American Genius (2015) s01e02 Episode Script

Are you ready? Let's go! No invention has changed the world quite like the airplane.
But the story of its creation is one of intense rivalry between two brothers named Wright.
People won't believe we can fly unless we show them.
And the daredevil called Glenn Curtiss.
May the best plane win.
Who was brave enough to take them on.
We fly again tomorrow.
A bitter competition.
It's a ploy.
Fueled by danger and marked with tragedy.
Would forever change the way we see the world.
Try this one.
32 year old Wilbur Wright and his younger brother, Orville, lead quiet lives, spending their days repairing and designing bicycles.
Thank you.
Have a great day.
The two brothers have always had inventive minds.
Between the two brothers, it was a terrific team because Wilbur had really remarkable insights, and Orville could build almost anything.
So you have one party coming up with an idea and the other one bringing it to fruition.
For Wilbur, bicycles are not enough.
Geniuses in some sense are ordinary people.
They look ordinary.
They have ordinary kinds of problems everyone has.
But what separates them is that they have a vision.
This tremendously impossible goal.
Something that is unattainable but they say to themselves, that's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna do the impossible.
What do you see? I don't know.
Balance.
While some innovators have already managed to lift an aircraft from the ground, no one has been able to control it, yet.
Wilbur saw that birds shifted their wingtips in flight in order to bank.
What Wilbur recognized and no one else did was that an aircraft, in order to become stable, had to be inherently unstable.
It was the single most significant breakthrough that allowed controlled powered flight.
Wilbur's theory is simple.
If he can twist an aircraft's wings in flight, he'll be able to maintain control.
It will come to be known as wing warping.
Everybody likes to say, Science did this.
Science is people.
People use the process of science to make an observation.
They come up with a hypothesis of why it happens, then try it and compare it to what you thought was gonna happen.
That process has changed the world.
Experimenting with a kite is one thing.
But to get a person in the air, he'll have to put his life on the line.
So its design has to be flawless.
For the next three years, Wilbur and Orville turn their attention to building full sized gliders.
The wings are the key.
Wilbur recognized that you needed to fly in wind.
They said no bird soars in a calm.
And they were looking for someplace where it was sandy so if you landed you wouldn't get killed.
KITTY HAWK, NORTH CAROLINA Wilbur survives the crash.
But if the Wright brothers are going to be first in manned flight, they'll have to rethink their design and fast.
After all, the race to be first in the air is just heating up.
500 miles away.
All right, William, you want to start with the threaded side of the pipe.
Another innovative mind is at work.
Testing the limits of the recently introduced internal combustion engine.
Well, the metal warps.
A gregarious motorcycle designer named Glenn Curtiss.
Glenn Curtiss was, like the Wrights, he had a bicycle shop.
He had a lot of experience with motors and became pretty much, without question, one of the most talented motor designers working in America at that time.
Since 1901, Curtiss has made a name for himself building motorcycles fitted with his powerful engines.
But the young thrill seeker's career is about to change forever.
- Thank you so much for coming.
- Thank you! KITTY HAWK, NORTH CAROLINA After spending nearly $1,000, the Wright brothers return to the beach to test their new design, the Wright Flyer.
To gain more control, they've not only enhanced their rudder system, Orville and Wilbur have installed a four cylinder, 12 horsepower engine.
On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers do the impossible.
They achieve the first controlled and powered human flight.
In the fourth trial of the day, Wilbur travels a record breaking 852 feet and is airborne for 59 seconds.
The Wright brothers were not the first ones to build gliders.
They were the first ones to put it all together.
You need a motor and a control system so you don't crash and kill yourself.
That's what the Wright brothers did.
They put it all together.
The Wright brothers leave Kitty Hawk having made history.
Wilbur, why not let the world know? If this gets out, someone will snap it up like Rockefeller or Edison.
Don't you want to meet Edison? We can be him if we play our cards right.
Just wait until we have the patent.
The Wright brothers filed a patent that would give them the monopoly, not only on wing warping, but anything that altered the margins of the wings in flight.
It was as if Bill Gates got a patent on any software for personal computers.
You couldn't do that today, but you could do that then.
As the Wrights wait on their patent, word of their successful flight begins to spread.
And it isn't long before some of the country's most ambitious men try to get in on the Wright brothers' success.
