250 years of US innovation

17 Dec 2025

There are few moments in the history of American innovation as iconic as the Wright brothers’ first flight on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 1903. Anyone who has ever visited the wind-swept, sand dunes of Kitty Hawk can only imagine their feat: traveling 120 feet in 12 seconds in a 750-pound aircraft (pilot included) with a 12-horsepower, custom-built, four-cylinder gasoline engine.

Blimps, balloons, and airships were already in operation during the mid-1800s, but they flew on the principle of buoyancy (lighter than air). The Wright Flyer achieved lift even though it was heavier than air. The engine provided the propulsion, but the Wrights managed to achieve sustained flight because their flyer integrated an improved wing design informed by testing in their own wind tunnel and by incorporating three-dimensional controls crucial to aerodynamics: pitch (front to back), yaw (side to side), and roll (top to bottom).

Having conquered the perilous and complex geography of the US with the building of the transcontinental railroad some 34 years earlier, American engineers, entrepreneurs, and innovators turned their gaze toward the skies with the invention of the airplane. Both the railroad and aviation benefited from federal legislation and governmental financial backing. Government procurement of airplanes during World War I gave the infant industry an initial early jolt and the resources to innovate. The postal service became the industry’s next large customer in the 1920s through an act of Congress.

Unlike the railroad, where the technology was already in place and the major achievement was the formidable investment in infrastructure, the success of aviation required iterative, technologically driven innovation flowing from research and development labs in the private and public sectors as well as academia. Steady improvements in range, altitude, speed, safety, and reliability spurred a growing revenue stream from commercial airlines to service paying passengers in the 1930s before the military once again became the dominant force in the airplane industry during World War II.

Buoyancy and aerodynamics are apt metaphors for investing in transformational innovations today. Investors must be wary of buoyancy when investment bubbles form and confirm that any outperformance isn’t just hot air. However, sound aerodynamics are the market equivalent of strong fundamentals like strong growth in revenues and earnings, justifying higher altitudes. 

With that, please sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight in this, the third edition of our 250 years of US innovation series exploring the transformational innovation of aviation.

Top of the Morning: Into the wild blue yonder - Aviation

18 Dec 2025  |  22 min

The 250 years of U.S. innovation publication series highlights examples of how transformational innovation has been an engine of U.S. economic growth since the nation’s founding. Today, we explore the history of aviation in the U.S. by referencing the next publication of the series: Into the wild blue yonder - Aviation. Featured are Kurt Reiman, Head of Fixed Income Americas, and Nathaniel Gabrial, U.S. Industrials and Materials Sector Strategist, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

26 Nov 2025

The dawn of electrification

In October, we launched our 250 years of US innovation series with a focus on the transcontinental railroad. This month, I’m excited to present the second edition, featuring the dawn of electrification.

The incandescent lightbulb was a bright idea that sparked electrification. After nearly 3,000 prototypes, Thomas Edison created an incandescent lightbulb in 1879 with a carbonized cotton-thread filament that burned for 13 hours. His invention would receive US patent number 223,898 on 27 January 1880. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Edison got his start working in the growth industries of his era: railroads and telegraphs. Some of those early experiences spurred him to tinker and experiment to find new innovations, like the quadruplex telegraph that enabled four messages to be sent simultaneously. The same curiosity that spawned the lightbulb led to less well known but equally important advances in power distribution like generators, meters, and wiring switches. His overall approach to invention and entrepreneurship would inspire an entire new school of thought, embodied by people such as Henry Ford.

The lightbulb was a revolutionary invention, but it took more than a decade for electrification and its benefits to become essential for businesses and households—a necessity that sparked a wave of follow-on inventions. By the early 1900s, when electricity was just beginning to power commerce, the benefits of the telegraph and the transcontinental railroad were also becoming more entrenched. Productivity would rise rapidly in urban areas before climbing nationally in the 1920s as these transformational technologies reshaped the industrial and agricultural landscape. Electrification would spur yet another wave of productivity growth in the 1950s with the invention of household appliances.

Today, electric utilities are experiencing another significant growth phase—this time to power artificial intelligence (AI) and the energy needs for reshored manufacturing and electrification. Investors must now reconsider the electric utility sector, as its performance profile appears slightly less defensive and is instead powered by structural growth in revenues and earnings resulting from electrification and AI. In other words, the sector is experiencing accelerating power demand growth and investment like its dawning in the early light of the 1900s.

Top of the Morning: By the dawn's early light - Electrification

17 Dec 2025  |  26 min

The 250 years of U.S. innovation publication series highlights examples of how transformational innovation has been an engine of U.S. economic growth since the nation’s founding. Today, we explore the history of electrification in the U.S. by referencing the next publication of the series: By the dawn's early light - Electrification. Featured are Kurt Reiman, Head of Fixed Income Americas, and Jay Dobson, U.S. Energy and Utilities Sector Strategist, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

27 Oct 2025

The spirit of enterprise

“No sooner do you set foot upon the American soil than you are stunned by a kind of tumult,” wrote Alexis de Tocqueville, taken by the pace of a young republic, in 1835’s Democracy in America. I, too, was stunned. Like Tocqueville, having been educated in Europe, America appeared to have turned things upside down. The question of “why could it work?” rather than “why will it not work?” seemed reckless yet enticing.

For the first time as a young professional, I stepped onto American soil in 2000 for a narrowly defined purpose—a project involving data, analytics, and a new way of systematic equity investing—much like Tocqueville, who crossed the Atlantic in 1831 under the banner of studying the US penitentiary system. I did not expect, however, to be swept into the same whirlwind that struck Tocqueville nearly two centuries earlier. 

Everywhere I turned, I witnessed what Tocqueville described as “the spirit of improvement always abroad in the United States.” In conversations with investors, business leaders, and start-up entrepreneurs, I encountered the same impatience with the present. I saw associations—what Tocqueville had once described as “the art of pursuing in common the object of their common desires”—not only in civic groups but also in venture capital and incubators.

This passion, still vivid today, extends beyond material wealth. It is about impact, legacy, and the drive to leave something behind that is bigger than oneself. While I came to America for a project, I stayed because of this restless, inventive spirit that is part fever, part discipline, and part collaboration.

The almost 250-year history of the United States stands as a testament to the power of its unique democratic and societal spirit of entrepreneurship. Leading up to 4 July 2026, we will celebrate the semiquincentennial with a series of reports highlighting prime examples of uniquely American innovation and entrepreneurship that have not only transformed the US economic landscape but also impacted the world in profound ways. 

I’m delighted to share our inaugural report, which takes us back to the mid-1800s and the building of the transcontinental railroad. This significant and foundational innovation revolutionized transportation and commerce, but only after overcoming numerous logistical and geographic challenges.

Transformational innovation has been an engine of US economic growth since the nation’s founding and is one of the three perspectives that shape our investment views. A review of the past—the capex cycles, capital flows, productivity booms, and wealth creation—suggests many parallels to what lies ahead, especially in the areas of AI, electrification, and longevity. This arc is what fascinates me most: the chance to learn from history in order to guide portfolios through the next wave of structural change.

Top of the Morning: From sea to shining sea - The transcontinental railroad

10 Nov 2025  |  22 min

The 250 years of US innovation publication series highlights examples of how transformational innovation has been an engine of US economic growth since the nation’s founding. Today, we explore the history of America’s railroad by referencing the inaugural publication of the series: From sea to shining sea: The transcontinental railroad. Featured are Kurt Reiman, Head of Fixed Income Americas, and Nathaniel Gabriel, US Industrials and Materials Sector Strategist, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy