Bicycles and Boats: The Precursors to U.S. Airpower (?)

In the United States people can be heard to complain about the military-industrial complex, and often its rise to preeminence after Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against it.[1]  However, the complex’s origins precede this speech by over sixty years.  The military-industrial complex arguably began in the latter part of the 1880s, brought on by shipbuilders to remain in business.  The beginnings of this complex set the stage for aviation companies in the 20th and 21st Centuries with 70% of aviation industry funding coming from the government.[2]  At the same time, the bicycle manufacturing industry of the United States began its initial climb to fiscal solvency.  The first boom began in 1890.  The boom led to advances in many of the technologies taken for granted today, the automobile being the prime example.  For aviation, without the bicycle the Wrights would have never gotten off the ground.  The two distinct industries, bicycles and shipbuilding, when combined laid the ground work for the modern aviation industry.  One provided an example of integrating private industry with the government’s purpose, the other provided the ingenuity to spur the interest in air power as a means supporting combat.

The sources for this study come from online research, some archival but most recent and secondary source in nature.  As such this remains a purely qualitative study.  The book Ships for the Seven Seas by Thomas Heinrich solidified the idea of the integrated nature of the two industries.  A loose conclusion at this point, it may be something another scholar could tie together with much more work and analysis.      

Civilian shipbuilding in the United States from 1865 to 1898 suffered from the inability to compete.  To remain viable businesses, shipbuilders sought assistance from the government, i.e. naval contracts.  As early as 1890, the United States Navy transitioned from seeking to destroy shipping to destroying the enemy fleet.[3]   The change in mindset required new ships, a new navy.  This proved a two-edged sword to shipbuilders.  Navy requirements led to new technologies and changes to the manufacturing processes further down the supply-chain.  While the shipbuilders gained new technologies, later used in civilian ship construction like the triple-expansion engine and steel hull.[4]  But, shipyard owners paid for delays.  Delays kept workers idle and hulls occupied space that could have been used to meet civilian and foreign orders, leading to lost profits.[5]   The end result of seeking government assistance made shipyards dependent upon the government.  The military industrial complex, supposedly a cooperative system appears more one sided, with the military being dominant in the equation, at least back then.  However, the companies making up “Fortress Pennsylvania” (Carnegie Steel, Bethlehem Iron, Midvale Steel, Roach shipyards, Cramp shipyards, and the Philadelphia Naval Yard) produced the best most modern U.S. Navy ships available at the time.  Proof would come in 1898 at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba in which no U.S. ships sank, but the Spanish lost the entirety of their fleet.[6]  This victory and others like it proved to the government that using civilian industry cost less, but yielded top of the line products.  To the civilian industry, government funding kept the company in business and in a trickle-down effect, kept people employed. 

Bicycle building in the United States, especially in the 1890s, provided a lucrative industry for many builders.  In 1876, Civil War Veteran Colonel Albert A. Pope began mass producing bicycles in the United States under the “Columbia” name.  Pope bought bicycle patents to ensure Columbia’s leading position in manufacturing bicycles from his Hartford, CT factory.  By 1888, Columbia produced 5,000 bicycles per year.  Bicycles remained a niche industry until the advent of the “safety bike” – those with two wheels of the same size.[7]  While Pope’s “Columbia” bikes remained famous, other companies existed and the center of bicycle production moved to the Chicago area.  Chicago, as it remains today, was a hub of the railroad network, allowing easy transport of raw and finished material throughout the nation.[8]  Many automakers, like Henry Ford and Charles Nash (American Motors), and the New Departure Company (General Motors) produced ball bearings, began in the bicycle field.[9]  Early aviation pioneers, the Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, began their careers as bicycle repairers and manufacturers.[10]   The first “Bicycle Boom,” based upon the safety bike, began in 1890.  That year, manufacturers produced 30,000 bicycles.  By 1894, 100,000; 1896, 400,000; and in 1898 and 1899, over 900,000, with Pope producing about one-third of those.[11]  Safety bicycles originally started at the price $150.  By mid-decade prices fell to $75 and continued to fall throughout the rest of the decade.[12]  At its lowest computation the bicycle industry produced an income of 67.5 million dollars.  However, the most important piece for the future of aviation came from the impact bicycle building had upon the Wrights.  From their shop, they created the testing gliders, wind tunnel, airframes, and engines to be used later in their initial flight in 1903 and on aircraft until 1908.[13]

Though separated in almost all regards, these two industries bicycles and boats would combine ideas to form the modern aviation industrial backbone for the United States almost one hundred years later.  One, the bicycle, provided the intellectual tested idea leading to the rise of many aviation and aviation related companies, amongst other emerging industries.  The other, the shipbuilders, provided the model of government and private enterprise “cooperation” leading to the mass production of a practiced idea.  Without the contributions from either, aviation probably would not be the money-making enterprise it is today.  Thus, bicycles and boats can be deemed precursors to the U.S. aviation industry of today.

[1] President Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Farewell Address,” Archives.gov, January 17, 1961, accessed October 30, 2024, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address.

[2] Mordor Intelligence, “US Aviation Market Size & Share Analysis – Growth Trends and Forecasts up to 2030,” MordorIntelligence.com, Accessed October 24, 2024. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/us-aviation-market#:~:text=The%20US%20Aviation%20Market%20size,embed%20it%20on%20your%20website.

[3] Thomas Heinrich, Ships for the Seven Seas: Philadelphia Shipbuilding in the Age of Industrial Capitalism (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019), 112.

[4] Heinrich, Ships, 103, 107.

[5] Heinrich, Ships, 121.

[6] Naval History and Heritage Command,  “Documentary Histories: Spanish-American War: Battle of Santiago Bay,” History.Navy.mil, accessed October 30, 2024, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/publications/documentary-histories/united-states-navy-s/the-battle-of-santia.html

[7] Gary Hoover, “The American Bicycle Industry: A Short History,” American Business History Center, August 21, 2021, https://americanbusinesshistory.org/the-american-bicycle-industry-a-short-history/#:~:text=The%20American%20bicycle%20industry%20did,new%20boom%20hit%20the%20industry.

[8] Chris Sweet, “Central Illinois Bicycle Industry Drove 1890’s Boom,” Sound Ideas hosted by Mike McCurdy on WGLT, January 7, 2016, https://www.wglt.org/show/wglts-sound-ideas/2016-01-07/central-illinois-bicycle-industry-drove-1890s-boom.

[9] Hoover, “The American Bicycle Industry.”

[10] Bob Casey, “Museum Icons: Wright Cycle Shop,” theHenryFord.org, October 4, 2014, https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/museum-icons-wright-cycle-shop;

Wright Brothers Airplane Co., “Wright Bicycles,” accessed October 29, 2024, https://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Bicycles/Wright_Bicycles.htm.

[11] Hoover, “The American Bicycle Industry.”

[12] Margaret Guroff, “The Great Leveler: In its early history, the bicycle was celebrated—and condemned—for disrupting social barriers and bringing the classes together,” Bloomberg.com, May 19, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-19/the-democratizing-power-of-the-bicycle.

[13] Casey, “Wright Cycle Shop;” Wright Brothers Airplane Co., “Wright Bicycles.”

Selected Bibliography:

Casey, Bob. “Museum Icons: Wright Cycle Shop.” theHenryFord.org. October 4, 2014.  https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/museum-icons-wright-cycle-shop.

Eisenhower, Dwight D., President. “Farewell Address.” Archives.gov. January 17, 1961. Accessed October 30, 2024.  https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address.

Guroff, Margaret. “The Great Leveler: In its early history, the bicycle was celebrated—and condemned—for disrupting social barriers and bringing the classes together.” Bloomberg.com, May 19, 2017.  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-19/the-democratizing-power-of-the-bicycle.

Heinrich, Thomas.  Ships for the Seven Seas: Philadelphia Shipbuilding in the Age of Industrial Capitalism.  Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019.

Hoover, Gary. “The American Bicycle Industry: A Short Histor.,” American Business History Center. August 21, 2021. https://americanbusinesshistory.org/the-american-bicycle-industry-a-short-history/#:~:text=The%20American%20bicycle%20industry%20did,new%20boom%20hit%20the%20industry.

Mordor Intelligence. “US Aviation Market Size & Share Analysis – Growth Trends and Forecasts up to 2030.” MordorIntelligence.com. Accessed October 24, 2024. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/us-aviation-market#:~:text=The%20US%20Aviation%20Market%20size,embed%20it%20on%20your%20website.

Naval History and Heritage Command.  “Documentary Histories: Spanish-American War: Battle of Santiago Bay.” History.Navy.mil. Accessed October 30, 2024. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/publications/documentary-histories/united-states-navy-s/the-battle-of-santia.html.

Sweet, Chris. “Central Illinois Bicycle Industry Drove 1890’s Boom.” Sound Ideas hosted by Mike McCurdy on WGLT. January 7, 2016. https://www.wglt.org/show/wglts-sound-ideas/2016-01-07/central-illinois-bicycle-industry-drove-1890s-boom.

Wright Brother Airplane Co., “Wright Bicycles,” accessed October 29, 2024, https://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Bicycles/Wright_Bicycles.htm.