WEBVTT - The Wright Brothers 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.400 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:16.880 and there's Chuck and Jerry's not here again. She's kind 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.880 of checked out. Frankly, and this is stuff you should know, uh, 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:25.680 the Wright Brothers edition, which Frankly, Um, I've been using 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:31.600 frankly a lot in the last few seconds. Frankly is um, 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:36.519 I think grew out of our wind Tunnel episode? Am 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:40.559 I correct in presuming that? Mm hmmm, I don't know, 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:42.360 I don't remember. I know, I think this is just 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:48.640 on a list, Okay, whatever, Sorry. I will say though 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:50.640 that this um, and I know I say this for 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:52.760 a lot of episodes, like why haven't they made a movie? 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:55.320 But it is astounding to me that there has not 0:00:55.520 --> 0:01:02.200 been a big, sweeping, three hour biopic about the Right brothers. 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.920 It's it's really weird. Are we still saying biopic? That's 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:11.880 what I say. That's fine, Yeah, it just makes sense 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:16.319 to me. But um so, I agree wholeheartedly. And one 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:18.399 of the things that that struck me is when I 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.200 was reading some research on this is that at one 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:24.280 point these guys, like in a test flight, got up 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.319 like six feet in the air, and I was thinking, 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.240 I want to see what that looked like, because these 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:32.480 are the first people, some of the first people flying, 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.280 and there are suddenly six feet up in the air. 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:37.560 And and this was in a glider. This is before 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.479 it was powered flight. So they were really at the 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.040 at the mercy of the wind right then and all that. 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.160 It was one of the most terrifying things they've ever 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:48.800 that's ever happened to them. And I thought that would 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:51.280 be really something to see. And that's just one of 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.240 many amazing things that the Right brothers did. They were 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:58.279 they were amazing human beings. Yeah, I mean the story 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:02.760 has thrills, it has is uh you know, it has 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:05.920 thrills and chills. It's obviously something that changed the course 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:10.440 of humanity. There are these like very movie like aha 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:14.240 moments that happened along the way. It's two guys that 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:18.280 were not trained engineers. They were self taught, brilliant men 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:21.840 who figured this out, but they didn't go to school 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:23.960 to learn it. So it's just I don't know, it's 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.120 got all the right elements. I think I did find 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:33.200 a a twenty nine minute short film from that's featured 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:39.440 Tony Hale. Oh yeah, The Great you know Buster bluth Um. 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:42.040 He's also the dude who he was also the dude 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.239 who rocks out to Mr Robato and that classic Volkswagen 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.040 ad from years back. Oh that's right, I forgot about that. 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:50.760 But he plays one of them. I can't remember which one. 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.320 And I saw a little clip from it. It looked 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:55.799 like it was okay, like I had a decent production value. 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:58.680 But it sounds like a drunk history episode. I know, 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.519 it totally does. But it was he playing it straight 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:03.799 or was it supposed to be tongue in cheek. No, 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.200 he seemed really drunk, which was weird. Okay, No, no, no, 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:09.320 it was No, it was totally straight. I mean it's 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.360 hard to imagine him. Like the scene that it showed 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.040 was a very serious scene of him acting, and it 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:17.200 was very hard to not laugh a little bit because 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:20.960 I think Tony Hales a brilliant comedic actor. So it 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:22.760 was kind of tough. I was like, oh man, it 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:25.519 seems funny to me. Still, yeah, I'll have to check 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:27.960 it out. But yeah, there needs to be a big, 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.200 big movie. I want to see this on the big screen. Yeah, 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.320 because so again, I mean, you kind of hit on 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:34.839 some stuff, but it's It's really important to point out 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:37.480 that the guys who were the first human beings to 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:42.120 create um to to have to undertake a powered flight, 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:47.280 were the same ones who invented that flying machine that 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.880 allowed for powered flight. And they were a couple of 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:55.480 self taught amateur bike shop owners who decided that they 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:58.600 wanted to be a part of figuring out how to 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:01.680 get humans to fly, which was super duper in the 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:06.480 zeitgeist at the time. It was like the thing, especially um, 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:10.720 if you were an engineer, that you were probably thinking about, Um, 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:17.159 there's a lot of uh technological um razmatazz going on 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:21.200 with things like you know, the the telegraph, which has 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:23.560 been around for a while, I guess, but locomotion was 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:26.760 a big one. Trains figuring out how to move humans 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:33.560 beyond just foot power, bicycle power, um or how horsepower? Yeah, um, 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:35.760 that was that was a big deal. And and to 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.640 to get people into the air flying there were a 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.640 lot of people working on that, so and on one hand, 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:44.720 it was also kind of audacious that the Right Brothers 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.160 would be like, you know, we'll we'll toss our hat 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:48.600 into the ring and see if we can be the 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.600 ones to figure this out, just because they were self 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:54.960 taught and they were outsiders as far as the scientific 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:58.280 community was concerned. Yeah, And Dave Dave Rus helped us 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:00.800 put this together. And Dave is keen to point out 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:05.599 that like they were outsiders, they weren't trained engineers, but 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.640 they were far more than guys that just tinkered in 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.880 a bike shop. They did do that, but they they 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:15.159 very much, um, they didn't stumble upon this thing. They 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:19.799 very much were very data driven, very rigorous in their experimentation, 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:24.640 and it's no surprise that they were the first. Um. 