Comments

I never really got the point of the D-Jet. It doesn't fly higher or faster than turboprops, but I presume the turboprop can handle shorter fields and fly more efficiently. So, other than cool, what's the gain in building a new jet from scratch? That seems way under-compelling to justify development costs, especially under such tight market conditions. I hope they can keep the DA40 afloat. That's my favorite airplane with laudable design.

This story probably reads much differently by an aviator than by an intellectual property lawyer. Mobs of people were working on inventing airplanes at the time. I understood that one of the things that made the Wright Brothers remarkable was that they not only developed a flying machine, but they *meticulous* documented every bit of their development process with data. That meant that not only did it work, but they could be specific about what was needed to make it work. They could detail that on a patent application and their development notes meant they would have had all the advantage in any court contest (which history shows they were actively asserting.) There are invariably hoards of inventors at any stage in history with skills to hack things together but who lack the additional ability or thought to document their invention. Indeed, the image of a guy with genius hands on mechanical aptitude but little talent for the underlying math/science/documentation is almost a cliche in the engineering world. It is one thing to do something but another to make it replicable by others. So this may not be so much history of aviation as history of intellectual property. From my quick patent search, I see the Wrights' patent, right from the get go, identify the principle of angle of attack. The one patent I found by Whitehead is descriptive of shape, but not so much of purpose. Also note that some history sources note Whitehead did not demonstrate any interest in patents but entirely in building. (http://www.historynet.com/gustave-whitehead-and-the-first-flight-controversy.htm) And that's how the game is played.