• problematicPanther@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    first successful manned powered flight was in 1903. People have been killing themselves by strapping into gliders for centuries. there was also that French guy who flew in a hot air balloon in the 1800s.

    Also, fuck the wright brothers.

      • problematicPanther@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        they were patent trolls, essentially. tried to patent the entire concept of an airplane, and tried to sue Curtiss over him creating a plane that actually didn’t use the technology they had patented.

        • ArcoIris@lemmy.zip
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          7 months ago

          Wait, really? I heard that what happened is they’d decided to be sneaky by patenting the control system for a heavier-than-air flying machine since they couldn’t patent the idea of the machine itself. Do you have sources I can research?