Glenn Curtiss sends the Wrights a letter offering to enhance their aircraft by supplying them with his state of the art engines.
Less than a week after Curtiss makes his offer, the Wrights' patent is approved.
Owning the rights to powered flight, Wilbur and Orville can now legally prevent any future competitors from building airplanes.
Despite the need for a solid engine, they turn down Curtiss' offer, and in doing so, create their biggest rival to date.
In December, 1903, after risking life and limb, Orville Wright executes the first controlled, powered human flight, securing the Wright brothers place in aeronautical history.
And while they hold the patent for their design, their success is only breeding competition.
Lock it in place by giving that a spin.
And with this lever, away from yourself.
Including daredevil and motor engineer, Glenn Curtiss.
NOVEL AERIAL EXPERIMEN Curtiss has just been recruited to a group of engineers and innovators fronted by world renowned inventor Alexander Graham Bell, looking to construct their own set of blueprints for an aircraft.
And they're convinced that Curtis's engine is the key to powered flight.
But with the Wright's patent in place, they need to come up with a completely different design.
Instead of wing warping, Curtiss focuses on a different method of stabilization, ailerons, French for little wing, an aileron is a hinged flap attached to the wing of an airplane.
By moving the flaps up and down, the airplane can maintain stability.
It's a technology still in use today.
Curtiss and his team build an airplane fitted with ailerons and one of his powerful 40 horsepower engines.
They call it the June Bug, and they choose their most fearless designer to fly it.
That propeller's gonna be hollow tomorrow, we'll be twice as fast.
Now all they need is the chance to show the world that their design, is better than the Wrights's.
And their opportunity comes.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN OFFERS $1000 TROPHY FOR BEST FLYIN MACHINE.
When an aviation contest is announced.
The Scientific American contest was probably going to be the first time when people who were interested in aviation were all gathered to see an airplane fly.
Wilbur and Orville are invited to join the competition to prove Curtiss wrong.
It's a ploy.
Just a cheap stunt to try to get us to fly for the cameras.
People are calling us liars, fakes.
I don't care.
The Wright brothers, were very secretive.
They thought everybody was infringing their patent, and they weren't gonna participate in anything with a bunch of patent infringers.
But the Wright turned down the invitation, leaving Curtiss to fly without any opposition.
With the contest only one day away, Glenn Curtiss takes his June Bug up for one final test run.
Are you ready? Let's go! On the day before Glenn Curtiss is set to make his first public flight, the newly designed June Bug airplane crashes to the ground.
Remarkably, Curtiss escapes with only a few scratches.
You all right? Was it the ailerons? Too tight? No, I opened the throttle too fast.
Okay, we'll get it back to the shop.
- I think we may - No, sir.
We fly again tomorrow.
But Glenn.
We fly again tomorrow! A lot of the people on the Curtiss team were ready to delay, but true to form, Curtiss was kind of undaunted by it.
With his reputation on the line, Curtiss pushes his team to their breaking point to repair the damaged airplane in time for the exhibition.
In order to do something brand new and succeed spectacularly, that usually comes with a tremendous amount of risk.
To succeed spectacularly, you need to be willing to fail spectacularly.
STONY BROOK FARM, NEW YORK - July 41908 By morning, the June Bug is repaired and ready for its debut.
Glenn Curtiss is about to take the biggest risk of his career, attempting a public flight in a plane that crash landed just one day earlier.
Curtiss flies for nearly a mile.
It's hard to imagine how dramatic, really, it must have been for people.
It was really an amazing spectacle.
People were literally crying, people were screaming.
It opened up a whole new horizon, in a way, because this thing that you thought was impossible was now happening in front of your eyes.
FIRST OFFICIAL TES OF AEROPLANE SUCCESSFUL News of Curtis's nearly two minute flight spreads like wildfire.
JUNE BUG WINS TROPHY In one day, Curtiss does more to promote aviation than the Wright brothers ever have.
AERODROME, JUNE BUG, MAKES A NEW RECORD With his triumph, Mr.
Curtiss can now lay claim to the title "First in Flight".
If they fly, they steal from us.
Wilbur, people won't believe we can fly unless we show them.
Now, after being upstaged by Glenn Curtiss in the field they pioneered, the Wright brothers come out with guns blazing.
FORT MYER, VIRGINIA September 1908 Their mission, a $25,000 contract with one of the most sought after customers in aviation, the U.
