December 17, 2003
First in Flight
Today is the centennial of the Wright Brother's historic flight. There are those, however, that claim Wilbur and Orville weren't the first. One being a New Zealander named Richard Pearse. The other being a Brazilan named Alberto Santos-Dumont.
A NZ newspaper states, in the article Wings Over Wairarapa, that Pearse himself thought otherwise.
Pearse always conceded that the Wrights beat him as far as sustained controlled flight was concerned, and modestly refers to his trials as experiments, not flights. All he wished to take credit for was for being the first to use ailerons, a pneumatic-tyred tricycle undercarriage, nosewheel steering and direct transmission to the propeller.
This makes Santos-Dumont's argument look even weaker. For if Pearse had flown 9 months after the Wright brothers, Alberto's flighs in 1906 were even further from being the first.
There are some interesting things to consider when learning about aviation history. The Wright brothers, first though they may have been, seem to have had a pretty selfish attitude about their inventions. One word: patents. History seems to indicate their arrogance was a prime factor in the slow implementation of aviation developments. Likewise, their penchant for secrecy, combined with the slow nature of news dissemination at the time, hid their success while even better control surfaces developed. By the time news of the Wright's success got out a number of other aircraft had been flown, some using superior techniques.
If you're curious, look into the eventual mergers of the various players.
For anyone that thinks patents, mergers and corporate rivalries in IT are anything new, they need only look back at the history of aviation to see the industry falling prey to the idea that 'those that fail to understand history are doomed to repeat it.'
