Wdtabor wrote:

One of the greatest inventions of the 20th century -- indeed, one of the
landmark inventions in the history of the human race -- was the work of a
couple of young men who had never gone to college and were just a couple
of bicycle mechanics in Dayton, Ohio

This annoys me, the Wright's were not bicycle mechanics who blundered into
flight by persistence, they were true scientists and self taught engineers
who supported their research by selling and repariing bicycles.

That is not the same thing and they should not be dismissed as mere
mechanics.

He wanted to stress the "humbleness" of the Wrights (ie. "never gone to
college") but was then forced to ignore their excellence by that agenda.

While I - of course - knew of the Wrights, I've been reading a lot about the
process through which they went over the past year (thanks to publications
like "Pilot"). They were impressive in several ways, not the least of
which was their persistence.

In fact, would people like this - willing to risk life and limb on so
unlikely a venture - be classified as insane today? Or, more likely, would
someone be trying to sue them into oblivion for something or other (ie.
watching a glider caused some poor victim to have sleepless nights)?

- Andrew