S.
Army.
The pressure must have been immense on Orville at that time.
So much was riding on it.
The idea of proving this to the U.
S.
government wasn't just a big deal.
They were banking almost everything on it.
Over the course of one week, Orville completes a series of successful demonstrations.
And on September 9, 1908, Orville flies for 62 straight minutes crushing the record for sustained flight.
And, to boot, their biggest rival, Glenn Curtiss, witnesses it all.
They're using the same engine as four years ago.
My motorbikes go faster.
Curtiss is invited to the event by his good friend, Lieutenant Tom Selfridge.
Tom Selfridge was the highest ranking military person with deep knowledge of the emerging field of aviation.
He was the perfect person for the military to have at this demonstration to check out whether this could be a viable thing for the military.
For Orville, the only way to win the contract is to win over Lieutenant Selfridge.
With 12 successful test flights behind him, Orville is joined by Selfridge for the first official demonstration.
You ready? The showcase for the U.
S.
military ends in disaster.
Orville barely survives, but Lieutenant Tom Selfridge is killed, becoming the first person to ever die in an airplane crash.
The flight went up and evidently a propeller was cracked.
And Orville tried his best to try to right the plane, and the plane crashed and Orville broke a femur and broke ribs and was in pain the rest of his life, and Selfridge died.
It was a very publicly tragic episode.
For Glenn Curtiss, the competition against the Wright brothers turns personal.
The Wright brothers's attempt to secure a coveted military contract ends in catastrophe.
Army Lieutenant Tom Selfridge is dead.
WRIGHT AIRSHIP KILLS SELFRIEDGE The tragedy makes headlines across the country.
FATAL FALL OF WRIGHT AIRSHIP Orville is sidelined for months recovering from his injuries, but he's determined to not let the accident tarnish their name.
A big festival in New York.
Show off the Model A.
In 1909, there was a huge festival in New York.
And one of the big deals was going to be a flying exhibition.
Wilbur flew up and down the Hudson to where George Washington Bridge is now and back.
This was the most important public flight in front of civilians in America up until then.
90 percent of the people who were there had never seen an airplane before.
You're talking about a group of spectators watching something that they thought was impossible.
It was an enormous day for Wilbur.
One of the many in attendance is Glenn Curtiss.
Take that panel off, patch it up.
Check it once, check it twice, check it three times, okay? Get to work.
Hello, Wilbur.
Quite a flight.
Thank you, Mr.
Curtiss.
Did you know I started in a bike shop? You and me, we have a lot more in common than you think.
Our airplanes do.
Well, we both know where the future lies.
Where is that? Cooperation.
We could make a fortune.
Good luck.
Tom Selfridge.
Best friend a man could ask for.
Terrible judge of engines.
May the best plane win.
The epic battle for dominance of the skies takes an unexpected turn.
"It is our view that, morally, the world owes its almost universal use of our wing stabilization system entirely to us".
The Wright brothers have filed a lawsuit against Glenn Curtiss, claiming that any plane that Curtiss has built owes its design, therefore a hefty royalty, to them.
The Wright's patent suit stifled American aviation, because it took the Wrights out of the game and it made Curtiss spend an inordinate amount of time defending the suit.
Curtiss and the Wright brothers were the three most talented people in American aviation.
And they, to some great extent, were involved in legal issues and not aviation issues.
Just when Curtiss is on the verge of losing it all, he's visited by a man who could change everything.
Henry Ford.
The Wright brothers have locked Glenn Curtiss in a brutal patent suit bringing their rival towards the brink of bankruptcy.
One fateful afternoon, everything changes.
Curtiss is paid a visit by the legendary car maker, Henry Ford.
AUTO PATENTS INFRINGED Ford has spent eight years fighting his own legal battles against a man who claimed to own the patent on the automobile, a suit that brought the car industry to a grinding halt.
But Ford emerged victorious and is one of the most successful car manufacturers in the country.
I'd like to support your patent claims vigorously.
Why? I want to make airplanes.
I want to compete against the Wright brothers instead of waiting on their lawyers.
So you want me to fight your battles for you? My legal team is at your disposal.
Henry Ford offers Curtiss a strategy to get around the Wright's lawsuit.
When you sue, you're suing for infringement from a specific aspect of the other person's product.
So, you make small alterations to your product, and then you produce that, and it makes them have to sue you all over again.
