The
soaring problem is apparently not so much one of better wings as
of better operators."*
* Cited in Turner, "The Romance of Aeronautics".
When the Wrights determined to fly, two problems which had beset
earlier experimenters had been partially solved. Experience had
brought out certain facts regarding the wings; and invention had
supplied an engine. But the laws governing the balancing and
steering of the machine were unknown. The way of a man in the air
had yet to be discovered.
The starting point of their theory of flight seems to have been
that man was endowed with an intelligence at least equal to that
of the bird; and, that with practice he could learn to balance
himself in the air as naturally and instinctively as on the
ground. He must and could be, like the bird, the controlling
intelligence of his machine. To quote Wilbur Wright again:
"It seemed to us that the main reason why the problem had
remained so long unsolved was that no one had been able to obtain
any adequate practice. Lilienthal in five years of time had spent
only five hours in actual gliding through the air. The wonder was
not that he had done so little but that he had accomplished so
much. It would not be considered at all safe for a bicycle rider
to attempt to ride through a crowded city street after only five
hours' practice spread out in bits of ten seconds each over a
period of five years, yet Lilienthal with his brief practice was
remarkably successful in meeting the fluctuations and eddies of
wind gusts.
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