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.880 They may be unlikely, but not surprising, if that makes sense. 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.120 So even at the time, the idea was that it 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:34.400 would probably probably be the French who were the ones 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:36.760 that figured out human flight, and even the Right brothers 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:40.599 apparently thought this, but it was still open enough that 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.960 they decided that that they they could give it a shot. 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.120 And they also saw a lot of parallels. You know, 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:48.760 they're very famous, as we said, for owning a bike shop. 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:52.960 That was what their their trade was in Dayton, Ohio. UM. 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:57.000 But they saw a lot of parallels between bicycling and flight, Like, 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:01.520 for example, UM, bicycling requires a lot of balance and 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.560 you have to figure the same thing out when you're flying, UM, 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.240 you have to build a machine in the most lightweight, 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:12.960 lightweight way possible, UM that can also convey a human being. UM. 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:15.680 Aerodynamics factor into it. So they had a bit of 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:17.919 a head start. They weren't coming. It's not like there's 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.440 nothing in the bicycling world that has anything to do 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.359 with this, Especially if you're an engineer and thinking about 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:28.440 things like aerodynamics as far as bicycling bicycling is concerned, 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.120 you can translate that to to flight. And that's what 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:33.560 the Right Brothers did. Yeah, I mean, a plane is 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.920 just a bike with wings, right basically, or at least 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.599 the early ones kind of work. And my dad's always 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:44.800 said that, Jr. If anyone ever asked you what the 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.880 difference between a bike and a plane is, you tell 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:52.719 him nothing. They need pop some gin and that's right, 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:56.919 all right. So the Right Brothers, of course, Wilbur and Orville. 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:01.560 They were born UM to parents Milton and Susan. They 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.880 were the third and fourth sons. There were seven kids 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:10.120 total to UM. A pair of twins, A pair of twins, 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.960 just two people. I kept wanting to make it for people. 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:18.200 A pair of twins, one set of single set of 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:23.200 twins uh died in infancy, so there were um five 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:26.800 kids that grew into adulthood. And uh, we're going to 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.200 pepper in some facts about their sister Catherine here and 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.880 there throughout the episode, because Catherine, I feel like, does 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.440 not get uh much credit, and she while she was 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:41.200 not inventing the aircraft, she was very very key to 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:46.480 their operation and uh management of these guys throughout their life. 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:48.840 And she was a school teacher and then later on 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:52.720 a suffragette in Ohio. Yeah, well they're there. I believe 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.560 their grandfather and probably their father too, was big on 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:02.040 um abolition and um like the whole family kind of 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:07.840 had this uh real defined moral compass that they adhered 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.560 to rigidly. Um. They also were taught as a family 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:17.240 to be maybe a little wary and suspicious of outsiders 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.360 and that you found your strength and your trust and 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:24.760 your your basis in the family. And that actually kind 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:28.920 of helps explain Wilbur and Orville's relationship. Neither one of 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.760 them ever married, and they planned on spending their lives together. 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.679 Um that's what they were going to do, and that's 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:38.600 what they did until Wilbur died uh prematurely at age 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:42.760 forty five. Um. Up until that point, they did spend 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:45.880 their lives together. But that what I'm saying is they 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.480 were they were going to grow old and die together. 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.200 And from the outside it seems really weird, but when 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.960 you start to read about them and who they were 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.640 and how they connected, it's it's awfully sweet actually, Um 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:02.840 that they had. They had a great love in their 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:04.960 life and it just happened to be their brother, not 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:07.640 in any kind of weird sexual way, not in any 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.920 incestuous way. You know. I think the Greeks had like 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.280 it does. It does, but we're in don't forget. But 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:17.520 I think the Greeks had four different kinds of love, 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:19.960 and one of them was like a love between two men. 