"In September 1894, Wilbur read an article in McClure's magazine about Otto Lilienthal and his manned glider flights," (1) in Germany. He is one of the brother's first inspirations. Wilbur started to study birds in the wilderness.
By 1896 the newspapers were filled with many aeronautical experiments including aerostats (hot air or hydrogen balloons), dirigibles ("a lighter-than-air craft that can be propelled and steered" (3)), gliders, and ornithopters (a flying machine that used wings like a bird). Most of these stories were failures, but the Wright brothers used them as a learning experience of what not to do. Then on May 6, Dr. Samuel Pierpont Langley flew his "steam-powered Aerodrome No. 5 half a mile over the waters of the Potomac River" (1). Although this was too small to carry a person, it was something the brothers could learn from.
Unfortunately, Otto Lilienthal was killed in a glider crash soon after. This sparked the interest of the Wrights. The brothers, after arguing how this happened, finally came to the conclusion that Lilienthal "lack[ed the] understanding of lift...which became evident by the errors they [the brothers] soon discovered in his mathmatical findings," (1). It was also clear that you need control to fly successfully. It was this time that the brothers came up with the idea of twisting or helical twisting. After discussing this idea with Octave Chanute, a well known, accomplished engineer, the term became known as wing warping. This system "used a system of pulleys and cables to twist the trailing edges of the wings in opposite directions" (4).
1. Brady, Tim. The American Aviation Experience. IL: Southern Illinois Press. 2000.
2. The Wright Story. 29 Jan. 2007. Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co. of Dayton, Ohio. http://www.wright-brothers.org/History/Wright%20Story/wright%20story.htm
3. Motgomery, Jeff. Aerospace: The Journey of Flight. Civil Air Patrol National Headquarters. 2000.
4. Wing Warping. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 3 Feb. 2007. 6 Feb. 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_warping
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3 comments:
Hi Shelly, (this is Beth from the peer review session in class) I wanted to give you a little more advise outside of the peer review session. Your paper has a very unique flow to it and I like that you are focusing on the lesser known accomplishments of the Wright brothers. Overall the presentation of the paper is good except for the quotes. I talked to you a little in class but we didn’t really have time to talk a lot. I think most of the syllabi handed out anymore in Kent are weighed down by notices about plagiarism (as ordered by Kent) and it may be making you nervous. It is hard to know when to cite and when not cite a source but you have some places in your paper where I don’t think you need them. Abby (I think that was her name) and I explained that when you paraphrase a single source in one or two paragraphs all you need is one citation at the end of where you stop citing the source. If you are directly quoting the paper you can either introduce the quote by saying … Dr. So-and-so said in his book Whatever “bla bla bla”. If you do it this way I don’t believe you have to cite anything if the citation is in your works cited page. Also if you do not introduce it that way you can put (Author’s last mane, (comma) page number) in parenthesis at the end of the quote. There are SO many rules about this stuff and fortunately most of it was crammed into the very center of my brain by my senior English teacher, but I still do not know for sure (the MLA handbook is practically as thick as a small town phone book stuffed full of these ridiculous rules). I don’t want to sound mean (because it is hard to convey emotion over a computer) but I think a meeting with the writing center would really help you with your citations and any questions you have about whether something needs quoted or not. You really have a nice writing style you just need some help with the technical junk (like we all do) and I thought I would try to help you out some if I could.
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