I've been watching the History Channel because today is the centennial celebration of flight.
One of the most illustrative aspects of the competition in conquering flight is often overlooked. Is it about the science, or the perseverance? No. It is the lesson that keeps repeating itself over and over throughout history. Private Sector (Individuals, Corporations, Voluntary alliances) versus government.
If you subject your children to the abuse known as "Public" (read government) school, don't expect your kids to learn anything about this most important lesson.
The Wright brothers were a couple of high school drop-outs who ran a bicycle shop. They got the crazy idea that they could build a flying machine. The dream of flying was nothing new, it's just that they were living during the industrial revolution and had seen all the rapidly developing technology and thought, "why not?"
At the same time a distinguished, very educated Professor Langley was working on his flying machine. On his great international reputation as a top scientist, he procured funds from the U.S. government to do his experimentation to build a flying machine. There were others in the modern world trying to accomplish the same thing, but Langley's reputation made him the overwhelming favorite.
The Wrights worked in as much secrecy as possible. They knew that if word got out that two bicycle mechanics were working on a flying machine, the ridicule would be monstrous. The two geniuses did some of the most amazing genuine research, unlike Langley. The Wrights built the first wind tunnel; so well designed that modern ones are not much different. They found discovered serious flaws in previous research by other credentialed scientists. Did I mention they were high school drop-outs?
Not long after Langley's launch of his aerodrome off a house-boat, in which the rear wings collapsed, causing him to be a laughingstock in the press, the Wright brothers succeeded in three consecutive flights.
So, what does this have to do with "Private sector versus government?" Langley got to waste $70,000 dollars of taxpayer money; something like $2 million today. The Wright brothers spent $1,200 ($24,000) of their own money to leave Langley in the dust.
Sure, we've come a long way since then. But, that is still the most important lesson of the breakthrough. Most all of the greatest leaps of science and technology happen in spite of government, not because of it.