1. 1 Open sources of the invention of the airplane Peter B. Meyer, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics * User and Open Innovation Workshop, Aug 5, 2008 * Findings and views are those of the author, not the BLS

2. 2 Goals of this research Examine wide open, unpredictable technological advances through networks of hobbyists  like open-source software Model that, and contrast to R&D model Not historical research from primary sources.

3. 3 Development of the airplane 1860s Aeronautical clubs and journals start in Britain and France (a niche activity -- hopeless, useless, and/or dangerous) 1894 Survey book by Chanute 1903 Wright brothers’ powered-glider flight 1909 An industry exists Many designs were shared openly, as in open-source software Unlike software:  design can’t be replicated easily  designs and experiments develop slowly Designs and experiments were documented

4. 4 Chanute’s 1894 overview Progress in Flying Machines refers to or quotes more than 190 persons Experimenter / groupPages location (background) Maxim33 Britain (US) Lilienthal31 Germany Penaud22 France Mouillard21 Algeria, Egypt (Fr) Hargrave19 Australia (Br) Moy19 Britain Le Bris17 France Langley16 US Wenham15 Britain Phillips14 Britain This activity is international. References in aviation histories appear to match Chanute’s list Most cited in index of Published Writings of the Wright Brothers (Jakab & Young, 2000) Personpages Lilienthal34 Langley29 Chanute24

5. 5 Founded company making steam engines 1860s-80s studied bird wings and experiments 1889: published Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation 1891-6: Flew inspirational hang gliders 1896: Died after crash. Otto Lilienthal Motivation: “... to soar upward and to glide, free as the bird” -- Otto Lilienthal, 1889 “The glory of a great... invention... destined to benefit humanity [seemed] dazzling.... Enthusiasm seized [us] at an early age.” -- Gustav Lilienthal, 1912

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7. 7 Lawrence Hargrave Retired young in Sydney, Australia Ran many creative diverse experiments starting in 1884 Several flapping-wings designs Innovative engines Box kites showed layered wings were stable and had lift Did not patent, on principle. Published hundreds of findings Chanute: “If there be one man.... who deserves to succeed in flying through the air” – it is Hargrave.

8. 8 Samuel Langley Professor, then Director of Smithsonian Institution in DC Tested lift and drag of planes on “whirling table” with 30-foot arm 1891: Published Experiments in Aerodynamics Wrote to and visited other experimenters Helps make aviation study legitimate 1896: Small powered gliders flew half a mile. 1903: Aircraft carrying a person crashed

9. 9 Octave Chanute Chicago railroad engineer 1880s: takes interest in flying machines 1894: Publishes Progress in Flying Machines, which surveyed experiments, devices, theories 1896 and on: ran experiments on gliders Corresponded with, supported, visited many experimenters Chanute preferred findings to be shared so as to speed progress “[By writing lucid articles], personal correspondence, and visitation, he inspired and encouraged to the limits of his ability all who were devoted to the work.” --Wilbur Wright, 1911

10. 10 Chanute’s 1894 overview Progress in Flying Machines refers to or quotes more than 190 persons Experimenter / groupPages location (background) Maxim33 Britain (US) Lilienthal31 Germany Penaud22 France Mouillard21 Algeria, Egypt (Fr) Hargrave19 Australia (Br) Moy19 Britain Le Bris17 France Langley16 US Wenham15 Britain Phillips14 Britain This activity is international. References in aviation histories appear to match Chanute’s list Most cited in index of Published Writings of the Wright Brothers (Jakab & Young, 2000) Personpages Lilienthal34 Langley29 Chanute24

11. 11 References in aviation histories Last nameFirst namePage references WrightWilbur and Orville443 ChanuteOctave303 LangleySamuel Pierpont240 CurtissGlenn Hammond198 LilienthalOtto177 StringfellowJohn117 CayleySir George103 BlériotLouis98 HerringAugustus Moore97 patents81 Smithsonian Institution75 HensonWilliam Samuel66 BellAlexander Graham65 ManlyCharles Matthews60 ZahmAlbert Francis56 MaximSir Hiram Stevens49 AderClément47 VoisinGabriel45 BreareyFrederick W.44 MeansJames44 WenhamFrancis Herbert44 PenaudAlphonse43 References to persons or institutions before 1909 in the books below, combined: Sources: Crouch’s A Dream of Wings (1981/2002) Dale’s Early Flying Machines (1992) Garber’s Wright Brothers and the Birth of Aviation (2005) Gibbs-Smith’s The Invention of the Aeroplane. (1966) Hallion’s Taking Flight (2003) Hoffman’s Wings of Madness (2003) (biography of Santos- Dumont) Jakab’s Visions of a Flying Machine (1990) Penrose’s An Ancient Air (biography of John Stringfellow) Randolph’s Before the Wrights flew: the story of Gustave Whitehead. (1966) Runge and Lukasch Erfinder Leben (2005) (biography of the Lilienthal brothers) Shulman’s Unlocking the Sky (biography of Glenn Curtiss) There are a variety of issues not yet addressed and so this list is preliminary. It does not screen out references to people and events occurring after 1909. Including the index to a biography leads to badly over-counting, or under-counting, its subject. (An undercount results if the index to the biography does not list its main subject.) Closely affiliated people are often referred to together, not separately. Notably, the Wright brothers are often cited as a team, and so this list includes all references to either one as a reference to both of them. Other pairs of brothers have the same problem to some extent (the Montgolfiers, Lilienthals, Tissandiers, and Voisins).

