On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 04:19:06 GMT, in a place far, far away,
lid (John Savard) made the phosphor on
my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Why didn't the Wright Brothers invent the helicopter?

Because it's a much more technically difficult problem. Da Vinci
invented it conceptually, but couldn't build one, and no one at the
turn of the twentieth century had the capability to do so, either.

Now, that is something that was not obvious to me, but then, I am not
familiar with the engineering of helicopters.

To me, it would stand to reason that one could, with a *less* light
and efficient engine, get off the ground if one used nearly all the
wind produced by the propeller to go up, with only a small bit used
for movement, rather than the other way around.

The problem is the same one that the Wrights solved for fixed-wing
aircraft, but a much more difficult one for rotary-winged
aircraft--control.