The Wright Brothers DID Invent the Airplane 

I will remove any comment from someone who obviously didn't watch the video.

One "important" thing: they build an engine with aluminium, to save weight, but they paint it on black to confuse their competitors. Clever guys.

The Wright brothers understood that a propeller is a rotating wing. That's one of their many achievements.

On Lilienthal - "He usually survived" 🤣🤣🤣

As an aerospace engineer and now amateur aviation historian myself, I can say this is an excellent review of many of the key points that made the Wrights successful, while others struggled. I have a few points to add: - The Wrights often flew their man-carrying gliders on the NC Outer Banks as unmanned tethered, controlled kites. A photo you have at 17:07 shows this. They used spring scales to measure the pulling force, and a protractor to measure the angle of the control wires from the horizon, hence giving them the lift to drag for each configuration. I believe this was a first, also: the "scale-up" of their wind tunnel airfoil results to actual large wings, including the aspect ratio effects. - You can see at 36:22 that Langley's propellers were not airfoil cross-section, but flat. There is one on display at the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton, Ohio and I can confirm that. - Finally, a non-US citizen view worth reading was published by the British aviation historian Charles H. Gibbs-Smith (The Aeroplane, An Historical Survey of Its Origins and Development, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London, 1960). He has extensive discussions of the Wrights; and I highly recommend this book. In it, he writes: "Wilbur and Orville Wright were the first men to make powered, sustained and controlled flights in an aeroplane, and land on ground as high that from which they took off. They were also the first to make and fly a fully practical powered aeroplane, one that could take off and land without damage to itself or its occupants, and could fly straight, turn, and perform circular flights with ease. Finally they were the first to make and fly a practical passenger-carrying aeroplane. The first of these achievements was brought about on December 17 1903; the second by the autumn of 1905; and the third in 1908. All these successes -- and more -- are fully documented and established, and are unequivocally accepted by all modern aeronautical historians. Beside these monumental achievements it is idle to place any other claims for prior flights in a powered aeroplane. Every claim to ante-date the Wright brothers depends, even if substantiated, on achievements of such miniscule significance when compared with what the Wrights accomplished that they can never possess more than academic interest: what is more, none of the activities which have been the subject of such claims has contributed to the advance of aviation."

The atmospheric conditions at Kitty Hawk on 12-17-1903 are something I had never heard about before. This probably explains why the replica built for the 100th anniversary could not get off the ground.

Debate done right. Love it. This is civilized discourse and I learned something from it.

The Wright Brothers were classic "Design and Development Engineers". The fact that they were "bicycle mechanics" and came from relatively humble backgrounds to achieve more than anyone else did in that period makes them heroes to me. I have seen film of Orville Wright flying in France and it is abundantly clear that they have achieved stable and well controllable flight and of I think 1 hr. duration. Theirs was a truly stunning achievement for the benefit of mankind.

This video made me appreciate the Wright Bros even more.

Greg, thank you for this video. I was a professional pilot for forty years and a non-professional history buff for over sixty years. I enjoy both Lindybeige and The History Guy. I watch almost all of their work. The very few times I ever questioned their content concerned their videos on the Wright brother's flights. You have given voice to a bit of history that surprisingly was needed to be remembered.

Impressive and well documented video. Having pictures related during the video is helpful to contextualise everything. Really good work

Wow, a thumbs down already! The video isn't even up yet. LOL

This particular video is your best one yet. Your talent for relating the technical expertise of an individual craft or an era, how that figures into the history it was involved in and doing so at a level the masses can digest, has been outstanding. This one was pushed to the top though, because you directly engaged a couple of my other favorite channels and corrected them respectfully, like a man, without any inference or innuendo, literally face to face with facts. Well done Greg.

First rate review. They solved the engineering problems no one else even grasped. And they recorded it as they did it. And then they built an aircraft that worked consistently based upon the engineering principles which they had discovered for themselves. And they were flying for years, before the competition. Years, not days, weeks or months.

From the get go, the Wrights seemed cursed. No one believed them, those who did stole from them. Here you are over a hundred years later still having to stick up for them. It is ridiculous.

The Wrights were a lot more impressive than most people realise. They researched wing profiles using a wind tunnel they built, which in itself is an impressive piece of engineering.. They discovered the yaw induced when initiating a turn with ailerons or wing warping and designed the solution to this critical problem. They built their own motor using aluminium to make it as light as possible. Most impressively, they learned to fly an aeroplane before they had finished inventing it. Why anyone would want to detract from these amazing achievements is incomprehensible. By the way, how much do you want for that bridge?

