PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Gustave Whitehead: First in Flight breaking news
Old 16th Jun 2015, 13:08
  #35 (permalink)  
barit1
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: flyover country USA
Age: 82
Posts: 4,579
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Leaving aside for the moment the "international vs American" aspects of this imaginary Mt. Rushmore of aviation:

I deem it more significant to reward the engineers and designers and dreamers of aviation. The Wrights were above all homemade engineers, who conducted a series of ever-more-sophisticated experiments using the best tools they could find. Among these was engineering wind tables which had been used to design tall structures; and when they found discrepancies in their own data, they designed and built a wind tunnel. They then used it to collect original data to rewrite the wind tables to reflect reality! This is true scientific curiosity in action, and made heavier-than-air flight a reality.

Thus I submit that it is engineering, not piloting, that places the Wrights on our mythical Mt. Rushmore, even though they taught themselves and others the skills of piloting. Likewise I would go down the list of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collier_Trophy awards to find worthy engineers to add to stone gravings.
barit1 is offline