Pilot Proficiency

Wright Brothers: Little Known Secrets to their Success

Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at 12:31 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The Wright brothers achieved powered flight with a unique, canard-configured design (the "Ugly Duckling") that quickly became obsolete, being superseded by "conventional" aircraft configurations conceptualized by earlier pioneers like Cayley and Pénaud.
Their success was primarily due to their emphasis on aircraft control over stability, which allowed them to overcome design challenges and surpass contemporary experimenters.
While acknowledging earlier precursors and contested claims of flight, the article emphasizes that the Wrights' lasting legacy is their achievement of the first genuinely sustained and controlled powered flight.

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The following article, Wrightophilia, is from the December 2003 print issue.

Peter Garrison taught himself to use a slide rule and tin snips, built an airplane in his backyard, and flew it to Japan. He began contributing to FLYING in 1968, and he continues to share his columns, ""Technicalities"" and ""Aftermath,"" with FLYING readers.