Would love to hear about Langley's $50,000 failure one day.

The Wrights invented the first heavier than air three axis controlled airplane that flew. Hidden in this is that they became the first true aeronautical engineers which they taught themselves. They did the math. They invented wind tunnel testing of airfoils. They invented the airfoil propeller. The math said their Flyer would fly. The math said they would need a strong headwind to get off the ground so they conducted their first experimental powered flights at Kill Devil Hills where they had already learned to fly three axis controlled gliders off the dunes. The math said their Flyer design would fly with three axis control and it did.

I lived in Brazil for two years. I just got used to the repeated claim "santos DuMont was the REAL inventor of the airplane" There's a lot of national pride tied up in this subject, so don't expect anyone to be reasonable about it. On the plus side, I got to see a reproduction of Santos DuMont's first airplane in a museum, so whether he was 'first' or not is less important than the fact that it was super cool.

I completely agree with you and thanks for making this video. I would only add that the author of one of the books I've read about the Wright brothers stated that they did not invent the airplane, they engineered it. They were classical engineers, even if not formally trained. They invented accurate test instruments, construction methods and recorded results. They understood the problems they had to solve. They had to do all their own basic research, and engineered the world's most efficient airfoil, the most efficient propeller, and understood the 3 axis control issues and solved them. Flying isn't hopping. You need: enough lift to get off the ground; Be able to carry a human being;, (no models or toys need apply) Have pitch, yaw and roll controls that worked reliably and effectively; Have enough power to continue flight under its own power. Others had achieved lift; not as efficiently but lift was done as the many "hops" of others had been demonstrated but nobody else solved all the problems. When they flew in France in 1908 flyers like Santos Dumont and Louis Bleriot, who were highly respected had to acknowledge the Wrights could LITERALLY fly circles around them. Even in 1908! But the Wrights spent the future years on patent protection efforts. Their fellow American Glen Curtis was a dishonest man, attempting to discredit the Wrights, and it was not right. Remember this: Catapult failures structural failures control failures power failures stability failures and CRASHES are failures. Everyone else disqualified themselves, especially the tandem winged Aerodrome that was not only unstable by its most fundamental design and for an accomplished man like Langley, surprisingly fragile. He should have done better, but the Wrights engineered their invention well, they did their homework while everyone else was failing with trial and error.

Thank you for setting the record straight, what the Smithsonian Institute did was a scandal and not surprisingly the original Wright flyer was in the Science museum in London for many years until they came clean. The story of the Wright brothers is as extraordinary as it is inspiring .

The French had the Salmson liquid cooled radial engine at the end of WW1. Also Anthony Fokker idolized the Wright Brothers so much that he stuck with wing warping way longer than anyone else.

I've also heard of claims that the Wright brothers weren't the first to build and fly an airplane. Your detailed description supporting the Wrights is excellent and makes a great deal of sense. I also enjoy your manner of tackling the issue, i.e. first defining an airplane flight. Really enjoy your channel, thanks!

What the Wright Bros. figured out before anyone else was that an aircraft had to be controllable on all three axes -- roll, pitch, and yaw. That is what made powered, controlled heavier-than-air flight possible.

I've read everything I could find about the Wrights and how they built their airplanes and about their competition. They were definitely the first for all the reasons mentioned in this video. Good job!

The best Autobiography on the Wright Brother is by David McCullough. Amazing the things that all had to come together and the perseverance of these people to make this happen. Goes into great detail about their lives and character.

I find it extremely telling that a full five years after that day at Kitty Hawk no one else in the world had progressed past "powered leaps" while the Wrights were enjoying sustained controlled flights.

The Wright brothers did something more important than building an airplane; they invented flying.

Did not expect. This was so good, I will watch again later today. Thanks for putting this forth.

I don't know why this was on my recomendations but I'm loving every minute of it.

Imagine that in the same century as the first plane was invented, planes that could fly twice the speed of sound

The best part of the Wright brothers was their wind tunnel and instrumentation work and testing of scale wings and configurations that enabled them to get past Lilienthal's incorrect tables. They were incredible hobbyist engineers who self financed the entire development of controllable and sustainable manned flight.

