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Tag Archives: serendipity

Flying With A Good Idea

  By Fred H. Schlegel | January 13, 2010 - 5:00 am |
9 Comments

Who here hasn’t at least once dreamt while speeding down an interstate in whatever jalopy the fates put in your hands that you were, just for a moment, flying? Ok, maybe it’s just us guys. Or am I the only one who kept track of exactly where that special bump in the country road would provide a moment of lift? A key component of creativity is recognizing when an idea that is working in one place might have application in another. (Like when Wilber twisted the tube box) This came to mind while watching Leo Laporte interview Ford CEO Alan Mulally at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Mulally came to Ford from Boeing where he helped design the first digital cockpit on the 767 and a number of aircraft after that. At the time some wondered what an ‘avionics guy’ would be able to do for the … Continue reading →

Planning for Serendipity – Taking Flight

  By Fred H. Schlegel | December 17, 2009 - 11:49 am | ,
15 Comments

From the ideas from strange places department: So, if Wilber and Orville had decided to open a different kind of shop to pay the bills, let’s say a bakery for example, would they have flown today in 1903? (That would be December 17th, 1903) “While most engineers assumed that a successful aircraft would need to be inherently stable, as bicycle builders the Wrights made their living building vehicles that were inherently unstable.” NOVA Wright Brother’s Flying Machine (Currently on Hulu.com) The bike shop turned out to the the perfect training ground for the first successful aeronautic engineers. The leap concerning stability – …led to a focus on control – …onto a critical insight about wing warping which came when Wilber reached for a cardboard box containing an inexpensive tire tube. From giving a box a helical twist to steering a biplane. Serendipity. But as with all serendipitous moments (and most … Continue reading →