When Wright Brothers dreamed of flying like birds; a powered, heavier-than-air flying machine, known as the Wright Flyer, powered by a 12 Hp gasoline engine; effectively enabled them to realize their dream in 1903 while also ushering in the 'Age of Powered Flight' for humans. That rudimentary machine & engine paved way for the development of larger piston engines & propeller-powered fighters, which proved to be instrumental during the World War I & II and later gave way to the emergence of turbojets & ultimately turbofans by the 1950s.
This is the analysis-based chronicling of the story of the complex strategy choices, decisions & moves made by leading engine OEMs of the era, while facing the heat of raging battles and the myopic errors caused by fog-of-war; and their eventual outcomes & repercussions. The analysis also factors-in the critical & pivotal role played by prevailing market forces, macroeconomic trends and, lastly, chance; all of which, collectively proved to be the ultimate determinants of outcomes & market successes or failures with their judgments & verdicts ultimately determining the fates of most key engine programs and the destinies of the engine OEMs producing them.
It is also the story of path-breaking innovations, products & technologies and of brilliant minds, who actually pursued and produced them. Some of those technologies, aided by market forces, actually disrupted the market fundamentally and went on to create virtual market dominance and a lasting legacy. However, some others, despite of being disruptive, were ultimately rejected by market forces, owing to being out of alignment with prevailing market realities, but are only re-emerging now, being reincarnated in an entirely new avatar as the chosen ones, to be resurrected, ironically, by the very same market forces, who had once sealed their fates...
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