Comment by amenhotep
2 years ago
The Wrights did use a rudder and "horizontal rudder" on the 1903 Flyer, but they were for some time determined to achieve roll control by warping the wings rather than using control surfaces, and were only forced to adopt ailerons as other pioneers began demonstrating how superior a paradigm that was. So they don't deserve too much credit on that score!
"Control surfaces" was more specific than I intended; what I meant was that their plane allowed them to control all three axes of rotation, and that was the innovation - that they could control pitch, yaw, and roll independently and that allowed them to have active stable flight.
Without those controls, flight is basically impossible, and with them, you could use nearly any airfoil shape (modulo engine power, drag, and stall speed considerations) and achieve heavier-than-air flight.
Ailerons were really only invented when they were (and named in French) because the Wrights were extremely litigious, they sued Curtiss for using ailerons and basically destroyed American aviation for a decade allowing the French a temporary lead. This had an interesting cultural effect of lots of things becoming named in French across aviation (including things like the weather code for mist being "br" for brume to this day).