The next theme for the book club in 2015 was Aviation. We started with Birdmen by Lawrence Goldstone. 

Like all new technologies there was a battle royale concerning these new-fangled flying machines. The Wright Brothers were pitted against Glenn Curtiss. Each had their own ideas about how to control aircraft in flight, including banking and turning. 

This inevitably led to a war over patents. As we will see, patent contests become the central point of many new technologies, such as the automobile and moving pictures. Hollywood in a large part was created by businessmen who sought to avoid Edison’s control over film. The authority to grant patents is provided in the Constitution, leading to the creation of the Patent Office. (In a future email, we will see that Clara Barton worked at the Patent Office.)

The Wright Brothers manufactured bicycles in Dayton, Ohio. The principle of balance while cycling applies to aviation as well, as Wilber Wright discovered.

Initial competition in aviation came from the Europeans, such as Roland Garros, a hero of the First World War, for whom the French Open Tennis Championship is named.

Southern California, with its excellent weather, became a hotbed of aviation with small airports scattered throughout the basin, such as Sky Ranch airport located in La Puente and Shepherd Field in the City of Industry. Of course, Edwards Air Force Base was the site of many aviation firsts and one of the landing sites of the Space Shuttle.

In the city of Brea I have often passed by a nondescript office building on Birch Street with a sign the reads "Curtiss Wright." This is the headquarters of Curtiss-Wright Nuclear Division. Over the years these two business foes merged to form a large corporation.