Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Jim Miller Wings Assignment #2

5. In your opinion, did the Wright Brothers’ patent suits affect the progress of aviation?

I believe the Wright Brothers’ patent suits did aversely affect the progress of aviation, however I do not think they were wrong for fighting for their intellectual property. It is very difficult to understand how the United States, despite being the first nation in flight, fell so dramatically behind France, Germany and the rest of Europe in the aviation race. The Wrights obviously made the furthering of flying technology very difficult early on by suing everyone who tried to create a flying machine in the states. Other countries were developing advancements in the industry rapidly and independently of one another, feeding off of each new idea. In America, on the other hand, every new idea was being treated as a copy of Wilbur and Orville’s incention, and thus being stopped in its track. One cannot argue the numbers. The US brought less than 500 airplanes into WWI combat. France and Germany piloted tens of thousands a piece. The US Government spent $435,000 on aviation in 1913, France and Germany together spent $50 million. Luckily, the suits were not all bad. Orville was able to profit from them, as he should have, and the US eventually got on track, leading the world in aviation advancements today.

7. What was the cult of the heroic airman?

During World War I, the airman was seen as the new ideological hero. He was a new breed of soldier, more of an artist than a grunt fighter. Unlike the majority of combatants who were landlocked in trenches, these arimen engaged in intricate dances for strategic air positions. The fighting style became a sensational new sport.
Nations rallied behind their aces: pilots that took down at least five enemy fighters. Georges Guynemer “remains today one of the greatest of all French heroes,” dying with his plane after taking out over 50 enemy fighters. Germany’s Red Baron, the most successful ace of the war, became even more famous, forever immortalized in Charles Schultz’ Peanuts cartoons. Despite their conquests, however, these airmen had very little impact on the war itself. Yet, the had a great impact on patriotism and each nation’s spirit of war.

8. Did the war have an impact on flight technology? How?


The war did have an impact on flight technology, but not as much as one might think. As far as technological advancements go, very few occurred during the war. Most of the shifts away from the original Wright flyers took hold before the war even started. These technologies include the use of metal in airplane design, multiple engine bombers, and long distance flying boats. What the war did contribute, though, was a greater understanding of how to manufacture and fly aircraft. With the boom in production, airplane makers were creating higher quality machines with fewer kinks and greater power. Pilots were learning quickly and imporving greatly, so that the standards of altitude, distance, and speed were much higher in 1918 than they were in 1914. Furthermore, specialization was a wartime innovation. There were planes now being built to fulfill a specific purpose, like oversized bomber planes, or armored planes designed specifically to fire at the trenches. Finally, the war convinced world leaders that flying should be taken seriously, and the results began to show in the years following the war.

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