Wright brothers biographer David McCullough says there's a lot to be learned from the epic effort that brought flight to the human species but it's not what everyone thinks. The Pulitzer-winning author, who has written about some of the most important figures in American history, told a near-capacity audience at NBAA's opening session Tuesday that while all the virtues of hard work, stick-to-itiveness and innovation apply to the Wrights, their success was more due to their failures than their successes. In general, Wilbur and Orville had terrible luck and virtually no support from outside their family and all those negative experiences combined to create a data set that "changed the world." He also credited their sister Katherine as being the glue that held the effort together.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/air-shows-events/wright-brothers-success-through-failure