Social Networks in Early Aviation History
We describe a network of over 80 individuals and institutions covering the period of 1810–1910 from the time of George Cayley to the Wright brothers. This case study will provide examples of the importance of ’weak links’ and the role of what Gladwell cal
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Social Networks in Early Aviation History
Abstract We describe a network of over 80 individuals and institutions covering the period of 1810–1910 from the time of George Cayley to the Wright brothers. This case study will provide examples of the importance of ’weak links’ and the role of what Gladwell calls ’Connectors’ such as Octave Chanute. We also describe in this chapter the use of an influence matrix and statistics of a Link-Node distribution curve. Did Orville and Wilber Wright invent the airplane? Historians of science and technology have long made a narrative case for the evolution model for scientific and technical innovation in aviation. The aviation historian Anderson (1997) has presented evidence that there were many developments in the science and technology of flying machines before the Wright brothers advances [1899–1904] and it would have been only a matter of one or two years before someone else would have created a controllable flying machine. Our goal in this chapter is to assess the role of social networks in aviation invention and innovation and to seek similarities between the historical aviation network and modern day social networks (Parts of this chapter are taken from Moon 2012). In this study we have culled a number of classic histories of aviation beginning with Chanute (1896); Gibbs-Smith (1954); Crouch (1981); Anderson (2004), and have created an influence matrix establishing links between approximately eighty nodes spanning the period 1810, the time of George Cayley’s writings on flying machines to 1910 the year of the great international aviation meet in Belmont Park in New York City. For the reader not familiar with the history of aviation, listed below are the major players in the evolution of flight technology; George Cayley [1773–1857] Early writings on the topology of aircraft. Otto Lilienthal [1848–1896] Experimented with manned monoplane and biplane gliders. Samuel Langley [1834–1906] Measured lift and drag and built powered models.
F. C. Moon, Social Networks in the History of Innovation and Invention, History of Mechanism and Machine Science 22, DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-7528-2_4, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
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4 Social Networks in Early Aviation History
Fig. 4.1 Model of Lilienthal glider in the Long Island Museum of Aviation, New York
Octave Chanute [1832–1910] Published review of the world’s research as well as built classic biplane glider. Gottlieb Daimler [1834–1900] Developed Otto’s four-cycle engine into a lightweight engine for flight. Orville and Wilbur Wright [1871–1948; 1867–1912] Built and flew the first controllable human-carrying aircraft. Alberto Santos-Dumont [1873–1932] Built flyable aircraft in Europe. Gabriel Voisin [1880–1973] Designed and built aircraft for many aviators. Louis Bleriot [1872–1936] First to fly the English Channel. Glenn Curtiss [1878–1930] Developed lightweight engines and fast airplanes as well as built the first seaplanes. These principals were linked by a historical network of more than seventy other ind
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