Why were the Wright brothers successful?

Moreover, what we now consider the conventional configuration did not evolve subsequent to the Wright brothers; it actually antedated them by more than 100 years. read more

What the Wright Brothers are remembered for is a single, 12 second long flight and several longer ones. While important, one need also remember they went into the aviation business, but they were only modestly (at best) successful. read more

The Wright brothers were aware of Cayley and Pénaud, and also (very much so) of Otto Lilienthal, the German experimenter whose hang gliders used the"correct" tail-in-back configuration and whose book, Bird Flight as the Basis of Aeronautics, they studied obsessively. read more

The Wright brothers, Orville (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were two American aviators, engineers, inventors, and aviation pioneers who are generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane. read more