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The first successful planes may have been built by the Wright brothers, but the invention was pretty much about to happen in France and the rest of Europe ; and faster innovation in Europe might be attributed to a network of builders, in competition but also emulation and cooperation...

It's a good thing there wasn't any IP on the first plane...

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Wed Mar 7th, 2007 at 12:18:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]
You are right about the French.  In fact, because the Wrights were so secretive, the French thought they had invented the airplane.  And in the early days, the French aviators were self-financed.  Even so, airplanes did not become something more than toys until governments got involved--even in USA.

As for IP on the first plane.  There was.  In fact, one of the things that so crippled early American aviation was the long, bitter, and expensive patent fight between the Wrights and Glenn Curtiss.

"Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"

by techno (reply@elegant-technology.com) on Wed Mar 7th, 2007 at 02:11:35 PM EST
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