Impossible barriers are made to be broken

Few technologies have had such a rapid development and such a powerful impact on mankind as the invention of the airplane.

- Por Sergei I. Sikorsky

Also, few new technologies were greeted with such enthusiasm by the general public and by such skepticism by the scientific community. It is enough to recall the comments of a noted New York newspaper after the crash of Professor Langley’s “Aerodrome” into the Potomac River. In its editorial of October 9th, 1903, the newspaper sharply criticized Professor Langley and the Smithsonian Institution for wasting taxpayer money on the experiment. It concluded by asserting that it will take between one and ten million years of research before a flying machine will be developed. Less than two months later, the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk. In mid- December of 1903, a few wire services hesitantly carried the news of the flights. Another major newspaper commented as follows “…When a reputable scientist can prove with irrefutable logic that man cannot fly, why should the public be fooled by silly stories about two bicycle repairmen who haven’t even been to college?”