The Wright brothers' propeller designs were, and remain to this day, some of the most efficient single-row propellers ever devised. They made another break-through when they combine Drzewiecki’s "method of sections" to relate their aerofoil research results, to the momentum disc method of Rankine and Froude. This method is still used to design propellers today! The Wright brothers were truly visionary, and are fully deserving of credit for inventing the airplane.

Greg, this is a well thought out presentation. I'm a 75 yo pilot -- was one of those who had flying dreams when I was 6 and was constantly looking skyward.. After an engineering degree I got serious enough to earn my pilots license. I also read and thought about the problems the early pioneers faced. I think that 3-axis control was the key that the Wright's solved -- especially roll. However, I'm not minimizing adverse-yaw and the mortal danger it presented. I think the brothers' bicycle business gave them a unique perspective understanding the need for controlling roll. As late as the 1908 demonstrations in France other inventors were still using flat maneuvers to 'skid' thru a turn. And a lot of them crashed -- probably due to the adverse yaw that this uncoordinated turn forced on their aircraft. I think a lot of early inventors pictured that steering an airplane was like steering an automobile; not recognizing the need to bank the plane to balance the centrifugal and gravitational forces with the weight and direction (bank). It's a vector problem that you intuitively solve when you lean into a curve riding a bicycle...

Greg your videos are some of the best on YT. In addition I love your ability to talk facts and engineering and argue points without getting into silly name calling. Well done.

Great video and takedown of the revisionists and deniers. Also, the photo at 30:20 is epic.

I love your ability to stay humble and respectful while making your points. Much more effective overall than accusing others of being fools.

Well done. I came to many of the same conclusions, however, the detail here goes far beyond my high school project of many years ago. In regards to Lindybeige; I have noted on many of his videos a strong English bias. Like you said; I don't think he truly believes some of these things, however, it is quite distasteful that he should even say it in the first place. Notably his video claiming the MG-42 was uselessly inaccurate, and that the Bren was in every way superior. His final evidence being that the Bren is still in use in some places, and that the MG-42 isn't. Totally failing to mention that the MG-3 is basically the same gun chambered for 7,62x51. I stopped watching his stuff after that blatant misdirection. That was a very interesting bit about the "mystery engine." I didn't think that the engine was a radial. That was quite a shock. The engineering part of my mind immediate went to work on why they would do a liquid cooled radial. The only thing I can figure is that they were trying to maximize the torque potential from the diesel fuel source. Perhaps to spin an exceptionally large prop per the engine's displacement. The liquid cooling may have been a function of making the engine so compact for a radial. The cylinders, heads, ect. would no doubt be alot thicker than a gasoline powered equivalent, and air cooling may have been insufficient to effectively cool the engine. My best guess anyway.

Just looking at the simple elegance of the Flyer I design makes it clear how far ahead the Wrights were in 1903. Fabricating their own wind tunnel for aerodynamic flight surface testing, as well as their own custom power plant and propeller geometry put them in a league of their own. They had to get to the patent office quickly, because they knew the copycats would come from all corners.

In 1910 There was the Paris International Air Navigation Conference that had images and parts from aircraft, including the engine and parts from the Wrights flight. Other images show gliders (Whithead) that later on were suppose (100 years) to show a plane in flight, however a close examination of the image just shows a glider being held up with ropes. There were no other claims at the time and the conference concluded that the Wright Brothers were the first to fly a controlled air plane.

As Buzz Lightyear said “We’re not flying, we’re falling with style” 🙂

Always love your videos. You add insights that other aviation history oversimplifies away. The major points taken here are, 1) Nobody else had come even close to addressing all of the obstacles to flight, and 2) TEN YEARS LATER, nobody, not even those who others claim were first, was yet able to fly for any sensible length of time.

Yes ! Thank you. Ive been a Wright B groupie since about 1958. As a kid I made models & once made a Wright glider from tooth picks & tissue paper. It glided nicely across the room. Still proud of that. The test outdoors, well you can guess. Last flight. Im still in awe of their accomplishments & tenacity. My grandmother from Ohio told me of the first time she saw a plane fly across her farm. It frightened her & the chickens. Anyone who reads all of the material on them & others trying to fly at that time has to come to the same conclusion. Great video! 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

too many comfortable Brazilians thinking they invented it first 🤣

I just want to mention that this is my favorite video of yours Greg. I've watched it several times. It's just such a great story and you do a great job explaining why it's so important.

