The first step in any new program or project is research. The Wright Brothers first performed a literature search to find out the state of aeronautical knowledge at their time. They wrote to the Smithsonian and obtained technical papers regarding aerodynamics. They read about the works of Cayley, and Langley, and the hang-gliding flights of Otto Lilienthal.
They corresponded with Octave Chanute concerning some of their ideas. They studied the problems which had been encountered by previous flyers and they talked about possible solutions to the problems.
They looked for answers to the problems of flight by observing large gliding birds. They decided that control of the flying aircraft would be the most crucial and hardest problem to solve and they had some ideas for solving that problem. Today, NASA engineers are involved in all aspects of research. Engineers use the Internet, read books, attend conferences, and use videoconferencing technologies to solve new problems of flight. The Wright brothers' ideas for flight control were tested on a series of unpowered aircraft between and These aircraft were all flown as kites to obtain aerodynamic performance.
The Wright Brothers were kite enthusiasts and they used the kite flights in the same way that modern engineers use wind tunnels and flight testing to try out their ideas concerning flight control.
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina was chosen for their early flight experiments because its consistent high winds off the ocean are perfect for kite flying. The brothers correctly reasoned that a free flying object had to be controlled about all three primary axes; roll , pitch , and yaw. Their aircraft were built with movable surfaces on the wing , elevator , and rudder.
Control of the surface shape was in the hands of the pilot. They extensively tested these ideas by glider flights of the aircraft. Today, NASA engineers at the Langley Research Center use sophisticated models and wind tunnels to improve the flight control of modern aircraft. These ideas are flight tested at the Dryden Flight Research Center. The early kite and glider experiments did not meet the performance goals which the brothers calculated before the flights.
In late , the brothers began to doubt the data which they were using to design their aircraft. They built a wind tunnel and developed model-testing techniques including a balance to more accurately determine the lift and drag of their aircraft. They tested over two hundred different wings and airfoil models to improve the performance of their gliders.
Their very successful aircraft was based on their new data. Today, NASA engineers at Ames, Langley, and Glenn Research Centers use sophisticated models and wind tunnels to study a variety of problems associated with modern aircraft design. These tunnels and test techniques are only modern improvements on the original work done by the Wright Brothers.
You can use a computer simulator of the Wright tunnel to find out how it works. Besides being airplane designers, and test engineers, the Wright Brothers were the first pilots of a heavier than air, powered aircraft. They developed their piloting skills by making over flights on a series of gliders at Kitty Hawk between and At the time of their first powered flight, the brothers were the most experienced pilots in the world.
From to , they continued to perfect their piloting skills on a series of powered aircraft. The Wright Brothers were the first to fly a self-propelled , heavier than air machine. Propeller efficiency is defined as the power output of the propeller divided by the shaft power input from the engine, expressed as a percentage.
In practical terms, the propellers converted two-thirds of the energy applied to them to thrust. In the meantime, they had heard from the engine manufacturers. All replies were negative-no one had an engine that met the Wrights' specifications and no one was willing to develop one.
They decided to build their own engine with the help of their talented mechanic, Charlie Taylor. After their first effort failed, the four-cylinder engine was finally ready in May The airplane on which they planned to mount the engine and propellers was their largest so far feet Orville referred to it as the "whopper flying machine. On September 23, , Wilbur, Orville, the parts of their machine, and a launch system they had constructed, left Dayton for Kitty Hawk.
The First Flight Thursday, December 17, , dawned, and was to go down in history as a day when a great engineering feat was accomplished. It was a cold day with winds of 22 to 27 miles an hour blowing from the north. The Wrights waited indoors; hoping the winds would diminish.
But they continued brisk, and at 10 in the morning the brothers decided to attempt a flight, fully realizing the difficulties and dangers of flying a relatively untried machine in so high a wind. In strong winds, hills were not needed to launch the machine, since the force of the winds would enable the machine to take off on the short starting track from level ground.
