flights and the brothers' desire to maintain full control over their creation. The successful test flights of 1903 were witnessed by only a couple dozen people, and the inventors, with rare exceptions, did not allow photographs of the airplane, fearing that competitors would steal their secrets.

In 1908, the brothers conducted their first demonstration flights using the improved Model A and finally began to expand their business. However, they were less successful as businessmen than as inventors. The brothers spent a lot of time fighting for their patents which slowed down the technical development of their airplanes. In 1916, their company merged with the Glenn L. Martin Company (which in turn merged with Lockheed in 1995 to form Lockheed Martin), and in 1919, it stopped producing its own airplanes.

The Wright Brothers story has strong parallels to the invention of the blue laser, which likewise took years of effort by a strong-willed scientist in Japan. Veritasium recently made a great video about it:

Thanks to Oleg Eterevsky for sharing this story first.