Great video Greg! Not only were the Wrights first but you proved that they were the only ones that COULD have flown in 1903 or 1908 for that matter.

9:10 "He usually survived." Ok this should be good

Kill Devil Hill to the Moon in One lifetime....still blows me away

Two Wrights don't make it wrong!

Who downvoted this video? What content in this video earns a downvote? Absurd. Excellent video as usual Greg. Took me a long time to get around to watching this one, but I finally did and wasn't disappointed.

New Zealand may claim Pierce was first to fly He said the Wright brothers did that. He was delighted they did so and so are we Kiwis. We , so far from the world, are so grateful they did.

The Wrights solved the flight issue with discoveries and inventions that truly conquered and understood the aeronautical science while the others did not. We know this because nearly all of the implementations and "eureka" moments that made the Wright Flyer -- wing and canard shape, the use of ailerons, elevators, rudders, propeller shape and design, wing warping, air pressure tables, wing lift to weight requirements etc -- all of that is still the heart and soul of flying in even today. All the same principles apply. The Wrights not only flew first, but they flew "the right way" first which is even more amazing. You'd think by now our technology would have designed a new way to fly much different and better, but no it still comes down to thrust, pitch, yaw, ailerons, and wing shape. 2022 aeronautics is still intrinsically tied to what the Wright Brothers discovered was the "secret sauce". Nobody else trying to fly in the late 1800s and early 1900s was even in the same galaxy as far as figuring it all out. Most were on proverbial wild goose chases and dead-end designs that were so far off from what would consistently work that without the Wrights showing the way the world may not have flown for another 25 years.

My great grandfather invented the airplane in Finland in 1900, he used modified ski's for the propellers and a combustion engine that utilized the expanding gasses created from fermenting salted bottom feeding fish .

Well thought out, well researched and well executed. There was never any doubt in my mind but then again I was educated before the internet came along to cloud peoples minds. I'm also a pilot and know the difference between "controlled heavier than air flight" and falling with style. Cheers to you Greg.

I think engineers are the only type that would appreciate Wright's discoveries. Non-scientific people are easily swayed with jargon.

I always thought Alberto Santos-Dumont was a contender. But his "flights" were 150 feet, 400 feet, etc. and the next year, Wilbur flew a Wright flyer 24 miles. Alberto gets an A for effort but his "two box kites" design was on the wrong track. He went by throwing money at the project. The Wright's went with throwing mental effort.

All inventions are accredited to those who actually make it work

9:14 "when his lack of controllability failed him, he usually survived". Agreed. Not surviving was pretty rare. In fact, I believe it only happened to him once.

Who cares whether others may have made short hops before the Wright Brothers where their contraptions did get off the ground under their own power? The aeroplane would not be invented until a flying machine could take off under its own power, climb, turn onto a heading, cruise to a destination and land. The Wright Brothers did all of that, based on an orderly program of study, experimentation and progressive steps towards cross-country flight. All of the achievements of the aerospace industry, up to and including the Apollo program and Voyagers 1 and 2, can be traced to their pioneering work.

My grandmother was from Dayton. She actually saw the Wright Bros fly. Neat.

The wing warping was really the kicker. they could turn around 360. only a dirigable or blimp could do that before the Wrights plane.

It's a pleasure to listen to reasoning of this quality! I particularly agree with the importance of controllability. I have enough trouble with that in the simulated worlds of Kerbal Space Program where there is no wind and atmospheric conditions are entirely predictable. The difficulty in my case is primarily that of making an aircraft which is controllable at an extremely wide range of altitudes and speeds, but that's not the only reason. I've also been struggling with yaw stability, perhaps because I didn't know about adverse yaw. There's a lot of info in the KSP manual and it's augmented by tutorials, but I've yet to see one cover adverse yaw. I haven't seen them all, but the community has a strong tendency to claim all sorts of things will result in a "flat spin" -- a spin around the yaw axis. The prevalance of flat spins in the game probably results from skimping on the vertical stabilizer because it contributes to drag but not lift. When you want to exceed mach 5.5 while there's still some oxygen in the air, you want to minimize drag.

Without the Wright Brothers we would not have what we have today in aviation but lets not forget Matthew B Sellers and what he did for aviation. He made the first powered flight in Kentucky and invented the retractable landing gear. He also built a very advanced wind tunnel to test airfoil designs of which the Wright Brothers had talked with him about. This information was given to me by Matthew's grand children of which I did a documentary on him (AVIATION PIONEER MATTHEW B. SELLERS) by using his lab notes and diary and an interview with his son before he passed away.

