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Jet Powered Human Flight
ederen writes "A skydiver outfitted with jet engines and a nylon Birdman suit jumped out of a balloon over Finland to test the idea of powered human flight without the use of an airplane. The event was sponsored in part by Bird-Man International, a company that develops and manufactures the flying-squirrel freefall suits as seen in Tomb Raider and other action movies."
The problem with the Wright Flyer was that it was aerodynamically mistaken and the control technique was a dead-end. Americans still pretend that it was single handedly responsible for the age of aviation when in reality it had no influence on aircraft development. Santos-Dumont's plan configuration and the Curtis hinged control surfaces were the way to go.
The one thing the Wrights did do was to close down American aircraft development by patent legislation in an attempt to enforce a monopoly (a very American trait). The result was that when WW1 came along the Americans had no aircraft, and had to buy them from the French. I see the Wrights as a greedy, mistaken pair of get-rich-quick self publicists - but then, America has so few real heros that it has a long history of making them up.