William Beaty wrote:
Was flying machine plagued constantly by con artists taking money from enormous numbers of people?
Well, not enormous numbers, but there were quite a few. Enough to cause the Wright brothers many problems because, for example, U.S. Army officials assumed they were con artists. In France up until the moment of the demonstration they were called con artists and "bluffers."
I have accounts from as late as 1912 that in U.S. cities and towns, aviators would sometimes show up on the train to do a flight exhibition (with the airplane in crates), and they would be met by angry crowds and the sheriff ready to arrest them because "everyone knows people can't fly." This was after the Wrights had become world famous. Many people did not believe the newspapers, and they emphatically did not believe scientists and engineers. The same is true today. Many politicians make hay claiming the evolution, global warming, Hubbert's peak and other technical issues are a left-wing conspiracy, or something like that.
I.e. was it akin to lead-into-gold alchemist research, or known-shady used car dealerships? Did wise investors have to assume a scam was in progress until innocence was proven?
Yes, they did. The company that finally invested in the airplane, the Charles Flint company, sent experts to confirm the claims. They would have been foolish not to.
With the spread of the technology, the con artists began to fade away, by they were replaced by many people who tried to steal the technology and claim they invented the airplane first. The Smithsonian, the Scientific American and others played fast and loose with the truth for political reasons. The Sci. Am. continues to do that today, denigrating the Wrights and lying about history as recently as 2003.
- Jed