Will you lose? Yeah, you'll probably lose, but you can keep the suit going in perpetuity.
Ford has given Curtiss a way to use the patent suits to his advantage by constantly altering his plans.
Curtiss revisits earlier designs that propel the field of aviation forward.
He pioneers the naval seaplane and simulates aerial bombing raids, changing military aviation forever.
There's a reason why we remember Glenn Curtiss.
He's the first one to fly from one city to another.
He's the first one to be involved in having an airplane take off of a, of what we now call an aircraft carrier.
We see literally dozens of key innovations to the aircraft that we still have on airplanes today.
With each milestone Curtiss makes, the Wrights become consumed in legal battles, spending a fortune.
And worse, less time making innovations of their own.
Wilbur refused to go in the workshop.
The patent case had involved him in a way that was not pleasing for him.
And he wished he had spent more time innovating.
But remember, when you're protecting something you developed, it kind of works against you trying to create something new because that's a tacit admission that your old invention wasn't all that novel.
The obsession to crush Glenn Curtiss takes a heavy toll on Wilbur's health.
In April, 1912, he contracts typhoid fever.
And at the age of 45, Wilbur Wright is dead.
Wilbur had been pursuing the patent suits almost nonstop for two years.
And, unfortunately for the Wright brothers, it cost them their business and actually probably did cost Wilbur his life.
When Wilbur died, something went out of Orville.
Wilbur was not only the brilliant scientist, he also had the drive.
Orville definitely withdrew into himself.
For Orville, one man is responsible for his brother's death, Glenn Curtiss.
Wilbur Wright's early death devastates Orville.
He's lost his business partner and brother.
But just when it appears that things can't grow any darker, fate hands Orville Wright the miracle he's been waiting for.
On January 13, 1914, The US Court of Appeals announces a landmark ruling.
WRIGHTS WIN FIGHT AS AIR PIONEERS The Wright brothers are declared pioneers in the practical art of flying.
Now for every plane made in America, Orville will be able to charge his competitors a 20 percent royalty.
But there's one man he refuses to license his design to, the man he blames for driving his brother to an early grave, Glenn Curtiss.
In the case of Glenn Curtiss, he was bankrupted by the Wrights twice.
He was making all sorts of amazing innovations.
His airplanes had many features that we still have on airplanes today, but he couldn't market them because of the Wright brothers strong monopoly right.
Yet, just as Curtiss hits rock bottom, in July of 1914, World War One erupts.
It is the biggest military conflict the world has ever seen.
And for the first time in history, the war won't just be fought on the ground.
It will be fought in the skies.
Between the years of 1914 and 1918, Germany builds nearly 50,000 airplanes.
But because of the Wright brother's patent, the aviation industry in the United States has come to a standstill, and is no match for the German advancements.
The Wrights, after the original Flyer, created a series of Flyers, the Model A, the Model B, the Model C.
They were all essentially the same airplane with very, very minimal changes.
They could build good airplanes, don't misunderstand.
But the Wright's technology was just obsolete.
When the U.
S.
enters the war in 1917, the government has no choice but to intervene and resolve the patent dispute once and for all.
The war effort demands sacrifice.
Each of your firms will get 1 percent royalty on all airplanes built in the United States.
The government forces the Wright Company to share its patents with other manufacturers, including Glenn Curtiss.
Curtiss is now free to build and sell his airplanes and reap the financial reward.
His years of experimenting and innovation pay off.
He sells an astounding 7,000 of his newly-designed Jenny fighters for the victorious war effort.
Literally, overnight, Glenn Curtiss has so many orders that he becomes the largest airplane manufacturer in America.
After the war, Curtiss continues to prosper.
And by 1920, he's made $32 million, the equivalent of over 300 million today.
The Wrights may have invented the airplane, but Glenn Curtiss has turned it into an industry.
But for Orville Wright, his career as an aviator is over.
Orville retires from the aviation business, and is left to watch the advancement of the airplane from the sidelines.
The competition between the Wrights and Curtiss was a battle between two titans to achieve something that had never been achieved before.
Perhaps the greatest irony is that the Wright company, long after Orville was gone, and the Curtiss Company, long after Curtiss was gone, merged.
And the new company was called Curtiss-Wright.
And Curtiss-Wright is still with us today.
It is a huge company manufacturing aviation equipment or components.