The origins of Wrights law
Theodore Paul Wright
(May 25, 1895 – August 21, 1970) Theodore Paul Wright, also known as T. P. Wright, was a U.S. aeronautical engineer and educator. His career spanned numerous positions, including Naval Aircraft Inspector, Executive Engineer at the Curtiss Aeroplane Company, Chief Engineer of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. He was a member of the National Defense Advisory Committee under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Assistant Chief of the Aircraft Section in the Office of Production Management, Chairman of the Joint Aircraft Committee, Director of the Aircraft Resources Control Office and a member of the War Production Board.
While studying airplane manufacturing, Wright determined that for every doubling of airplane production the labor requirement was reduced by 10-15%. In 1936, he detailed his full findings in the paper “Factors Affecting the Costs of Airplanes.” Now known as “Wright’s Law”, or experience curve effects, the paper described that “we learn by doing” and that the cost of each unit produced decreases as a function of the cumulative number of units produced.
With his extensive knowledge, Wright played a key role in expanding U.S. aircraft production, especially in developing essential statistical tools that provided accurate information on industrial capacity and measured worker efficiency.