The free market takes flight.

On December 18, 1905, Orville and Wilbur Wright sent a letter to the U.S. government inquiring as to whether or not the federal bureaucracy would want to purchase airplane technology for military or other uses. Their letter was received by Congressman R.M. Nevin, who forwarded it to the secretary of war. The letter was then given to the Board of Ordnance and Fortification. The government, however, was singularly uninterested, either in funding flight experiments or in purchasing technology developed through aeronautical experimentation. "I have the honor to inform you," wrote Major General G.L. Gillespie in reply to the Wrights, that "the Board has found it necessary to decline to make allotments for the experimental development of devices for mechanical flight...."

The Wrights, of course, were not seeking government funding for their experiments. In fact, they already had a flying machine and had demonstrated that it could be flown reliably over substantial distances. On October 5, 1905, for instance, they flew their airplane for 38 minutes and covered more than 24 miles. Just as this flight remarkably demonstrated the forward-looking technological innovations developed by the Wrights, the letter from Major General Gillespie remarkably demonstrated the federal bureaucracy's bumbling shortsightedness and incompetence. On the other hand, the ignorance of federal officials allowed for a sort of benign neglect in matters related to technical developments and advancements. Nowhere was this truer than in the field of aviation, and the subsequent development of the airplane, beginning with the pioneering efforts of the Wright brothers, is a triumphant tale of private initiative, ingenuity and enterprise.

Without the meddling interference of government, other innovators after the Wrights continued to make rapid improvements in aircraft technology. A substantial advance was made by French engineer Louis Bleriot. The son of a textile manufacturer, Bleriot earned his engineering degree in Paris in 1893. Shortly thereafter, he developed a type of automobile headlight that brought him a small fortune. He spent much of his earnings on subsequent experimentation with powered flight. After testing numerous designs for gliders, ornithopters (aircraft with wings that flap), and fixed-wing designs, Bleriot was known best for surviving the numerous crashes that plagued his early work.

In 1907 Bleriot introduced a design that, though not initially successful, incorporated innovations that pointed to the future of aircraft design. This plane, the Bleriot VII, was monoplane in configuration, carried a front-mounted engine, a rudder and tailplane to the rear, an enclosed fuselage, and a landing gear assembly featuring two main wheels and a tail wheel. After further improving this design, in 1909 Bleriot became the first to pilot an airplane across the English Channel, claiming a 1,000 [pounds sterling] prize offered by the London Daily Mail.

Innumerable advances continued to be made right up until the beginning of the Great War in 1914. After the war, with the advent of the Golden Age of aviation, advances continued to be made at a breakneck pace. Innovation was driven in many cases by prize money from private sources offered to the first person to make a record-setting flight whether for speed, for distance, or for satisfying some other criteria.

The most famous of all such flights, of course, is Lindbergh's transatlantic flight of 1927. That pioneering effort was motivated by $25,000 in prize money offered by New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig. The prize was first offered in 1919, and a number of attempts were made to claim it. Lured by the prize, Lindbergh participated in the design of the custom-built aircraft he flew in his transatlantic attempt. Describing the technical aspects of Lindbergh's achievement, Major Perry D. Luckett, associate professor of English at the U.S. Air Force Academy, notes that Lindbergh "pushed the boundaries of aeronautical technology to achieve ... success." Lindbergh, Luckett continues, "was involved in nearly every phase of engineering design for the Spirit of St. Louis." He chose the single-engine monoplane configuration for simplicity and efficiency and suggested design elements that contributed to his plane's aerodynamic qualities. Importantly too, Luckett notes, several "navigational aids were chosen and modified according to Lindbergh's specifications, to the point that the Spirit of St. Louis had the best long-range instrumentation display of its time."

Private initiative and enterprise have continued to have a major impact on aviation, even in recent years. Consider, for instance, the efforts of Dick and Burt Rutan and Jeana Yeager. Funded entirely by private contributions, the trio designed, produced and ultimately flew their Voyager aircraft on an incredible around-the-world flight. The record-breaking, nonstop, unrefueled flight covered an astounding 26,366 statute miles in just 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds.

Orville and Wilbur Wright, Louis Bleriot, Charles Lindbergh, Dick and Burt Rutan, and Jeana Yeager: These are just a few stellar examples of the many individuals who, through hard work, innate genius and private enterprise ushered in and immeasurably advanced the technology of powered flight.