2016 Issue

George W. Goethals succeed- ed two previous chief engi- neers overseeing theAmerican project. He built on the innova- tions that John Stevens, his immediate predecessor, had begun and saw the project through to its completion in 1914. Although he earned the nickname “the Genius of the Panama Canal,” Goethals would often defer to Stevens as more deserving of the title. THE PLANE The final installment of the trilogy was published just last year. The Wright Brothers, settles any competing claims toWilbur andOrville Wright’s title as inventors of powered, heavier than air, manned flight. As they raced toward this end, they were pitted against some of the best funded and prestigious researchers of their day. For example, Samuel Pierpont Langley - a professor of astronomy and physics, head of the Smithsonian and backed with $70,000 of mostly public money - repeatedly launched his “aerodrome” into the Potomac with disastrous results. By contrast, the plane flown at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903 by Orville had cost just under $1,000 – all of it paid for with profits from their bicycle shop back in Dayton, Ohio. For a number of years following that first flight, the brothers con- tinued to maintain their preeminence as flyers, setting records for distance, speed and elevation. WhileWilbur suffered an early death at age 45 with the return of the typhoid fever that had nearly took his life at age 25, Orville (the younger by four years) lived to be seventy-seven years old. After surviving several harrowing crashes, including one that took his passenger’s life, he died from a heart attack in 1948. Despite Wilbur’s prediction in 1901 - after some early failures at Kitty Hawk - that “man will not fly for 50 years;” Orville would live to see in the next half century, the emergence of the commercial passenger airline industry and Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier in 1947. In tribute to the brothers’ achievements, when he first stepped onto the moon in July 1969, Neil Armstrong carried in the pocket of his spacesuit a swatch of muslin from the wing of their 1903 flyer, along with a piece of wood from the plane’s left propeller. These widely read books, crafted from the painstak- ing research of this gifted author, have helped to elevate the profession of engineering in the public mind; perhaps, causing some to reflect on the lifesaving innovations and life-enhancing modern conveniences made avail- able by those who work as engineers. While it may be too much to expect that one day engineers will be thronged with groupies and fainting acolytes, the profession might benefit froma littlemore exposure and good press. With the falling number of students graduating from schools of engineering in the United States, maybe it’s time more engineers did a little more self-promotion (we can’t always count on the support of popular historians likeDavidMcCullough to advocate for us). And the next time you’re singled out for recogni- tion as an engineer, maybe you should decide to take one for the team - the few painful moments you spend in the spotlight might encourage a young observer to “take the road less traveled”. Jed Lyman is a partner at VBFA, a consulting engineering firmbased in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is amember ASPE and a former president of its Intermountain Chapter. He is currently the Treasurer of UEC. All photos courtesy of the Library of Congress. www.loc.gov/pictures Panama Canal c. 1913 Orville Wright flying at Fort Meyer, Virginia c. 1909 Wright Brothers Aeroplane Patent Plans, 1909 President Roosevelt operating a steam shovel at the Panama Canal c. 1906 ENGINEERS | continued from page 39 40