Funny, one of the Wright brothers knew basic physics (a science) to make that plane fly. Interesting. I've read that neither of the brothers finished high school. Wilbur read articles written by others about their efforts to design gliders and decided flight was possible. I would submit that he had more faith than scientific knowledge. One of his big contributions was the realization that the plane needed to be controlled in three axes of motion. He got the idea by wathcing buzzards flying.
In fact, here is a little quote about their engineering efforts...
"The Wrights built their first two gliders according to Lilienthal's calculations for lift - which were also the basis for all previous flight attempts. But something wasn't quite right. While their 1900 glider proved that their system of control worked, the lifting capacity fell short of Lilienthal's calculations. Their 1901 glider performed better than any of their predecessors, but again its lift capacity fell short of calculations.
"After two years of experiment, we cast it all aside, and decided to rely entirely upon our own investigations." "
[This message has been edited by mgrego2 (edited April 08, 2001).]
