I read about the Wright Brothers. I was most surprised that neither of the
Wright Brothers attended college. I most
admire that Orville and Wilbur built the first powered airplane that could
fly. I least admire the numerous
lawsuits involved with their invention.
The Wright Brothers did experience numerous failures. They started with many different designs and
began experimenting with gliders. Model
after model failed and crashed. Most
crashes caused them to start over from scratch.
They viewed every failure as an opportunity to build their adversity and
improve their design.
The Wright Brothers were competent because they never gave
up on accepting new ideas. In addition,
they fought many court battles as people tried to steal their great idea. The lawsuits damaged their public appearance
and set back progress. Ultimately, the
Wright Brothers prevailed and are honored by society for their advancements in
aviation.
I was a little confused about the end of their career. Wilbur sold the company in 1915. It resulted in competing claims. The following individuals all made claims for
successful airplane tests: Clement Ader, Giustave Whitehead, Richard Perase,
and Karl Jatho. I was confused on how
their claims were unique and the process of how these conflicting claims were
settled.
Question 1: How did
you observe birds and translate their flight characteristics to a man-made
design?
Question 2: Where do
you see your airplane invention in 100 years?
I would ask the first question because I am curious how they
believed they could replicate birds. I
want to ask the second question because I wonder how much they predicted the
expansion of aviation.
I think the Wright Brothers’ opinion of hard work is staying
in the workshop for 12 hours a day 7 days a week and trying for years while
still failing. This is hard work and it
eventually paid off because they were successful and continued to work long
hours and exhaust efforts to improve their invention. I agree with this opinion of hard work and strive
to have similar qualities.
Adam,
ReplyDeleteI read the same book and was very surprised about some of my findings as well! I cannot get over the fact that they did not graduate high school. All of those lawsuits were just stepping stones in making them successful, but it definitely was trying to their perseverance. I also proposed asking them a very similar question along the lines of where they saw their invention. It's crazy that aviation basically exists because of them. Very good analysis!
Hey Adam,
ReplyDeleteI decided to read Grinding it out: the making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc and found similarities with your book. I think that the most important aspect that our books have in common is the way in which something innovative was created after encountering several failures over the years. Both the Wright brothers and Kroc kept persevering in the face of failure until they developed their projects, in fact I believe determination and ambition are two of the keys to success and these men proved it. Great analysis.
Adam,
ReplyDeleteI read the Phil Knight book and found that after reading your reflection that they had a lot in common. I feel that Dr. Pryor did this on purpose because he wants us to learn from historic business men that went through turbulence to get to become successful. Phil and the wright brothers both went through a lot of turbulence before their product was perfect an its good to learn from their lives.
Hey Adam,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like many famous entrepreneurs did not attend college, or at least finish. I went to Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago last summer and saw a replica of the Wright Flyer. There many failures led to their success, and I think aviation will only continue to get safer, especially after the recent Boeing 737 Max crashes.
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