In 1899, Wilbur and Orville Wright, the inventors of the aeroplane, put their first model to flight. They faced several problems, including insufficient lift and deviation from the intended direction. Following a trial flight in 1901, Wilbur said to Orville that man would not fly in a thousand years. Since this occasion, good design has dispelled Wilbur’s theory. Here Jonathan Wilkins, Marketing Director at industrial obsolete automation equipment supplier EU Automation, discusses how virtual reality (VR) can be used to improve the design engineering process.