By 1904 the brothers produced a second plane, Flyer II. This plane was pretty much an exact replica of Flyer I. They tested this plane at Huffman Prairie in Ohio. They didn’t meet expectations with this plane and concluded that it must be because the winds weren’t as strong there as they were in Kitty Hawk. They built a catapult to help get the plane off the ground.
The brothers manufactured an even better aircraft, Flyer III, in 1905. They contacted several militaries from different countries trying to sell an aircraft. Nobody became interested until 1907, when the U.S. Army Signal Corps asked for one. Just a few months later, in early 1908, a French businessman agreed to purchase another.
The next few years consisted of several demonstrations. During a demonstration in Fort Myer, Virginia, Orville crashed and ended up breaking his leg and killing his passenger Lt. Thomas Selfridge. While Orville was recovering, Wilbur continued flying breaking record after record. Eventually the boys opened a couple flight schools. They spent a lot of time getting patents. One of the more serious lawsuits they came across was with Glenn Curtiss. Courts ruled in favor of the Wrights and Curtiss had to pay up for his accusations and attempts of copying the Wright’s planes.
The brothers were doing all they could to please the public at this point. They kept attempting to create faster and better performing planes. At this point they had other pilots to test their work. Many of these flight attempts were fatal and by 1911, other inventors surpassed the Wrights. The next year Wilbur passed away and Orville lost interest in flight and eventually sold The Wright Company in 1916.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
December 17, 1903
By now, the brothers had started to become homesick. They wanted to be back in time for Christmas. They decided they better get to work quick it they wanted to do that. On December 17, 1903 the brothers decided they would give their plane another shot even though the weather wasn't at it's best. The winds were gusting 27 mph, which could quickly throw the plane out of line. Even so, the brothers somehow managed to get Flyer I up this day. Orville was first at the controls and piloted the plane up in the air for 12 seconds for 120 feet. They averaged 30 mph in the air with these flights. "For the first time ever, a flying machine had taken off from level ground, traveled through the air, and landed under the control of its pilot," (The Wright Story). The Wright brothers were happy, but not satisfied. They knew they could do much better.
Wilbur piloted the second flight of the day which covered 175 feet. Then it was Orville's turn again. He landed 200 feet from the starting point. The forth and last flight of the day was made by Wilbur. With the help of a gust of wind, he managed to fly the plane 852 feet for 59 seconds. This ended their flights for the day. While they were carrying the airplane back to the launching point, the wind flipped the plane and caused severe damage. Flyer I would never fly again.
The Wight Story. 24 April 2007. Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co. of Dayton, Ohio. <http://wright-brothers.org/History/Wright>
Wilbur piloted the second flight of the day which covered 175 feet. Then it was Orville's turn again. He landed 200 feet from the starting point. The forth and last flight of the day was made by Wilbur. With the help of a gust of wind, he managed to fly the plane 852 feet for 59 seconds. This ended their flights for the day. While they were carrying the airplane back to the launching point, the wind flipped the plane and caused severe damage. Flyer I would never fly again.
The Wight Story. 24 April 2007. Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co. of Dayton, Ohio. <http://wright-brothers.org/History/Wright>
Building the Airplane
Wilbur wrote to ten different engine manufacturers asking for an engine that weighed less than 180 pounds and produce at least 8 horsepower for his and his brother's airplane they were building. After they realized their was no engine under those speculations and no company was willing to build one they turned to Charlie Taylor. They ended up finishing the engine in six weeks. The brothers did some test on the engine and encountered difficulties, but Taylor had it rebuilt in May, just in time for the 1903 flying season.
This 1903 airplane was the largest that the brothers had ever built. It was 40 feet from wingtip to wingtip. They had to pack up parts and finish building it at Kitty Hawk because of how enormous it was.
The Wright's arrive at Kitty Hawk in September 1903 and began building a new hanger, a sheltered area where planes are built or repaired, for their large aircraft. They encountered some manufacturing problems. In the mean time, they practiced glides with the 1902 glider. By early December all the glitches were figured out and they just had to be patient and wait for the winds to pick up.
Finally on December 14 the winds picked up. The brothers tossed a coin to see who would fly first; Orville won. The brothers, along with the life saving crew, were ready to fly. They started the engine, but the plane took off without Orville and quickly reached 15 feet before it stalled and came crashing down. Orville was unfamiliar with the controls and accidentally tried to climb higher in the air before he should have. At this point it was clear the plane would fly once it was fixed.
This 1903 airplane was the largest that the brothers had ever built. It was 40 feet from wingtip to wingtip. They had to pack up parts and finish building it at Kitty Hawk because of how enormous it was.
The Wright's arrive at Kitty Hawk in September 1903 and began building a new hanger, a sheltered area where planes are built or repaired, for their large aircraft. They encountered some manufacturing problems. In the mean time, they practiced glides with the 1902 glider. By early December all the glitches were figured out and they just had to be patient and wait for the winds to pick up.
Finally on December 14 the winds picked up. The brothers tossed a coin to see who would fly first; Orville won. The brothers, along with the life saving crew, were ready to fly. They started the engine, but the plane took off without Orville and quickly reached 15 feet before it stalled and came crashing down. Orville was unfamiliar with the controls and accidentally tried to climb higher in the air before he should have. At this point it was clear the plane would fly once it was fixed.
Fixing the Rudder
After thinking everything over, Orville came to the conclusion that the problem would be solved if he could fix the rudder to actually move and be controlled. "This would allow the pilot to adjust its angle during a turn to overcome the drag from the high wing, keep the inside wing from losing too much lift, and prevent the aircraft from skidding," (The Wright Story). Wilbur agreed with this idea, but decided that the pilot already had enough to do with the wing warping controls. "Instead, the brothers coupled the wires that turned the rudder to the wing warping mechanism," (The Wright Story). This perfected the control and made the 1902 glider the "first aircraft capable of being precisely balanced in flight...So basic was this breakthrough that every aircraft (and spacecraft!) flying today still uses the same fundamental...controls first developed by the Wright brothers," (The Wright Story).
All this led to Kitty Hawk becoming a very busy place. Several people became interested in the boys success and went out to view the spectacular event for themselves. Among these people were Octave Chanute, George Spratt, and Augustus Herring all of which were aeronautical engineers. Herring tried his attempt at gliding, but it was barely able to make it 50 feet off the ground. He ended up humiliated and jealous of the Wright's success.
The brother's best flight of the year was in October after the massive crowds left. Wilbur made a glide covering 622 feet and Orville’s best was 615 feet (The Wright Story).
The Wight Story. 24 April 2007. Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co. of Dayton, Ohio. <http://wright-brothers.org/History/Wright>
All this led to Kitty Hawk becoming a very busy place. Several people became interested in the boys success and went out to view the spectacular event for themselves. Among these people were Octave Chanute, George Spratt, and Augustus Herring all of which were aeronautical engineers. Herring tried his attempt at gliding, but it was barely able to make it 50 feet off the ground. He ended up humiliated and jealous of the Wright's success.
The brother's best flight of the year was in October after the massive crowds left. Wilbur made a glide covering 622 feet and Orville’s best was 615 feet (The Wright Story).
The Wight Story. 24 April 2007. Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co. of Dayton, Ohio. <http://wright-brothers.org/History/Wright>
The Glider of 1902
The Wright brothers were on their way back to Kitty Hawk at the end of August 1902. Their new glider looked nothing like their previous ones. The wings were ten feet longer and the chord, "a straight line joining the trailing and leading edges of an airfoil section," (Dictionary.com) was two feet shorter. The wings also followed a slight parabolic curve. The elevator, "a hinged horizontal surface on an airplane...used to control the longitudinal inclination..." (Dictonary.com) was placed more in front of the pilot which gave more leverage which meant better control. They also decided to replace the tail that they had discontinued using in 1900. This glider had two rudders placed in the back of the glider.
First they tested this glider out as a kite. Quickly it became evident that their new glider was much more advanced when it was producing the expected lift. "Within a few weeks, they were making glides of over 500 feet," (The Wight Story). Eventually the glider came crashing down, but this never discouraged the Wright brothers. They did some quick repairs and had the glider back up in no time.
First they tested this glider out as a kite. Quickly it became evident that their new glider was much more advanced when it was producing the expected lift. "Within a few weeks, they were making glides of over 500 feet," (The Wight Story). Eventually the glider came crashing down, but this never discouraged the Wright brothers. They did some quick repairs and had the glider back up in no time.
They still had a major problem, the plane slipped in turns. The tail didn't help at all; in fact, Wilbur believed the tail was making the problem worse. He believed it was creating more drag which slowed the plane down even more than it usually would in their turns. This made the plane fall out of the sky, spiraling down to the ground.
"Chord." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 24 Apr. 2007. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chord>.
"Elevator." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 24 Apr. 2007. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/elevator>.
The Wight Story. 14 April 2007. Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co. of Dayton, Ohio. <http://wright-brothers.org/History/Wright %20Story/wright%20story.htm>
Monday, April 23, 2007
More Questions Raised
The Wright brothers's 1900 and 1901 gliding experiments didn't produce the lift that they expected and had several accidents. They concluded that the calculations Otto Lilienthal had produced were wrong, and Wilbur wrote a speech to the public explaining why he and Orville believed so. A copy of this speech was published in the well-known journal of the Western Society of Engineers. The public was unsure about these boys questioning Otto Lilienthal, after all he had been successful until his accident. Soon after, the brothers's built a wind tunnel and began more of their own testing. Their results were astonishing. Lilienthal's tables of calculations were correct. The brothers found the error was a number in the equation Lilienthal used to calculate lift. The coefficient of air pressure was way off. "This number had been developed in the mid-eighteenth century by an English engineer, John Smeaton, to design more efficient windmills. It had been in general use for nearly a century and a half, long enough to be accepted as gospel," (The Wright Story).
The brothers also realized that Otto Lilienthal's wings he used were not as effective. He had the "The curves of the German’s wing[s] were sections of a circle. The highest point was in the center of the chord, midway between the leading and trailing edges. Wilbur and Orville found that a wing produced much more lift if its curve followed the shape of a parabola, with the high point about one quarter of the chord behind the leading edge," (The Wright Story). Now, what they needed to do was concentrate more on control.
The Wight Story. 14 April 2007. Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co. of Dayton, Ohio. <http://wright-brothers.org/History/Wright %20Story/wright%20story.htm>
The brothers also realized that Otto Lilienthal's wings he used were not as effective. He had the "The curves of the German’s wing[s] were sections of a circle. The highest point was in the center of the chord, midway between the leading and trailing edges. Wilbur and Orville found that a wing produced much more lift if its curve followed the shape of a parabola, with the high point about one quarter of the chord behind the leading edge," (The Wright Story). Now, what they needed to do was concentrate more on control.
The Wight Story. 14 April 2007. Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co. of Dayton, Ohio. <http://wright-brothers.org/History/Wright %20Story/wright%20story.htm>
Friday, April 20, 2007
Wikipedia and Dictionaries
I am guilty of using Wikipedia as a source. I had looked up a definition of wing warping. This was before my English class was warned about the credibility Wikipedia has. I already had a good idea what this technique was and I thought the explanation of wing warping was much better than anything I could have ever put together. Personally, I have always loved the Wikipedia page, but I do realize a different encyclopedia could be more accurate and trustworthy. This page is just convenient because it’s free and online ready to use. Instead of quoting Wikipedia for the final paper, I think I will change this source to Dictionary.com.
Dictionary.com has helped me already also. I have found it to always be accurate. Dictionaries are a good source to use as often as you need to. I used it to look up the meaning of ailerons. Although I already knew what this word was, it is something hard to explain is so few and exact words.
I also found more helpful information on Wikipedia when I looked up the Wright Flyer. The article was on the Wright Flyer I and I think it is amazing. I found it to be very descriptive and would be very helpful while writing about the plane and the brother’s first flights. I don’t think we are supposed to quote Wikipedia in our final paper, but I would still recommend this article to anyone. I have recently come across a Wikipedia article that was inaccurate when I was researching John Glenn for a different project, so like my English teacher I will also advise you to be careful with this website.
"Ailerons." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 14 March 2007. <http://www.dictionary.referance.com/browse/ailerons>
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. "Wight Flyer." 17 April 2007. 18 April 2007. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer>
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. "Wing Warping." 3 Feb. 2007. 6 Feb. 2007. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_warping>
Dictionary.com has helped me already also. I have found it to always be accurate. Dictionaries are a good source to use as often as you need to. I used it to look up the meaning of ailerons. Although I already knew what this word was, it is something hard to explain is so few and exact words.
I also found more helpful information on Wikipedia when I looked up the Wright Flyer. The article was on the Wright Flyer I and I think it is amazing. I found it to be very descriptive and would be very helpful while writing about the plane and the brother’s first flights. I don’t think we are supposed to quote Wikipedia in our final paper, but I would still recommend this article to anyone. I have recently come across a Wikipedia article that was inaccurate when I was researching John Glenn for a different project, so like my English teacher I will also advise you to be careful with this website.
"Ailerons." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 14 March 2007. <http://www.dictionary.referance.com/browse/ailerons>
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. "Wight Flyer." 17 April 2007. 18 April 2007. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer>
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. "Wing Warping." 3 Feb. 2007. 6 Feb. 2007. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_warping>
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Plagiarism?
The source that helped me out the most was The Wright Story located at http://wright-brothers.org/History/Wright%20Story/wright%20story.htm. It is an online source, but it has given me exactly what I have needed. The web site begins at the Wright brother’s childhood and tells detailed information about their lives. I like the web site because, unlike most books, everything is straight forward and to the point. It even helped with all my power point pictures that I used. They have a link on their main page to give you plenty of pictures of the Wright family and of the brother’s work. Luckily I found this web site early and it has made the project a lot easier for me.
Later on I ran into the site http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay_cat/3.htm. This web address takes you to a page where it has links to several different parts of the Wright brother’s lives. It looks to me like the web site that I looked so highly upon before that I mentioned above copy and pasted pages at a time from this site. Almost all of the pictures are the same also. I couldn’t fine any citations on either of the web pages. I tend to trust the government site more, but the other site has even more on the brothers. Each offers great information that I would suggest to anyone. Since I have been using The Wright Story since the very beginning, it is hard to decide whether of not I should continue to use it.
The Wight Story. 14 April 2007. Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co. of Dayton, Ohio. <http://wright-brothers.org/History/Wright %20Story/wright%20story.htm>
Centennialofflightadmin@hq.nasa.gov. U.S. Centennial Of Flight Commission. "Wright Brothers." <http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay_cat/3.htm>
Later on I ran into the site http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay_cat/3.htm. This web address takes you to a page where it has links to several different parts of the Wright brother’s lives. It looks to me like the web site that I looked so highly upon before that I mentioned above copy and pasted pages at a time from this site. Almost all of the pictures are the same also. I couldn’t fine any citations on either of the web pages. I tend to trust the government site more, but the other site has even more on the brothers. Each offers great information that I would suggest to anyone. Since I have been using The Wright Story since the very beginning, it is hard to decide whether of not I should continue to use it.
The Wight Story. 14 April 2007. Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co. of Dayton, Ohio. <http://wright-brothers.org/History/Wright %20Story/wright%20story.htm>
Centennialofflightadmin@hq.nasa.gov. U.S. Centennial Of Flight Commission. "Wright Brothers." <http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay_cat/3.htm>
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