Fathers of Aviation
"The Wright Brothers" by David McCullough is an incredibly inspiring story about Orville and Wilbur Wright. Why? Because, aside from the fact that these two brothers were obsessed with reading and trying to fly, they honestly had no business becoming the engineers of the first airplane, arguably the most important invention of our time.
The story of these two brothers is fascinating, not because they made their money during the invention period by running a bike shop, but because they essentially willed the invention of flying into existence, surpassing individuals who had academia and financial backing. People consider Wilbur and Orville geniuses because of what they created, but the late author David McCullough highlights that it was sheer obsession that led to their miraculous invention.
The competitors who thought they were coming in second place were attempting to fly glorified birthday balloons with propellers on the side (I am being facetious, of course; the balloons were industrial).
These brothers would literally watch birds fly every day just to see if they could somehow deconstruct their method of flight. They even went on to study the anatomy and structure of birds to apply that information to their invention. After hundreds of test runs, they managed to put together a machine that could take flight for over a minute. This might not sound impressive now, but anything longer than five seconds back then was considered impossible. The minute turned into minutes, and those minutes eventually evolved into modern-day 13-hour flights that make you want to burst out of your skin due to discomfort.
Circling back to these fascinating gentlemen, their success in flying reverberated through the country, so much so that word had finally reached Europe, and the French demanded a demonstration.
Now, it's important to highlight what unfolded during this time because it provides insight into the issue of misinformation that is prevalent during our current era. Wilbur and Orville had already proven flight in the United States, but there were many hucksters and scam artists back then claiming to have figured out flight (and they would be published in papers without actual proof). Even though sources like the New York Times established that it had happened back then, France still needed to see a physical demonstration of the flight and assumed the brothers were lying.
Wilbur ended up being the person who represented the brothers' invention to convince the French government to purchase one of their machines. After he had crossed the sea to France, he had to wait a long while for the airplane and its parts to arrive. Wilbur and Orville would send each other letters during this time. Mail being sent overseas proved to be problematic as it took a while for letters to travel. Orville would be freaking out a lot because of this, wondering if something horrible might have happened to Wilbur or if Wilbur decided to keep Orville in the dark because he didn't trust him (Yes, even back then, Orville was insecure, and miscommunications due to delays in responses happened).
What also happened up until the arrival of the machine and Wilbur’s flight demonstration was that most of France’s journalists called Wilbur a liar to his face. That’s right, this man had flown his own airplane, and people were accusing him of being a huckster.
They ended up flying their planes, profiting about what would be inflation-adjusted around ten million dollars (These guys invented air travel and were worth ten million dollars; people who sell apps are worth over a billion). They spent the rest of their lives fighting legal battles. It turns out the head director of the Smithsonian Museum (one of the Wright Brothers’ direct competitors) tried to take credit for being the first person to invent flying. Goes to show that people in accredited establishments were a little bit sketchy back then.
The Wright Brothers created airplanes with nothing but sheer determination. It really seems to be all a person needs. If one can obsess over something hard and long enough, I’m sure they would be able to figure it out. It is the beauty of human behavior. We will sacrifice our time and energy to create something magical.