# Why no Wright brothers movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 22, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809 "2008-06-22T17:50:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/81 "2015-02-19T16:31:26Z")
> [@jlh3rd](#): > > Well, there’s been documentaries, …mini series? I guess…The original intent of this thread was a full, big screen motion picture, and why there hasn’t been one. > I’m trying to stay away from personal opinion of other’s, including authors, about the Wright’s ( and arguments)…I think a movie about the struggle to achieve man powered flight, and how it was finally accomplished , would sell. > > ``` > Maybe Ron Howard?......producer.. > > ``` I think that’s true- I’d be interested in a dramatic movie about the path to man-powered flight. Ron Howard or Tom Hanks would be good choices as directors/producers. I am surprised no one has done it already. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/82 "2015-02-19T16:58:00Z")
> [@jlh3rd](#): > > I think a movie about the struggle to achieve man powered flight, and how it was finally accomplished , would sell. Doug McIntyre, who is currently the morning annoucer at KABC radio in Los Angeles, is a big fan of the Wright brothers, and also has script writing experience. When he was the host of the Red Eye Radio program, I heard him mention that he had long wanted to do a movie about the Wrights, and was sure the centennial in 2003 would be the perfect opportunity, but he couldn’t get the studios interested. If I remember correctly, the story just isn’t considered dramatic enough and doesn’t have enough human interest elements for big studio consideration. ---
**Author:** ![jlh3rd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@jlh3rd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlh3rd)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/83 "2015-02-19T18:19:06Z")
I wonder who he talked…maybe I need to talk to him…hmmmm…maybe I should apply for a patent of some kind… ---
**Author:** ![jlh3rd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@jlh3rd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlh3rd)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/84 "2015-02-19T18:21:04Z")
> [@whitetho](#): > > Doug McIntyre, who is currently the morning annoucer at KABC radio in Los Angeles, is a big fan of the Wright brothers, and also has script writing experience. When he was the host of the Red Eye Radio program, I heard him mention that he had long wanted to do a movie about the Wrights, and was sure the centennial in 2003 would be the perfect opportunity, but he couldn’t get the studios interested. If I remember correctly, the story just isn’t considered dramatic enough and doesn’t have enough human interest elements for big studio consideration. Agreed…there’s always obstacles…no one was interested in “Rocky” ---
**Author:** ![jlh3rd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@jlh3rd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlh3rd)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/85 "2015-02-19T18:23:57Z")
And that movie was nothing but human interest ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/86 "2015-02-19T19:51:25Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > … depending on Octave Chanute to show them what to do … [Late to this thread - sorry.] This is truly weird - in what way did Chanute “show them what to do” ?? They had a long and involved correspondence with Chanute, but reading it seems clearly to indicate that their thinking was ahead of his from early in the game. Chanute was devoted to the idea of inherent stability in a flying machine, whereas the Wrights, pretty much from the start, saw that an airplane had to be easily controllable, which argues against strong inherent stability. It’s been suggested that their experience building bicycles contributed to this insight - a bicycle is a perfect example of a machine that has little to no inherent stability, but is able to stay upright due to operator inputs. But apparently nothing in what they wrote compels the view that their approach to flying machine stability derived from their experience with bicycles. Chanute’s biggest contribution was encouraging the Wrights after their (to them) disappointing results at Kitty Hawk in 1901. He’d been present during part of their time at Kill Devil Hills, had seen some of what they’d accomplished, and understood its significance. He invited Wilbur to speak to the Western Society of Engineers on the subject of their gliding experiments, which helped Wilbur get quickly past his prediction that “not within a thousand years would men ever fly.” ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/87 "2015-02-19T19:59:10Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > … their _basic_ motivation wasn’t the lyrical dream of flight stuff we know so well, it was "How can we get filthy rich, not just comfortable? _Gott im Himmel_. _Where_ did you get this notion? Their correspondence was extensive, and large amounts of it has been preserved. I’d be interesting in considering any shred of evidence that there is any truth to your assertion. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/88 "2015-02-19T20:19:19Z")
Their relationship is a little murky, in no small part because the Wrights denied much of it after succeeding, and in part because Chanute wanted them to be more open about what they were doing for the sake of advancing the Dream of Flight rather than patent protection. Chanute also got them thinking in terms of a biplane with a truss structure, something familiar to him from his previous career with railroad bridges. His broader contribution was teaching them the engineering process, although the Wrights were naturals at it anyway. Chanute certainly deserves a bigger part in history than “Who’s he?”. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/89 "2015-02-19T20:20:23Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > _Gott im Himmel_. _Where_ did you get this notion? Several biographies of them. Crouch’s is good. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/90 "2015-02-19T20:20:59Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Chanute was devoted to the idea of inherent stability in a flying machine, whereas the Wrights, pretty much from the start, saw that an airplane had to be easily controllable, which argues against strong inherent stability. I am skeptical of that claim. The Wrights used a canard presumably because it seemed logical to them – you can see where the elevators are just at a glance. They only switched to the posterior elevator arrangement with the Model B production airplane, so it appears that the canard was not that big a stability problem. As for the anhedral wings, they chose that arrangement because they flew in gusty winds and had determined it to be safer than dihedral, at least for what they were doing. Just look at the most popular style of modern hang glider, the delta wing designed by Rogallo, incredibly stable yet very controllable. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/91 "2015-02-19T20:33:32Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > I have not seen much of anything bad about Glenn Curtiss. You should take a look at what he was up to in April through June of 1914. For a payment of $2000, he was extensively modifying Langley’s Aerodrome and making short hops in it to support the claim that it was the first flying machine “capable of sustained free flight”. The incentive for him was not so much the money (which was nothing to sneeze at, being equal to about $50k today) but the hope that demonstration of a controllable flying machine pre-dating the Wright’s 1903 flight would undermine their patent claims against him. This was serious sleaze, the nastiness of which he was in a better position than almost anyone to understand. Curtiss deserves to be remembered as an important aviation pioneer, but this piece of scumbaggery should be remembered along with the rest. