Originally Posted by
biodiesel
But though the Wrights are credited with the first flight it was failed inventors since Davinchi that led them to the path.
Curiously, it was when the Wrights rejected all that was previously known that they really started to make progress. Their key change was when they realized that all the available lift tables were horribly off and they decided that to get anywhere, they would have to make their own. So they started doing testing, using a modified bicycle and a home made wind tunnel. Being bicyclists, they also realized that control and balance were dynamic, not static. The key innovation was also bicycle based. From twisting a bicycle inner tube box, they realized how to warp the wings and achieve control so that they could turn. They had the machining skills and knowledge required to build the first planes because of the skilled people they had in their bicycle shop and factory.
You are right, that the Wright Brothers built on the shoulders of others. Leonardo can be included because of his sketches of a bicycle, but the shoulders that the Wright Brothers built on were on the shoulders of Von Drais, Michaux, MacMillan, Starley and other successful bicyclists.
The Mother of the Airplane is the Bicycle
