After disappointing results with their 1901 glider, the Wright brothers built a small wind tunnel and tested many wing shapes. Their data corrected published aerodynamic tables and guided their next designs. This experimental turn was essential to the success of the 1902 glider and the 1903 Flyer.

The wind-tunnel work gives the Wright story its intellectual drama: failure answered by measurement. It is a useful context for modernist poetry's fascination with precision, fragments, instruments, and new ways of seeing.