"Wilbur Wright said, on their way home after the 1901 gliding experiments, that he didn’t think man would fly in a thousand years. In a way, though, as Orville Wright said long afterward, it was encouraging to learn that the work of predecessors could not be relied upon. It meant that more knowledge was needed, rather than that flight was impossible."
-- Fred C. Kelly
I love that: "it was encouraging to learn that the work of predecessors could not be relied upon"