[OldHand2018]

> The company celebrated the achievement by releasing a modest video comparing it to, among other things, the moment the Wright Brothers flew the first planes.

Just so everyone knows, the Wright Brothers became well-known in the aviation community based on their work developing and flying gliders and inventing the 3-axis control system. Once they actually started flying powered airplanes, they became secretive and everyone stopped believing them, considering them to be complete frauds.

A few people saw them fly in Kitty Hawk. A few dozen people saw them fly in Ohio with new and refined designs, etc. But still they were ignored.

It was only a few years later, in France, that they blew everyone's mind with a completely new design and started flying around Paris.

They got the credit for flying in Kitty Hawk retroactively. You don't want your product to be compared to the Wright Brothers and the first flight!

[syntaxing]

Not only that, if I recall correctly the Wright brothers actually died penniless. They tried patenting and protecting their flight controls idea which is to rotate the wings. It was impractical and inefficient so never really got anywhere. It wasn't until Germany creating a mature aileron system which really pushed flight technology forward (the pressure of War and military helps a lot too).

[OldHand2018]

I think that's correct. However, the concept of banking the plane to turn was their idea and is still used. Before that, everyone thought you'd turn a plane like you turn a car. It was their bicycle experience that led them in the right direction.

[opo]

>...Not only that, if I recall correctly the Wright brothers actually died penniless.

I don't think that is true.

Wilbur died in 1912 in the middle of the patent disputes.

>...Orville made his last flight as a pilot in 1918 in a 1911 Model B. He retired from business and became an elder statesman of aviation, serving on various official boards and committees, including the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), predecessor agency to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce (ACCA), predecessor to the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).

>...Orville Wright served NACA for 28 years. In 1930, he received the first Daniel Guggenheim Medal established in 1928 by the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics. In 1936, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

>...They tried patenting and protecting their flight controls idea which is to rotate the wings. It was impractical and inefficient so never really got anywhere.

>...In January 1914, a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict against the Curtiss company, which continued to avoid penalties through legal tactics. Orville apparently felt vindicated by the decision, and much to the frustration of company executives, he did not push vigorously for further legal action to ensure a manufacturing monopoly. In fact, he was planning to sell the company and departed in 1915. In 1917, with World War I underway, the U.S. government pressured the industry to form a cross-licensing organization, the Manufacturers Aircraft Association, to which member companies paid a blanket fee for the use of aviation patents, including the original and subsequent Wright patents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers