When you change the world and no one notices
The article's timeline of flight goes like this:<p>1903. First flight, ignored.<p>1904. Nameless hot-air-balloon-flying count dismisses possibility of flying machines.<p>1905. People see Wrights flying around Dayton.<p>1906. Passing mention of Wrights in NYT.<p>1908. Reporters sent to observe Wrights, credence given.<p>1930s. NYC  LAX: 17 hours.<p>1950. NYC  LAX: 6 hours.<p>This story is a lie.  I don't mean that it contains anything actually false (as far as I know, it doesn't) but it is actively and intentionally misleading by its selective omission of facts.  Although the rumors were eagerly repeated, people generally didn't believe the Wrights had built a flying machine because <i>the Wrights refused to demonstrate it</i>.  Then, when other people started building airplanes, they started suing them.  Consequently, the US lost its leadership in aviation to France (and Brazil!) for over a decade, which would have been a longer period of time if France hadn't been devastated by the Great War.<p>Here are some of the omitted events from the timeline.<p>1896. People fly in Octave Chanute's biplane hang glider.<p>1900. Wrights begin glider experiments at Kitty Hawk at Chanute's suggestion.<p>1901. Wrights lecture in Chicago on their glider experiments, and in particular wing-warping control, at the invitation of Chanute, who lives there.<p>1902. Wrights continue glider experiments, visited by Chanute.<p>1903. Wrights apply for wing-warping patent.<p>1903. Wrights' first four flights, of 12 to 59 seconds.  Airplane irreparably damaged immediately post-flight.  Several newspapers report the event, inaccurately, from a leak by a telegraph operator.  Dayton Daily News disbelieves tall tale, doesn't report.<p>1904. Wrights issue public statement, build new airplane, invite reporters to first flight attempt on the condition that no photos be taken.  Attempt fails.  Further dozens of test flights are undertaken in strict secrecy, except for eyewitness accounts published in a beekeeping magazine.  Longest flight exceeds five minutes.  Airplane destroyed.<p>1905. Wrights continue tests witnessed by a small circle of friends.  Longest flight is 38 minutes.  Scientific American doubts the alleged experiments happened.  Dayton Daily News reports "The Flight of a Flying Machine."  Wrights end experiments, refuse to fly any more without some buyer signing a contract to buy an airplane.  Governments of US, Britain, France, and Germany (!) refuse to sign contracts without a demonstration.<p>1905. Aéro-Club de France and other organizations federate in the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.<p>1906. Paris edition of New York Herald asks of Wrights, "FLYERS OR LIARS?"<p>1906. Santos-Dumont makes a powered heavier-than-air flight in Bagatelle Field in Paris, certified by Aéro-Club de France and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.<p>1906. Wrights make 0 flights.<p>1906. Wrights receive patent on wing-warping control techniques they derived from Chanute's work.<p>1907. Wrights make 0 flights.<p>1908. The Clement-Bayard company in Paris starts a production run of airplanes of Santos-Dumont's design; 100 planned, 50 built, 15 sold.<p>1908. Wrights finally sign a contract.  Make first public demonstration in Le Mans, France.  Make first passenger flight.  Airplane destroyed in crash.  Wilbur emerges from wreckage with cut on nose.<p>1908. Glenn Curtiss starts making airplanes with ailerons to avoid the Wrights' wing-warping patent.<p>1909. Curtiss sells an aileron plane; Wrights begin suing him and basically everything that moves, including foreign aviators who visit the US.<p>1909. Clement-Bayard planes are sold with a choice of Clement or Wright engines.<p>1909. Wrights form the Wright Company.<p>1910. German court rules Wrights' patent invalid due to their disclosure of wing-warping in 1901.<p>1910. Wrights stop working on airplane design and switch to working full-time on suing other airplane designers.<p>1910. Octave Chanute publicly deplores Wrights' secrecy and litigiousness.  Dies.<p>1912. Wilbur Wright dies of typhoid.<p>1913. Wrights win lawsuit against Curtiss.<p>1915. Orville Wright quits the company.<p>1917. US enters World War I, has no domestically produced airplanes of acceptable quality due to Wright-initiated patent battles; US forces fly French airplanes.  US government forces aircraft companies to enter a cross-licensing cartel.<p>Kids, don't be like the Wright Brothers.  Be like Chanute.  Be like Santos-Dumont.  Change the world, don't try to own it.