10 World-Changing Inventions That Were Total Rip-Offs

4. The Wright Brothers Couldn't Fly Themselves

If you know anything about the early development of aviation, you probably know that the Wright Brothers are usually the names that come up in regards to the first successful flight of an aeroplane. Or you know the tragic story of Franz Reichelt, dubbed the €œFlying Tailor€ who unsuccessfully tried to make a flying suit and died after leaping off the Eiffel Tower. Less inspiring. In fact neither was responsible for the first sustained heavier-than-air human flight, because the Wright Brothers were a couple of months too late and Franz Reichelt had to be peeled off the Champs-‰lysées. Nine months prior to the Brothers' first flight on the 17th of December 1903, New Zealander Richard Pearse managed to do much the same in his native country. Whilst Pearse's design didn't have the aerofoil section wing which is what really made the Wright Brothers plane unique and was a staple of planes forevermore, Pearse€™s invention actually looked a lot more like modern planes than that rickety Wright thing. It had one propeller instead of being a biplane, had a stabiliser and elevators at the back rather than the front, and generally looks a lot like your contemporary microlights.