Editing Wright brothers (section)

===Ideas about control===
[[File:WrightBrothers1899Kite.jpg|right|thumb|Wright 1899 kite: front and side views, with control sticks. Wing-warping is shown in lower view. (Wright brothers' drawing in Library of Congress.)]]

Despite Lilienthal's fate, the brothers favored his strategy: to practice gliding in order to master the art of control before attempting motor-driven flight. The death of British aeronaut [[Percy Pilcher]] in another hang gliding crash in October 1899 only reinforced their opinion that a reliable method of pilot control was the key to successful – and safe – flight. At the outset of their experiments they regarded control as the unsolved third part of "the flying problem". The other two parts&nbsp;– wings and engines&nbsp;– they believed were already sufficiently promising.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=166}}

The Wright brothers' plan thus differed sharply from more experienced practitioners of the day, notably [[Clément Ader|Ader]], [[Hiram Maxim|Maxim]], and [[Samuel Pierpont Langley|Langley]], who all built powerful engines, attached them to airframes equipped with untested control devices, and expected to take to the air with no previous flying experience. Although agreeing with Lilienthal's idea of practice, the Wrights saw that his method of balance and control by shifting his body weight was inadequate.<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 53.</ref> They were determined to find something better.

On the basis of observation, Wilbur concluded that birds changed the angle of the ends of their wings to make their bodies roll right or left.<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 70.</ref> The brothers decided this would also be a good way for a flying machine to turn – to "bank" or "lean" into the turn just like a bird – and just like a person riding a bicycle, an experience with which they were thoroughly familiar. Equally important, they hoped this method would enable recovery when the wind tilted the machine to one side (lateral balance). They puzzled over how to achieve the same effect with man-made wings and eventually discovered [[wing-warping]] when Wilbur idly twisted a long inner-tube box at the bicycle shop.<ref>Tobin 2004, pp. 53–55.</ref>

Other aeronautical investigators regarded flight as if it were not so different from surface locomotion, except the surface would be elevated. They thought in terms of a ship's rudder for steering, while the flying machine remained essentially level in the air, as did a train or an automobile or a ship at the surface. The idea of deliberately leaning, or rolling, to one side either seemed undesirable or did not enter their thinking.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|pages=167–168}} Some of these other investigators, including Langley and Chanute, sought the elusive ideal of "inherent stability", believing the pilot of a flying machine would not be able to react quickly enough to wind disturbances to use mechanical controls effectively. The Wright brothers, in contrast, wanted the pilot to have absolute control.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=168–169}} For that reason, their early designs made no concessions toward built-in stability (such as [[Dihedral (aircraft)|dihedral]] wings). They deliberately designed their 1903 first powered flyer with [[Dihedral (aircraft)#Anhedral|anhedral]] (drooping) wings, which are inherently unstable, but less susceptible to upset by gusty cross winds.