Indeed, the winds were almost too gusty to launch the machine at all that day, but the brothers estimated that the added dangers while in flight would be compensated in part by the slower speed in landing caused by flying into stiff winds.
As a safety precaution, they decided to fly as close to the ground as possible. A signal was again displayed to notify the men at the Kill Devil Hills Life Saving Station that further trials were intended. They took the machine out of the hanger, and laid the foot starting track in a south-to-north direction on a smooth stretch of level ground less than feet west of the hanger and more than 1, feet north of Kill Devil Hill. They chose this location for the trials because the ground had recently been covered with water, and because it was so level that little preparation was necessary to lay the track.
Both the starting track and the machine resting on the truck faced directly into the north wind. The restraining wire was attached from the truck to the south end of the track. Before the brothers were quite ready to fly the machine, John T. Daniels, Willie S. Dough, and Adam D. Brinkley of Manteo, and John T. Moore, a boy from Nags Head.
The right to the first trial belonged to Orville; Wilbur had used his turn in the unsuccessful attempt on December After running the engine and propellers a few minutes, the takeoff attempt was ready. At a. He released the restraining wire and the machine started down the foot track, traveling slowly into the headwind at about 7 or 8 miles an hour--so slow that Wilbur was able to run alongside holding the right wing to balance the machine on the track.
After a run of 40 feet on the track, the machine took off. The airplane then climbed 10 feet into the sky, while Orville struggled with the controlling mechanisms to keep it from rising too high in such an irregular, gusty wind. Orville sought to fly a level flight course, though buffeted by the strong headwind.
However, when turning the rudder up or down, the airplane turned too far either way and flew an erratic up-and-down course, first quickly rising about 10 feet, then suddenly darting close to the ground. The first successful flight ended with a sudden dart to the ground after having flown feet from the takeoff point in 12 seconds time at a ground speed of 6. In the words of Orville Wright:. This flight lasted only 12 seconds, but it was nevertheless the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight, had sailed forward without reduction of speed, and had finally landed at a point as high as that from which it started.
Orville found that the new, almost untried, controlling mechanisms operated more powerfully than the previous controls he had used in gliders. He also learned that the front rudder was balanced too near the center. Because of its tendency to turn itself when started, the unfamiliar powered machine's front rudder turned more than was necessary. The airplane had been slightly damaged on landing. Quick repairs were made.
With the help of the onlookers, the machine was brought back to the track and prepared for a second flight. Wilbur took his turn at a. He also flew an up-and-down course, similar to the first flight, while operating the unfamiliar controls. The speed over the ground during the second flight was slightly faster than that of the first flight because the winds were diminishing.
The airplane was carried back to the starting track and prepared for a third flight. All was going nicely when a sudden gust of wind from the side lifted the airplane higher by 12 to 15 feet, turning it sidewise in an alarming manner.
With the airplane flying sidewise, Orville warped the wingtips to recover lateral balance, and pointed the airplane down to land as quickly as possible. The new lateral control was more effective than he had expected. The airplane not only leveled off, but the wing that had been high dropped more than he had intended, and it struck the ground shortly before the airplane landed.
The third flight was about feet in about 15 seconds. Wilbur started on the fourth flight at noon. He flew the first few hundred feet on an up-and-down course similar to the first two flights.
But after flying feet from the take-off point, the airplane was brought under control. The airplane flew a fairly even course for an additional feet, with little undulation to disturb its level flight.
While in flight about feet from the take-off point, the airplane commenced pitching again, and, in one of its darts downward, struck the ground. The fourth flight measured feet over the ground; the time in the air was 59 seconds. The four successful flights made on December 17 were short because the Wrights, not desiring to fly a new machine at much height in strong winds, sometimes found it impossible to correct the up-and-down motion of the airplane before it struck the ground.
They carried the airplane back to camp and set it up a few feet west of the hangar. While the Wrights and onlookers were discussing the flights, a sudden gust of wind struck the airplane and turned it over a number of times, damaging it badly.
