<VV> Good Ref re strength of bolts

[John Kepler]

Wasn't it the Wright brothers who started tinkering with bicycles and ended 
up with an airplane?

Let's see....here's how the Wright's "tinkered".  First, they tested with
telemetered models, proved that the existing mathematics dealing with
lift-drag coefficients were grossly incorrect (based on, as it turned out
were basically, WAG's by Otto Lilienthal...one of the first major cases of
"junk science" killing someone!), threw-out the existing numbers and started
fresh, invented the telemetered wind-tunnel, tested different airfoil models
with accurate instrumentation, re-wrote the lift tables and basically
invented aeronautical engineering in the process...THEN "started tinkering"
with an "airplane".  Let's see:  Scientific research and development,
theoretical design, bench-scaled testing, data development and analysis,
advanced modeling, systematic prototype testing, data analysis, re-design
mathematically, more model-testing, full-up prototype design, proof of
concept!  Gee....sounds a LOT more like engineering than "tinkering" to me! 

Covair content - it had an air cooled engine.

No...it didn't!  Check:  http://wright.nasa.gov/airplane/eng03.html

John