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.160 M bromance, sure, but this was brother man's and there 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:26.559 was no man's to it. It was just they They 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:30.079 were brothers that that fit together in a way that 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:33.200 you rarely see siblings do. And they happened to change 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:37.840 the world from that interconnection between them. Yeah, their mom 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:41.680 had a college degree and she was great at fixing 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:45.480 things because her father was a mechanic, and so they 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:47.600 got some of the tinkering from her. Their dad was 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:51.679 a minister and also ran. I think the church newspaper 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.440 from what I could gather, and like you said, the 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.040 brothers were tight. There was there were four years apart. 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:01.960 But Wilbur wrote to this um on paper. I don't 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.080 know if it was a was it a memoir or 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:08.240 did was he just writing? I don't know. I'm guessing 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:10.600 journal I think they kept journals all right. Well, he 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.160 said this from the time we were little children. My 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:15.880 brother Oh and I lived together, play together, work together, 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:20.440 and in fact thought together. That's thought, not fought, although 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:23.920 they did apparently go at it in in a spirited 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:26.160 debate kind of way, and they really love doing that. 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:29.480 It wasn't all just like wine and roses. We usually 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:31.840 owned all of our toys in common, talked over our 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.480 thoughts and aspiration, so that nearly everything that was done 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:38.160 in our lives has been the result of conversation, suggestions, 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:42.760 and discussions between us. That was a great Katherine Hepburn, Oh, 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:45.480 I could do it as Katherine Hepburn if you want, okay, yeah, 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:49.679 let's start over please. I think there's another quote. I'll 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:52.720 do that one later, okay. So that kind of goes 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:55.720 to show you, like just how how connected these guys 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:57.840 were just from a very very young age, and they 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:00.400 were they were four years apart. I mean, bilings that 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:03.000 are four years apart usually don't keep in touch after 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:07.880 a certain age, let alone spend their lives together, you know. So, UM, 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:09.840 it was pretty cool that they had like that kind 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.360 of connection and the fact that the if you put 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:14.240 the two of them together, they were greater than the 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:19.520 sum of their parts. Basically. UM. Apparently Orville was UM 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.560 was once you got to know him, he was a 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:24.400 lot of fun to be around. He was If you 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:27.920 had to pick between the two Um as to who 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:31.800 was maybe the more brilliant engineering mind, you probably go 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.920 with Orville. But that's not to say that Wilbur was 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.840 any kind of slouch UM. And of the two, Wilbur 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:43.199 was the more outgoing UH person UM. Orville was very 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.960 very shy, and Wilber even experienced a pretty big dip 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:51.160 in his outgoingness. He had a year's long depression UM 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:53.320 that do railed his college career. He was going to 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.200 go to Yale study to become a minister and do 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.160 who knows what else, UM, And he was playing hockey 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:01.560 one day, I guess took a stick to the face, 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:04.480 and I think a couple of other things because he 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:09.360 had a long standing digestion and heart problem after that. 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.600 But after his face held something, something changed in him, 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:15.520 and he went into a year's long funk, and rather 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:19.480 than go to college, he directed his energy towards nursing 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:23.040 his ailing mom, who was dying of tuberculosis around that time, 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.200 and spent a few years rather rather than going to Yale, 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.240 staying home and just kind of being pretty down in 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:34.040 the dumps about things. And luckily he had Orville around. 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:40.720 Orville was also indefatigable optimist who helped Um the brothers 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:43.600 through some really dark times and this was one of them. Yeah, 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:45.920 Wilbert didn't even graduate high school because of that, which 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:49.280 is remarkable um. And also didn't know they had street 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:53.080 hockey way back then, so that's something I learned too. 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:58.920 But uh, yeah, at Um Orville was like even from it. 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:00.600 When he was a kid, he would go door to 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:06.120 door um collecting bones and selling them as as fertilizer 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:09.680 to the local fertilizer place. He built a printing press, 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.720 and then when he graduated high school, he launched a newspaper, 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:16.000 the West Side News, and that's when he got Wilburg 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:18.480 sort of out of his depression. He's like, come on, brother, 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:21.920 you get on over here. You can be the editor. 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.920 I'll be the publisher. Um. It was the same year 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.640 their mother finally did pass away in eight nine of TV, 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:30.880 and it seems like that really did kind of save 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:35.280 his brother and put them on a on a renewed 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:39.920 shared path together. I think. Yeah. So, UM the shortly 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.160 after that, I'm not quite sure what year it was, 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:45.920 but the bicycle was a big deal. Um. I guess 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:49.840 it was two. I'm sorry. The bicycle craze UM was 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:52.800 in full swing, and they decided that they would um 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:57.880 pool their their common talents together and open a bike 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:00.880 shop in Dayton, UM. And that's what they did. They 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.720 had a bike shop for a while, for many many years, 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:09.920 even after they were um steadily experimenting with human flight. UM. 