I am sure you have watched a film called "those magnificent men in their flying machines"!!!
Watched the early part with people hurling themselves off piers into the sea in all manner of potential yet disasterous flying machines?
If you watch the film carefully you will realize that the whole point of the contest was to bring forefront aviators from around the world together in a friendly competition. One of the most important aims was to learn from each other and thus make aviation safer, better and more efficient. And it worked.
Now fast forward some 100 years. We have learned a tremendous lot and made aviation incredibly safe. Millions of people take to the skies each day, with the biggest worry whether the in-flight catering sandwich will be chicken or beef.
Now I'm all for a pioneering spirit but I think the starting point for that pioneering spirit should be the body of knowledge we have *today*, and not the body of knowledge we had *100 years ago* or even *50 years ago*.
If that means that the average joe without a pilots license, let alone an aeronautical engineering degree, botches together a motorized kite, is dismissed as a lunatic, I'm all for it. Although even lunatics should be able to do whatever they fancy as long as they don't endanger anyone else or anyone elses property.
For true pioneering spirit these days, look at the likes of Burt Rutan and Richard Brandson.