Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The invention of the airplane spans a period of 110 years from 1799 when Cayley first described the design of fixed-wing aircraft to 1909 when practical craft were flown at the Reims Air Show. At least 100 different designs were built and tested during this period, often at great expense, and occasionally at the cost of the pilot's life. With the exception of the Wright Brothers, progress was slow and sporadic. The Wrights needed only four years to develop their first airplane. Their efficiency is unique: N o other inventor was able to duplicate the steady rapid progress of the Wright Brothers or duplicate their results until details of the Wright craft became available in 1906.