The History: "After reading the pamphlets sent to us by the Smithsonian we became highly enthusiastic with the idea of gliding as a sport. We found that Lilienthal had been killed through his inability to properly balance his machine in the air. Pilcher, an English experimenter, had met with a like fate.

We found that both of these experimenters had attempted to maintain balance merely by the shifting of the weight of their bodies. .. other experimenters before 1900, used this same method of maintaining equilibrium in gliding flight. We at once set to work to devise a more efficient means of maintaining the equilibrium.

The first method that occurred to us for maintaining the lateral equilibrium was that of pivoting the wings on the right and left side on the shafts carrying gears at the center of the machine...." Orville Wright