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/92 "2015-02-19T20:38:31Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Their relationship is a little murky, in no small part because the Wrights denied much of it after succeeding Their extensive correspondence survives. Where and when did the Wrights deny any of it? > [@](#): > > His broader contribution was teaching them the engineering process, although the Wrights were naturals at it anyway. I’d be hard put to support the notion that he did much teaching of the Wrights. > [@](#): > > Chanute certainly deserves a bigger part in history than “Who’s he?”. He does, and indeed he has this. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/93 "2015-02-19T20:42:03Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Several biographies of them. Crouch’s is good. Do any of these put forward any evidence that the Wright’s basic motivation was to get filthy rich? Can you point to this? Why does nothing along these lines appear in the historical record of what they said or wrote? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/94 "2015-02-19T23:51:03Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I want to see a film about [Glenn Hammond Curtiss](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Curtiss), the _real_ Father of Flight. He was building airplanes that a modern pilot could fly while the Wright were suing him into bankruptcy. Glenn Curtiss didn’t have a clue about the aerodynamics involved in flight. He was an accomplished engine builder but an amateur engineer. ---
**Author:** ![jlh3rd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@jlh3rd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlh3rd)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/95 "2015-02-20T06:16:02Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I am skeptical of that claim. The Wrights used a canard presumably because it seemed logical to them – you can see where the elevators are just at a glance. They only switched to the posterior elevator arrangement with the Model B production airplane, so it appears that the canard was not that big a stability problem. As for the anhedral wings, they chose that arrangement because they flew in gusty winds and had determined it to be safer than dihedral, at least for what they were doing. > > Just look at the most popular style of modern hang glider, the delta wing designed by Rogallo, incredibly stable yet very controllable. The Wright’s used a canard ( what they called a horizontal rudder) because they understood how the center of pressure would move along the top surface of the wing giving them the control of pitch that they needed a lot quicker and more precise than trying to move a body slung under a glider. They also learned that a machine designed for max stability is in fact less controllable. They wanted a machine as neutral in stability as they could make it so that THEY could control it. So they discarded the dihedral wing design and reversed it. The horizontal rudder was put in front to absorb contact with the ground first as protection for the pilot.They did not want to die as others had done in testing and flying their machines… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/96 "2015-02-20T06:20:37Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > The government forced that to happen after US entry into WW1, by forming a patent pool of all aircraft producers. Orville accepted it, despite his hatred of Glenn Curtiss, due not only to Wilbur’s death but to the deaths of several of his close-friend exhibition pilots in crashes for which he blamed himself. His sister Katherine, who had run the brothers’ household (there were two other brothers who had their own lives), left him to marry at a spinsterish age, and he never fully got over that either. Orville spent the rest of his life in various ceremonial and advisory roles in the industry but stopped innovating. Well, there’s your character-driven plot, then! Think what could be done with it! The anguish at the heart of an apparently emotionless mechanic! A man who changed the world through imagination and diligence but was still too small-minded to be a true visionary! The creepy incestuous UST! ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/97 "2015-02-20T12:13:29Z")
Forget historical accuracy. [Wright Brothers: Vampire Hunter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln:_Vampire_Hunter) would be a sure hit. ---
**Author:** ![jlh3rd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@jlh3rd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlh3rd)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/98 "2015-02-20T12:38:50Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > You should take a look at what he was up to in April through June of 1914. > > For a payment of $2000, he was extensively modifying Langley’s Aerodrome and making short hops in it to support the claim that it was the first flying machine “capable of sustained free flight”. The incentive for him was not so much the money (which was nothing to sneeze at, being equal to about $50k today) but the hope that demonstration of a controllable flying machine pre-dating the Wright’s 1903 flight would undermine their patent claims against him. > > This was serious sleaze, the nastiness of which he was in a better position than almost anyone to understand. Curtiss deserves to be remembered as an important aviation pioneer, but this piece of scumbaggery should be remembered along with the rest. Correct…and add that the Smithsonian Institute was also a participant in this scheme. This played a big part as to why the original Wright flyer stayed on display in France for decades before being returned and put on display in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![jlh3rd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@jlh3rd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlh3rd)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/99 "2015-02-20T16:50:05Z")
> [@jlh3rd](#): > > The Wright’s used a canard ( what they called a horizontal rudder) because they understood how the center of pressure would move along the top surface of the wing giving them the control of pitch that they needed a lot quicker and more precise than trying to move a body slung under a glider. They also learned that a machine designed for max stability is in fact less controllable. They wanted a machine as neutral in stability as they could make it so that THEY could control it. So they discarded the dihedral wing design and reversed it. The horizontal rudder was put in front to absorb contact with the ground first as protection for the pilot.They did not want to die as others had done in testing and flying their machines… Correction…dihedral was abandoned at kittyhawk only, due to the effect of crosswinds at kittyhawk.After 1905, dihedral design returned. They were looking for stability with control…posts at 1 am after working all day shouldn’t be attempted…there is a balance between inherent stability and neutral stability… ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809/100 "2015-02-20T17:45:57Z")
You know, I wouldn’t have said a movie about staid old John Harvey Kellogg would work, yet\* The Road To Wellville\* is hilarious. So do something like that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-wright-brothers-movie/453809.md?page=6)