Most major breakthroughs were pretty low tech in origin, and the high tech was all about optimizing the idea. I think we get fundamental research backwards nowadays.
At the very least, we shouldn't be comparing quantum computing to air flight. The Wright brothers were basically hobbyists, incomparable to the global leading technology corporations in the history of human civilization.
This seems more comparable to the moon landing or LHC Higgs-Boson discovery. Challenging to pull off once, and the next steps seem to increase exponentially in man-power and cost.