They did follow science. At one point they requested data from the Smithsonian and realized the data was unreliable and then built their own wind tunnel and made their own reliable set of data.
Because some of the press mocked their attempts does not indicate that the press was on the side of "science" an the Wright Brothers were against it. Other more expensive flight experiments were also mocked.
Like many people in their time the Wright Brothers were self-educated. The vast majority of people back then did not set foot in colleges, a high school education was still rather rare. They studied nature and based their designs on observations of birds, which is part of science. They looked at locomotive engineering as inspiration as well.
In other words they completely followed "the science."
What is remarkable is that they figured it out when people with more education and more funding. However they did read and study science themselves rather thoroughly.
They did follow science. At one point they requested data from the Smithsonian and realized the data was unreliable and then built their own wind tunnel and made their own reliable set of data.
Because some of the press mocked their attempts does not indicate that the press was on the side of "science" an the Wright Brothers were against it. Other more expensive flight experiments were also mocked.
Like many people in their time the Wright Brothers were self-educated. The vast majority of people back then did not set foot in colleges, a high school education was still rather rare. They studied nature and based their designs on observations of birds, which is part of science. They looked at locomotive engineering as inspiration as well.
In other words they completely followed "the science."
What is remarkable is that they figured it out when people with more education and more funding. However they did read and study science themselves rather thoroughly.