Eric was not actually an aviator; he was a flight enthusiast who had been passionate about flying and made many dangerous attempts that would later seem incredible to others long before the Wright Brothers invented their airplane.
When the Wright Brothers successfully invented the first airplane in 1903, Eric thought the world had opened a new horizon for him. He even spread his arms and cheered at the sky, tears welling up in his eyes as he thanked God for finally giving him the chance to soar into the sky.
Two years later, he sold off all his possessions to open an airplane manufacturing factory.
Eric naively thought that many people would love flying as much as he did. "Who wouldn't want to fly freely in the sky like a bird?" he said.
However, the early airplanes were extremely unsafe. While people did wish to fly like birds, not if it meant risking their lives... they would rather not!
In three years, his factory sold only six planes, and that too with virtually no profit.