12. 12 Most U.S. patents by people with aircraft-related patents before 1907 Falconnet 6 Quinby 5 Beeson 3 Bell 3 Blackman 3 Cairncross 3 Fest 3 O’Brate 3 Most German patents by people with aircraft-related patents Lilienthal, O. 25 Lilienthal, G. 9 Baumgarten 7 Gaebert 6 Lehmann 6 Hofmann 4 Ozeyowski 4 Wellner 4 Czygan 3 Fischer 3 Israel 3 Riedinger, A. 3 Hundreds of fixed-wing flying machine patents were filed before 1903 even excluding aerial balloons and internal- combustion engines. [Data: Simine Short and Otto-Lilienthal Museum] Patent counts tell different story

13. 13 Few of those patents were by the people on Chanute’s list. Fixed-wing aircraft patents weren’t ever licensed nor earned any money before 1906 (to my knowledge). Chanute, the Wrights, and aviation historians treat almost all of these patent-filers to be irrelevant to the development of the airplane. Claim:  Intellectual property ownership was mostly irrelevant Patent counts tell different story

14. 14 Parallels to open source software Autonomous innovators (not hierarchy, not cult) Sharing technical info in public space – including failure Intellectual property set aside Diverse objectives (notably intrinsic, altruistic ones)  Want to use the technology (want to fly!)  Curious, interested in the problem  Hope for recognition and prestige  Make people better off (bring peace, or make own nation safer) Internationally dispersed collaboration Role for moderator / evangelist / supporter Alternative processes of invention: race to be first (space race); know-how trading, collective invention, R&D for profit, user innovation; Incentive to signal to employers, license a patent or start a product line

15. 15 Micro-economic model Imagine self-motivated tinkerers with some project “progress” is rewarding to them in future  They’d use time, effort, money for experiments Imagine their experiments have some value to one another Assume they cannot see how a marketable product would arise  Total “technological uncertainty”  They’d share findings with other tinkerers  They’d be willing to specialize to avoid duplication  They’d be willing to standardize design and tools Market processes are not necessary for these effects  They don’t bother with intellectual property (there’s no gain)

16. 16 Role for author / moderator / evangelist Chanute corresponded with, visited, introduced experimenters, and published book In model: A tinkerer’s best opportunity for progress may be editing, writing, speeches, evangelism  To welcome future tinkerers who could generate progress  To avoid duplicate efforts, thru standards and specialization  a uthors/evangelists are another kind of specialist tinkerer Octave Chanute, 1894: “The writer’s object in preparing these articles was threefold: 1. To satisfy himself whether... men might reasonably hope eventually to fly... 2. To save... effort on the part of experimenters trying again devices which have already failed. 3. To... render it less chimerical... to experiment with a flying machine....” Analogously: Lilienthal’s public demonstrations; Felsenstein at Homebrew; open source programmers Stallman, Torvalds, etc.

17. 17 Wright brothers as open-sourcers 1900-1902 Wilbur and Orville Wright ran a bicycle shop. They read up on gliders and try flight experiments. Motivations: “I am an enthusiast... I wish to... add my mite to help on the future worker who will attain final success." -- Wilbur Wright, 1899 "At the beginning we had no thought of recovering what we were expending, which was not great..." -- Orville Wright, 1953 They exchanged hundreds of letters with Chanute They published articles They spoke at conferences Were visited by Chanute and others Wrights help test Octave Chanute’s glider, Oct 1902 

18. 18 Wright methods and inventions Wind tunnel with smooth air flow Tested many wings systematically Propeller invention: shaped like wings, with lift going forward This produces ~40% more pulling power. This design idea lasts to the present. They are skilled, precision-minded toolsmiths, in a workshop every day. They flew craft as kites and gliders both, many times No landing gear, no engine. Their piloting invention had to be learned, like on bicycle

19. 19 Wrights exit the open-source network Late 1902: they become more secretive, apparently because of wing design success Early 1903: They filed for a patent on their control mechanism for the wings. Their secrecy and tight hold on patent rights lead to permanent conflicts with Chanute, Curtiss, and others. Model incorporates a probability of lucrative exit payoff. First powered, controlled fixed-wing flight Dec, 1903

20. 20 Measures of innovators/innovations Who was cited by various authors after the fact? Who was cited ex ante? Who was cited by the big inventors? Patents  to answer: which model applies, R&D or Creating a standard index has problems:  Close collaborators can’t be distinguished clearly (Wright brothers)  Old indexes need extra work  Including biographies over- or under-counts the subject  Quality and standards aren’t yet consistent  Need to screen out references to events after 1909! But one gets a super-index with “everyone relevant” So far it seems to match Chanute’s list fairly closely. This measure, plus measures before the great invention, and at the time of the great invention, and patents, adds up to a story.

21. 21 Implications Hard problems can be addressed by these networks If they can’t foresee the end product, they still can experiment New industries can arise this way Hobbyists, “skunkworks” participants, basic researchers can be “self-motivated innovators” or “tinkerers” Can be sped up by networking, or slowed by restrictions Economic concepts of employees, managers, investors and consumers cannot replicate this observed phenomenon. We must have “tinkerers” to get modern growth and industry.