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Robots
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Aviation
Computers
Robots
Beginning
Commercialization
Breakthrough
Apex
1903

Aviation: - The Wright Flyer
1903 - Orville and Wilbur Wright developed and flew the first successful self-propelled airplane. Although their original flyer developed in 1902 was the first truly effective heavier-than-air craft, it didn?t have a propulsion system, and so counts only as a glider, not as an airplane.

In order to make an actual airplane the Wright brothers had to invent the first propeller and design a new theory of propulsion. Using shipbuilding literature as a reference they reasoned out the basic mental model of the propeller as a moveable wing. After experimenting in a wind tunnel a propulsion system was created, but they still needed a lightweight engine to power it. They tried to buy an engine but no one was willing to build one to their specs. So, with the able assistance of Charles Taylor, they built their own, and the rest is history.



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