Re: solution to the world's energy needs

[John Mallinckrodt <ajmallinckro@CSUPOMONA.EDU>]

On Sun, 12 Sep 1999, William Beaty wrote:

> If the Wrights hadn't [proven sustained flight possible], would others
> have done it? From what I've seen of that history, and from what I know
> about human nature, I cannot say yes.  Without the Wrights, there's a
> very good chance that experimentation would have fizzled out.

... and therein lies a significant difference in our belief systems.
Because sustained flight is both highly appealing and easily demonstrable,
I cannot imagine that its history would have been set back by more than a
year (and I rather suspect it would have been more like weeks or months)
had the Wrights never been born.  Can you really believe that, in an era
of fantastic advances in the horsepower to mass ratio of gasoline engines,
flight was not an inevitability?

John Mallinckrodt      mailto:ajm@csupomona.edu
Cal Poly Pomona          http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm