Analogies are often mothers of invention The Wright brothers succeeded in developing the first functional airplane (left-hand photo) because of many analogies they perceived to both large soaring birds (such as eagles) and bicycles (they were bicycle mechanics by profession) (Johnson-Laird, 2006). Bringing together many of the attributes of birds and bikes, they built a plane that was light and highly maneuverable, had a broad wingspan, and could be easily tilted to facilitate turns and counter buffeting winds. Their competitors, who failed, had instead been focusing on building heavy planes with powerful engines, based more on analogies to automobiles than to birds and bikes.