Going in the Wright direction
Professor Tom Nicholas (Harvard) looks at the case of the Wright brothers. Getting the plane airborne turned out to be easier than getting the business to fly.
This case deals with an important instance of entrepreneurship, albeit one that dates back to the early 20th century.
Lighter-than-air flight was inaugurated at the end of the eighteenth century by another set of brothers, the Montgolfiers (to this day, a hot air balloon is called a montgolfière in French). Difficulties with lighter-than-air flight led 19th century scientific innovators to take on the dream of heavier-than-air vehicles.
As the case makes clear, it was a global and collaborative effort. The scientific principles of winged flight were laid out by an Englishman, George Cayley. Following in those footsteps, a German, Otto Lilienthal, was inspired by bird flight to develop hang gliders as well as tables of lift and drag coefficients and published his observations in Birdflight as a Basis for Aviation. Concurrently, in Australia, Lawrence Hargrave was also developing box gliders.
Meanwhile in the USA, engineer Octave Chanute turned his scientific energy to manned flight. One of his major contributions was the idea of double-decker wings or what we now call the biplane.
The engineering epic
Wilbur and Orville Wright got their start working on another invention of the 19th century, the bicycle. But in 1895 they read about Lilienthal’s gliding attempts and in 1899 they took in Chanute’s tome. They made powered flight their personal dream, starting up an intensive correspondence with Chanute.
The case brings up the role of profit motivations and secrecy. Initially, Wilbur Wright believed in transparency and had no great financial dreams. A fall from this gratuitousness was to mar the end of Wilbur’s career.
The Wright brothers started from Chanute’s idea of double-decker wings and focused on the problem of balance. They came upon a solution for wing warping, allowing altered lift on each side and thereby greater control. Kitty Hawk was the site of their first attempts in September 1900.
They were forced to abandon incremental engineering in favor of more theoretical science. To come up with reliable tables they built a wind tunnel in their shop. The brothers anlayzed over one hundred surfaces and returned to Kitty Hawk with a new design.
When the 1902 gliding flights proved successful, the brothers moved on to the next step: self-powered machines. For the propellor design, they turned to marine engineering but were disappointed by the inefficiency of marine propellers.
Since engine manufacturers were unable to provide an engine that would meet the power-weight specifications. the brothers were forced to design their own 12hp engine weighing 200 pounds. It was on December 17, 1903 that their flying machine remained airborne for about 12 seconds.
The business saga
From this point on, international competition and the desire to market their invention made the Wrights’ life more difficult. Now that that flight had been proven possible, the task was to market it. Their first step was to protect their intellectual property by applying for a patent on lateral wing control. A problem with the patent was to become apparent much later: its breadth. The patent gave the Wright brothers a potential monopoly over all flying machines. As the case makes clear later on, that sort of patent is a good way to get yourself involved in extensive litigation.
Wilbur’s concerns about his patent application and the financial future of the endeavor, led him to reject any public demonstration or publication of drawings for fear of revealing trade secrets. Gone was the desire for the transparency.
The Wrights were awarded their patents in Europe in 1904 and in the US in 1906. Their initial hope was to sell the machine to governments, for wartime applications. But their price was high ($250,000) and the buyer would not be able to see the machine until the contract had been signed! It was only in 1908 that the Wrights won a small US Army contract and signed a deal for manufacturing of planes in France based on the Wright design.
In the meantime, competition was picking up, and the patent awards may have lulled the Wrights into an excessive sense of security. When the Aeronautical Experiment Association the Wrights for some prototype assistance, they helped develop a wing with ailerons. An AEA member, Glenn Hammond Curtiss, used a plane featuring this design to won the award for being the first flier to cover one kilometer in front of witnesses, in July 1908.
The numerous lawsuits between 1910 and 1912 meant that the Wrights were very engaged in lawsuits, on both sides of the Atlantic. Indeed, the transatlantic shuttling took its toll on Wilbur who died in 1912 (aged 45). Tired by all the legal wrangling, Orville sold the company in 1915 for approximately $1.5 million.
It was the First World War that prompted a solution to the patent gridlock. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics negotiated an agreement whereby the two major patent holders, Wright-Martin and Curtiss would receive $2 million each in exchange for authorizing their patents for general use. With the legal ice finally removed, airplane development and manufacture really took off, though Wilbur could only watch from heaven and Orville would choose to do so from the sidelines (he died in 1948).
Reference:
Harvard 9-811-034
The Wright Brothers and their Flying Machines
Professor Tom Nicholas and David Chen
Harvard Business School
Published May 2011
P.S: The first scholarly work on Octave Chanute, From Locomotive to Aeromotive: Octave Chanute and the Transportation Revolution, by Simine Short will be published later this year by the University of Illinois Press (click here for release information).