38 years between the end of the civil war until the Wrights flew. 66 years from the first flight man was on the moon. 42 years after the moon landing we completed the ISS, the largest permanent structure in space. Less than 150 years we went from primarily using horses and early steam power to having a habitat the size of the football field in LEO. Imagine what we will see in the next 100 years.

"Lilienthal" in German means "I need a propeller/engine".

It all amazes me and how fast air flight developed. Wars probably had something to do with it. My family had a mountain house in NC on a lake. Got to know our closest neighbors, I was a kid then. The neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Laird. He went by Mattie Laird. An older couple that seemed to love each other deeply. He once brought me in their house to show me old photographs and articles about his flying. On day Mr. and Mrs. were married, Mr. Laird flew the two of them around the Empire State Building in NYC. Mr. Laird walked with a limp and he told me from a crash. He was building a cabin at other end of our road and I spent some time with him helping. While our doing work on the cabin, he told me stories of his building his aircraft called the Solution and then the Super Solution. He was a very kind man and talked to me like I was smart enough to listen even though I couldn't understand how or why people would race airplanes around a course of beacons.

Watched a RU-vid video on Gustave Whitehead, "First Flight" before your video. You are right about what are the required elements of flight. Leaping, hopping, gliding are not powered, heavier than air flight. The Wright Bros. were engineers, who did original, scientific research, with continuing refinement. They were also the best pilots of the day. Gustave Whitehead did make an interesting engine and it is unfortunate he did not have financial resources to continue.

It seems to be a trend in the internet age. There is somebody out there to tell you that every freaking thing you've heard is all wrong and that they have the true story.

Thank you! I'm so tired of hearing everyone from outside the US trying to take away what the Wright brothers did. It's funny that so many started getting it right(or Wright) after seeing them fly or getting their secrets. Lindybeige really irked me when he tried to give British credit for first flight.

At the Franklin institute I saw a display of the Wright brothers instrumentation and controls they had on the Wright flyer. They not only made the first flight but they intended to fly for hours not minutes it was amazing to see the thought and mechanics that went into their plane.

I've been a pilot for a long time, had a varied Aviation Career, and retired from Boeing building 737s. The most amazing thing that I think the Wright Brothers did on that first Wright Flyer was having Counter-Rotating Propellers. That eliminated so many potential problems, it's amazing. You mentioned luck, and I believe that just by chance or "luck" they made that brilliant decision.

1:59 Hey look it’s ancient Florida man. I can see that being a news headline today. “ *Florida man ties himself to kite to try and fly* “

I just realized why the whole 2 guys and a shed paradigm has led to so many inventions... Jamie and Hyneman style arguments between 2 intelligent people with wildly different approaches to everything.

I like it. You should also address the claims that Alberto Santos-Dumont was the first. I don't know how many videos I have watched on early powered flight in which there's about a brazillion comments on how he beat the Wrights.

Fortunately, the Wright Brothers had the local lifeguard there to take the photo of that flight. Which happened to be his first photograph. And I believe last photo.

Excellent "Technical History of the Wright Brothers' Flights"! You covered a lot of material that other non-technical historians glossed over. I appreciated the "point-counterpoint' at the end. All around well done!

Wright Brothers are huge legends. My impression is that they basically did it all themselves, everything from building flying finding and producing power sources and funding the project themselves.

Thank you for making this video. It was very informative, and did a good job telling the whole story without cutting things out for argumentative convenience, or for shortening the length of the video.

I read David McCullough's wonderful book and your video was an excellent supplement. Thank you!

Not going to lie, I had a very different mental image of you and was quite surprised by the face reveal. A most informative video as always though. I am happy that RU-vidrs try and correct one another, even if they make mistakes. My standards for subscribed channels are high and unfortunately Lindybeige fell from that with the MG42 Vs Bren video, the few I have watched since seemed exceedingly rambly and long without substance for me. And other channels are simply too click baity and superficial. A great video to watch while eating lunch. Learned much more about the Wright brothers and their efforts than I have learned before. 😀

Richard Pearce said the Wright brothers were the first to fly. Crash landing onto the top of a 20 foot Windbreak hedge, thousands of miles of which make Tamuka farmable, does not prove he flew there in controlled flight. Remember the Wright Flyer was wrecked by a gust soon after it's wonderful debue. Pearce followed the unfolding story of flight and admired all those who dreamed as he did.

