Showing posts with label wright brothers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wright brothers. Show all posts

Saturday, October 24, 2015

What did Wright Brothers really invent?



Wright Brothers invented a machine that could achieve flight. That's the common belief. It's what we are taught. This would made us think that aircraft was invented by wright brothers.

Well, that's not entirely true. 

When you think about Wright Brothers, you think that they found out everything, right from scratch.

They did not.

You see, plenty of people achieved flight before Wright Brothers. George Cayley (the father of Aeronautics) had already designed airfoil. This allowed pioneer aviators to design gliders through out 1800's. 

Aviators in 1800's wanted to know if a man can fly. They wanted something to prove that a machine can lift a man. All their focus was to get a machine in air. That was the vision of 1800's.

And they succeeded in that, with lots of lost life. All a glider could do was to fly from a hill top to down, in a straight flight with no control whatsoever. But it was proved that you can make something fly.

Now, when Wright Brothers started, they had a different set of problems. They know that they can make something fly. But that was not enough. They wanted to control that flight.

And so they began their famous journey to find how they can control a glider in flight.

When they succeeded in controlling a flight, using ailerons and rudders; they wanted to increase the duration of flight.

And in no time, one of the coolest historic event took place in fields of Kitty Hawk in 1903.

Wright Brothers invented a powered controlled flight. That is their real invention. Don't you dare forget the lives of others who were trying to prove that man can fly.

Your value is amplified by the clarity you have. Be it aviation, business or life.

Question everything.

Thank You for reading.

CK

Friday, October 17, 2014

Why Wright Brothers chose Kitty Hawk.

Failure. Failure was inevitable. Oliver and Wilbur knew it. The reason why Wright Brothers were able to achieve controlled flight (success) is because they foresaw failure.  


Kitty Hawk the land of Sand and Wind in North Carolina. They selected Kitty Hawk because it was perfect for any crash. It had vast area with soft sand beds which could reduce the impact of any crash.

This principle of accepting failure and learning from it is what drew them to success. It is called taking calculated risk. Just like in business. 

People start business with a notion that it would work the first time. There is always a 50% chance of failure in any business. A good business man will know the risks, accept failures, learn from it and build valuable products or service. 

Billionaire Jeff Bezos of Amazon had a business plan which had a 70% chance of failure. He knew failure was ever present. You can either acknowledge it and be prepared or you can crash and burn.


Wright Brothers acknowledged it and now we have an industry called Aviation.

Until Next time.

Chan.