That Kitty Hawk moment

The Space Review ^ | 04/24/06 | Bob Clarebrough

[KevinDavis]

In Bob Newhart’s classic comedy routine, “Merchandising the Wright Brothers,” he has an imaginary phone conversation with Orville and Wilbur just after their historic flight at Kitty Hawk. As a marketing guy, Bob is concerned about the length of the flight. He’s worried that people who pay for a trip to the coast won’t be happy at having to land every hundred feet. And what about getting a john on board?

This illustrates the phenomenon I call the “Kitty Hawk Moment”. It is that instant when the impossible becomes a reality. Is it any wonder that people find it hard to take in? The initial reaction may be “So what?” Until that last question is answered there is little progress. It took from December 17, 1903 until May 20, 1927, before Charles Lindbergh came up with the definitive response. In the interim, Bob Newhart’s approach represents the prevailing mood. Prior to that first flight, an editorial in a leading newspaper had suggested that mathematicians and mechanics might take at least a million years to figure out how to do it. The Wright Brothers took just three years.

Today, we have another Kitty Hawk moment: the suborbital flight of Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne, heralding the birth of the private enterprise space industry. This was also roughly a three-year project from drawing board to safe landing. And this moment is attracting the skeptics, too.

[KevinDavis]