Very interesting. And I’m glad you made it clear the difference between Powered Flight and Controlled Falling which is what everyone else was doing. Hats off to you on putting together this video and being forward together your other video peers. There’s a similar situation going on in the guitar world where Fender and Les Paul are seen as the grand inventors of the modern electric guitar, when both had ripped off the idea from Paul Bigsby who’s first attempt has been noted in 1946. But that’s a story for another day.

In one of the French newspapers, after Wilbur's demonstration, the headline was "Nous sommes battus! Nous n'existons pas!" (We're beaten! We don't exist!). I don't know, but I'd love to find out it was the same paper that had a brief passage in English a few days before, "So, basically, they are either fliers or liars."

Dolly Parton once said, "It takes an awful lot 'a money to look this cheap." Greg, it takes an awful lot of knowledge and experience -- and the confidence that comes along with 'em -- to sound that down-to-earth and off-the-cuff. Plus just plain, born vocal talent.

I didn't see anything about Whitehead. Interesting fact. The Wrights went to check out the plane my ancestors built, the Boland Brothers flyer to see if they thought it infringed on their patents. When they saw it was being turned by "jib sheet rudders" they decided it did not infringe on their patents so they didn't sue. The Wright brothers were quite litigious.

knocked 'em down Greg, bravo sir. awesome

Greg, I stumbled across your upload and I must say how thoroughly enjoyable I found it to be. I've always enjoyed a good debate (and whilst never doubting the Wright brothers were both the first and the real pioneers of aviation) your reasoned thoughts were very compelling. I never realised the regional pressure on the 17th of December was (a) so low and (b) so critical and so that and your other insights made for compelling viewing. Thanks very much !

Lindybeige just says what he thinks with no regard for actual history... lmao

For a pair of bicycle mechanics those guys were absolutely brilliant. Also I think the people that think Pearce flew first should build a replica of his airplane and fly it themselves. It would immediately put to rest all of their claims.

Man's wonderment of flight, from time immemorial, came together with two brothers who had a driving desire to see it to fruition. When you think what they did, with what they had and the understanding of what they were able to put together, well that says it all. The Wright Brothers imho were able to assimilate all that came before and make it work. When you look back and see what they had to go through to do it, then prove it was done, battling others who saw a good idea, jumped on it and even improved on it, then the fight over whose idea it was. 119 years later and the leaps and bounds since, is really a testament to what mankind can achieve. Along with the typical human greed good ideas breed. Great post Mr Greg.

I am a private pilot with a commercial certificate. I went to Kitty Hawk museum. It is an emotional experience for someone with knowledge of aerodynamics to look at the walls of the museum which have copies of the original data from their experiments. Page after page of detailed rows and columns of coefficient of drag and coefficient of lift with other details of EACH of dozens of their self-designed airfoils(no more than 2-3 inches long).....from the orange crate-sized wind tunnel they designed. All this data with mine boggling details just take your breath away. These two guys were brilliant engineers even though they did not have the degrees from a college.

The wright brothers, viewed as foolish at the time, confounded those who were viewed as wise, and proved them to be fools.

Thanks for making this video and all of the others

28:06 It always rains at Le Mans.

well you made me feel more confident about the wright brothers. Thanks for your efforts and the way you present this without emotion, simply facts. (Joe Friday?).

They were the Right Brothers to invent the aeroplane.

I'm English, but credit where credit's due, the Wrights were the first to conquer all the necessary elements to achieve real powered flight. They are an inspiration to all of us.

I have no idea how any of the channels you've mentioned ended up with those conclusions. But Lindybeige wasn't a surprise for me.

I forgot if I read it, or saw it in a video, but I've seen a great argument that the Wrights were the first systems engineers in their ability to break up the problems of flight into separate discreet problems and attacked them separately before combining their solutions into one aircraft. They were extremely intelligent men for sure. I am surprised that Octave Chanute wasn't mentioned in this video, not as a potential pre-wright flyer but as a key figure in the information sharing and organization that influenced many early aviation pioneers.

FYI: I've seen alot of people on Discord saying they don't care for the Premiere format. I stopped using the option myself. Up to you, but you may want to poll after this, and see if you want to consider dropping that format or keeping it.