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:13.000 Katherine managed that bike shop. By the way, this was 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:15.840 so you know, she was the only one in the 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:20.440 entire family too, aside from her parents, to graduate from college. 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.760 She was the only right child. I couldn't get I 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.000 couldn't get a lot I tried to find out. You know. 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:27.560 It's kind of one of those things where when they're 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:31.920 five kids that live into adulthood, and two of them 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.080 are the right brothers. You're like, oh, what did the 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:35.800 other ones do? And there was a lot of good 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:38.240 stuff on Katherine and how she assisted them through the years, 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:40.520 but I couldn't really find out anything else about the 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:44.200 other the other ones, the other two were older brothers, 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:49.480 and both of them weirdly became book keep bookkeepers, I 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:51.920 said the first time, but the first one became a 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:54.680 strange from the family, moved to Kansas City. The other 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.120 way moved to Kansas City, got homesick and came back 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:02.320 to Ohio and then became a bookke. That was they led, No, 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:06.200 they led rather unremarkable, you know, solid lives. They didn't 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.000 renv it the airplane, but there's no sha they didn't. 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:11.880 But Catherine Um, you know the fact that she was 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:15.360 the only right child to graduate from a full four 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:19.320 year college with a degree. Um. She also did that 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.320 while she was taking care of the family after her 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:24.360 mother died. Like the whole family was like, well, you're 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.360 the only woman here, so you got to the family. 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:31.400 And then she also um came back from college. I 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.800 think she went to Oberlin and um became a teacher 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:36.840 while she was also taking care of the family too, 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:39.480 So she does deserve a lot more credit and kudos 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:43.040 than she gets for sure. Uh yes, the c in 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:47.080 the k So let's take a break. Yeah yeah, and 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.560 let's talk a little bit about what's going on there 0:15:50.080 --> 0:16:25.040 at that bike shop right after this. M all right, 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:27.600 So the brothers have a bike shop, Catherine's running the thing. 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.840 They're tinkering around in there. The world. Uh you know, 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:35.080 previous to this bike shop opening in two, like you said, 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:39.960 there were um electric trolleys going around and Carl Binns 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:44.360 had built the first like real good automobile, and these 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:46.560 guys were, you know, they like their bike shop. It 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.760 was doing great. But Wilbur was like, you know what, 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.200 I see what's going on in France, and I think 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:57.600 that we can do this. Brother, Like, who cares that 0:16:57.640 --> 0:16:59.960 we're not college educated? Who cares that I didn't even 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.480 finish high school? And who cares that we're just bike 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:05.840 shop owners in Dayton. I think we can we can 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:09.240 invent a powered airplane. They even call them airplanes at 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.240 the time, a powered flyer. And so he wrote to 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:18.160 uh the Smithsonian Institution in d C. And said, uh, 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:22.639 should I read his Catherine effort said, I believe that 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:26.119 simple flight is at least as possible to man. I 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:29.080 am an enthusiast, but not a crank. I wish to 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.480 avail myself of all that is already known, and then 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:35.800 if possible, add my bit you old poop. That was 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.240 a great Truman. It was, and I think that will 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:41.440 probably never happen again. I think there's one more quote, 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.080 but that should be Sammy Davis Jr. Do the third 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:46.920 quote is Truman Capponi. Then just keep building like that, 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:50.320 all right? So, uh, the long and short of it 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:55.200 is the secretary of the Smithsonian, a man named Samuel Langley, 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:58.919 got this letter. He was a man who was receiving 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:02.400 a lot of government grant to work on powered flight. Yeah, 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:04.560 it was huge to everybody was working on it at 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:06.760 the everyone was, and he was failing at it. He 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.679 had something called the aerodome, which, by the time the 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:14.200 Wright brothers got cranking up, had already failed. Yeah. Um. 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:18.240 Luckily he wasn't a one of those egotistical guys who 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:20.760 controls the purse strings. He said, all right, well, you know, 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:24.119 if you need some information, here's a bunch of information. 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.280 And he sent him everything. But they had Yeah. Um, 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:29.679 he sent him like a basically a reading list and 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:33.080 a bunch of journals that they should subscribe to and 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.880 start investigating UM, and really kind of helped them get 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:41.120 along their way. UM. This is also a time when 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:48.280 some early flyers we're approaching this scientifically and publishing their data. 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.199 Not the least of which was a guy named Otto Lilienthal, 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:54.320 and I we must have talked about him in the 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.520 wind Tunnel episode two, because he definitely was a an 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:02.159 inspiration who I actually died during one of his test flights. 