The airplane could not be repaired in time for any more flights that year; indeed, it was never flown again. Daniels gained the dubious honor of becoming the first airplane casualty when he was slightly scratched and bruised while caught inside the machine between the wings in an attempt to stop the airplane as it rolled over. Orville made this matter-of-fact entry in his diary: "After dinner we went to Kitty Hawk to send off telegram to M.
While there we called on Capt. Hobbs, Dr. Cogswell and the station men. Success four flights Thursday morning all against twenty-one mile wind started from level with engine power alone average speed through air thirty-one miles longest 57 seconds inform press home Christmas. Orevelle Wright. In the transmission of the telegram, 57 seconds was incorrectly given for the second record flight, and Orville's name was misspelled. The Norfolk telegraph operator leaked the news to a local paper, the Virginian-Pilot.
The resulting story produced a series of false reports as to the length and duration of the December 17 flights. Practically none of the information contained in the telegram was used, except that the Wrights had flown. Their father gave out a biographical note: Wilbur is 36, Orville 32, and they are as inseparable as twins.
For several years they have read up on aeronautics as a physician would read his books, and they have studied, discussed, and experimented together. Natural workmen, they have invented, constructed, and operated their gliders, and finally their 'Wright Flyer,' jointly, all at their own personal expense. About equal credit is due each. The world took little note of the Wrights' tremendous achievement and years passed before its full significance was realized.
After the First Flight After , the Wrights carved brilliant careers in aeronautics and helped found the aviation industry. The successful flights made at Kill Devil Hills in December encouraged them to make improvements on a new airplane called Flyer No. About flights were flown near Dayton in These totaled only 45 minutes in the air, although they made two 5-minute flights.
Experimenting chiefly with control and maneuver, many complete circuits of the small flying field were made. A new and improved plane, Flyer No. The era of the airplane was well on the way. The lessons and successes at Kill Devil Hills in December were fast making the crowded skies of the Air Age possible.
Believing their invention was now perfected for practical use, the Wrights wanted the United States Government to have a world monopoly on their patents, and more important, on all the aerodynamic, design, and pilotage secrets they knew relating to the airplane.
As early as they had received overtures from representatives of foreign governments. The United States Army turned down their first offers without making an effort to investigate whether the airplane had been brought to a stage of practical operation. But disbelief was on the wane. Only 3 weeks later the Wrights closed a contract with a Frenchman to form a syndicate for the rights to manufacture, sell, or license the use of the Wright airplane in France.
During their Dayton experiments, the Wrights had continued to pilot their airplanes while lying prone with hips in the cradle on the lower wing. Now they adopted a different arrangement of the control levers to be used in a sitting position and added a seat for a passenger. The brothers brought their airplane to Kill Devil Hills in April to practice handling the new arrangement of the control levers.
They wanted to be prepared for the public trials to be made for the United States Government, near Washington, and for the company in France. They erected a new building at Kill Devil Hills to house the airplane and to live in, because storms the year before had nearly demolished their camp buildings.
Between May 6 and May 14, , the Wrights made 22 flights at their old testing grounds. On May 14 the first flight with two men aboard a airplane was made near West Hill; Wilbur Wright being the pilot, and Charles Furnas, a mechanic, the passenger.
Orville and Furnas then made a flight together of over two miles, passing between Kill Devil Hill and West Hill, and turning north near the sound to circle Little Hill before returning over the starting point close to their camp to land near West Hill on the second lap.
Byron R. Newton, a newspaper reporter, was concealed in the woods with other newsmen near camp to watch the Wrights fly. Newton predicted in his diary just after seeing his first flight: "Some day Congress will erect a monument here to these Wrights. Wilbur journeyed to France after completing the tests at Kill Devil Hills, while Orville returned home to complete the construction of an airplane for the United States Government.
