Abstract

A historical approach can, under certain methodological conditions, help us better understand how a design becomes dominant and is replaced, as this analysis of developments in the aeronautics industry from 1890 to 1935 shows. During this period, two designs successively dominated: the biplane and then the monoplane. Although changes in a prevailing design are usually set down to technological breakthroughs, modifications in the nature of demand can also play a part in this process.