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.800 And on his tombstone it says sacrifices must be made, 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:11.360 which are has purported last words, which is controversially probably 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.280 actually didn't say that, but um, that's what is on 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:16.800 his tombstone. But he left a bunch of tables. So 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:20.720 they started studying, like Auto Lilienthals, like flight test data. 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:24.440 They were subscribing to journals, reading books, just just UM. 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:27.320 They were reading everything they could about the mechanics of 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:31.760 flight and birds and just trying to figure this out. UM. 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:36.520 And they basically through this UM approach, through just basically 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:41.959 absorbing them the data and the theories that were already 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:47.160 out there. They figured out, Okay, we seem to understand, um, 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:50.960 how to get this stuff in the air and keep 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:52.520 it up in the air. We've got like lift and 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:57.240 drag figured out. Um, we have power sources generally figured 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:01.919 out what seems to be the big allunge is controlling 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:05.040 the plane when it's in the air, because that's what 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.240 got out of Lenthall, this thing where you actually where 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:10.560 you start to turn and then all of a sudden 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:14.840 the flying craft turns back the original direction and it 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:17.320 causes it to stall, so you no longer have any 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:19.600 lift and you just fall out of the air like 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:22.320 a sack of potatoes. Um. That had to do with 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.199 controlling the plane. So the Right brothers identified very quickly 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:27.879 and early on that that was a good thing to 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:30.080 to concentrate on. And that's what they started with, was 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:32.840 figuring out how to control the plane in the air. Yeah, 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:35.640 because as we'll see later on when we get to France, 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:39.800 they they could fly straight, they could fly in a circle, 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:44.760 but they couldn't control straight and circle at the same 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.840 time and fly where they wanted to fly, which is 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:49.920 a big key in an airplane is you want to 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.439 actually go someplace, not just whatever straight ahead of you. 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.560 So they said Uh, Well, here's you know. The big 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:59.719 challenge was the fact that and we've talked about this 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:02.720 a few of our different episodes over the year about 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:05.960 about plane flight. But there's three things you gotta do 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:09.200 when you're up there is you gotta control your pitch, 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:11.720 which is your nose up and your nose down. Your 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:15.479 role which is your wing tips going you know, up 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:18.160 or down and turning you. And then what and then 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:21.399 you got that y'all y'all control one of the Simpson's jokes. 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:24.320 Ever look at that y'all control? Uh, And that is 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:27.520 nose right or nose left, And it's those three things, 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:31.120 those three different xs controlling them all at the same 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:37.199 time stumped everybody. Yes, um, because the flying contraptions that 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:39.919 were being built we're basically gliders. They were basically hang 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:44.280 gliders that people were billy, which was a big first 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:46.320 step that we need to figure out because with a 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.560 hang glider you can figure out the shape, the size, 0:21:51.119 --> 0:21:54.920 the curvature, the angle of the wing. Uh. And when 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:57.679 the Right Brothers came into this this field, when they 0:21:57.680 --> 0:21:59.640 decided to cast their lot and to figure out how 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:02.960 to fly I Um, basically people figured had thought they 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.280 had already figured out the wing. Um, but that one 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.600 thing about seeing, like controlling the wing to moving from 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:12.520 one side to the other without stalling out. Um, Like 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:15.280 I said, they kind of studied the mechanics of birds, 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:17.600 and one of them noticed, I guess it was wilbur 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:21.920 Um noticed that when a bird banks, the actual shape 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:26.480 of its wing changes, so that when the wing twists 0:22:27.440 --> 0:22:30.040 a certain way, it causes air to go above it, 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:32.960 to build up above it or below it, which means 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:34.760 that you're going to turn one way or the other, 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:38.200 depending on which way your wing is curved. And he said, Hey, 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:40.080 if we could figure out how to make our wings 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:42.359 do that, that might really work. But how about how 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:45.720 about how chuck? Yeah, so here's the sort of movie 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:49.400 one of the aha moments, and hopefully it happened like this. 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:51.560 This is a great story if it wasn't. But he 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:53.879 was in his bike shop. He sold a dude an 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:57.320 inner tube and was holding the empty box when the 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:02.639 guy left, and he said, by Zeus's beard, this looks 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:06.639 like two parallel wings of a biplane. And when I 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:10.360 twist this thing just right, the right wing tips curved 0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:14.080 down and the left wing tip curves up. On this box, 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:16.880 and he was like, I think I have just stumbled 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:20.760 upon the way to do this, except we're gonna do 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:23.560 it initially with what was basically sort of like a 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:26.879 glorified box kite. We're gonna do it with wires running 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:29.320