<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 1:00 PM, spike </span><span dir="ltr" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><<a href="mailto:spike66@att.net" target="_blank">spike66@att.net</a>></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> wrote:</span><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><div lang="EN-US"><div class="gmail-m_4519549749278373996WordSection1"> <br></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US"><div class="gmail-m_4519549749278373996WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>Now that you mention it however, please offer your take on something that has long puzzled me: why didn’t the Dutch get to powered flight first? They had way more understanding of aerodynamics than anyone because of their experience with the windmills. They were early adopters of the German Nickolaus Otto’s marvelous internal combustion engine. They had plenty of flat ground on which to build runways. They were well along in the industrial revolution, factories and such. They had worked out the notion of rigid cantilevered structures such the windmill blades. I am amazed the yanks would get powered flight off the ground first, with the French in close pursuit. I would have thought the Dutch would be the first to fly, followed by the Germans with the Yanks third and the French well back there.<p></p></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><font size="4">Your intuition is good Spike,<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div>he wasn't the first but <div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">it turns out </div>Anthony Fokker<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> of World War 1 Fokker </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">T</div>riplane<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> fame was Dutch not German as I'd always assumed until about 20 seconds ago. I just love the internet!</div></font></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4"><br></font></div></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4"> John K Clark</font></div></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><br></div></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><br></div></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
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