Winging it

By Robert Genn, from The Painter's Keys Community

"On Dec. 8, 1903, with government funding, countless advisors and great ballyhoo, Samuel Pierpont Langley's flying machine plopped unpleasantly into the Potomac. Nine days later, Orville and Wilbur Wright got their Flyer off the ground. Why did these bicycle mechanics succeed when a famous scientist failed? Langley's plans were mostly theoretical and his machine was produced from blueprint and built by others. But by studying the Wright brothers' working notes, you see that their insight and their execution are woven together. By trial and error and over a period of time they solved problems like wing shape and wing warping. Each adjustment was a small spark of insight that led to others. Along the way they found it necessary to build a wind tunnel and other devices to test the lift and controllability of their ever-changing designs."

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