As Wilbur set about methodically to assemble his airplane at Le Mans, some miles from Paris, skeptics greeted the delay by accusing him of bluffing. But Wilbur refused to hurry. However, when Wilbur took off on August 8, circling the field to come in for a perfect landing, the crowd could scarcely believe its eyes. Skeptics were confounded, and enthusiasm was uproarious. Wilbur's complete lack of conceit, together with his decency and intelligence, won a hero-worship attitude from the French people, while the press was unsparing in its praise and lamented having called him a bluffer.
The Figaro commented, "It was not merely a success but a triumph; a conclusive trial and a decisive victory for aviation, the news of which will revolutionize scientific circles throughout the world. Baden-Powell, president of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, that is most often quoted: "That Wilbur Wright is in possession of a power which controls the fate of nations is beyond dispute. Orville's first public flight was on September 3, at Fort Myer, in Virginia.
He circled the field one and one-half times on the first test. The airplane crashed, killing Lt. Thomas Selfridge, a passenger flying with Orville. Orville suffered broken ribs, a fractured leg, and hip injuries. In , Orville completed the Government test flights by flying 10 miles in 14 minutes, or just under 43 miles an hour.
During the same year both brothers made further flying triumphs in Europe where they became famous flying in France and Italy. While Orville was making sensational flights in Germany as required for the formation of a Wright company in that country , Wilbur, in America, made spectacular flights at New York City where more than a million New Yorkers got their first glimpse of an airplane in the air.
Commercial companies were formed in France and Germany to manufacture Wright planes before the Wright Company was organized in the United States with Wilbur as president and Orville vice president. In financial affairs the Wrights were remarkably shrewd-- a match for American and European businessmen. They grew wealthy as well as famous, but they were not happy as businessmen and looked forward to the time when they could retire to devote themselves again to scientific research. While the Wright brothers finally obtained a patent for their aircraft, they became involved in legal battles with Glenn Curtiss.
The lawsuit dragged on. Orville returned to Kill Devil Hills in October to experiment with an automatic control device and to make soaring flights with a glider. The new device was not tested because of the presence of newspapermen at the camp each day. Orville set a new world's soaring record of 9 minutes and 45 seconds on October On May 30, , Wilbur Wright, aged 45, died of typhoid fever. Orville survived him by 36 years, dying on January 30, In , Orville lent the airplane to the Science Museum at South Kensington, near London, England, with the understanding that it would stay there permanently unless he made a written request for its return.
Finally, in , the dispute with the Smithsonian was settled to Orville's satisfaction, and the next year he wrote a request to the Science Museum for the return of the airplane to this country when it could be safely shipped after World War II ended. After Orville Wright's death, on January 30, l, his executors deposited the original airplane in the National Air Museum.
It was formally placed on exhibition on December 17, , in Washington, D. The priceless original Wright airplane now occupies the highest place of honor among other interesting aeronautical exhibits in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D. The National Memorial On March 2, , the Congress authorized the establishment of Kill Devil Hills Monument National Memorial to commemorate the Wrights' achievement of the first successful flight of a man-carrying, power-driven, heavier-than-air machine.
The memorial contains about acres. It embraces the actual site of the first four flights and the sites of most of the glider experiments. A foot granite monument dedicated in is perched atop foot high Kill Devil Hill commemorating the achievement of these two visionaries from Dayton, Ohio.
A visit should include touring the museum exhibits, participating in a ranger conducted program, touring the reconstructed camp buildings and first flight trail area, and a climb up Kill Devil Hill to view the memorial pylon. The visitor center houses exhibits which are available year-round. Adjacent to the camp buildings are granite markers which designate the lengths of the four successful powered flights.
The preflight section of this essay was exerpted, in abridged form, from Judy Rumerman's essays on the the Wright Brothers found on the U. Centennial of Flight Commission's website, with additional information taken from Tom D. The section of the first flight onwards, slightly abridged, was taken from U. Washington: Government Printing Office, Explore This Park. Wright Brothers. Submitted in , the Wright brothers finally received this patent in for their airplane that they tested in North Carolina.
Their application included detailed descriptions of their aeronautical innovations.
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