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The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age

Wilbur and Orville Wright invented the airplane

The original 1903 Wright Flyer is the enterpiee of !The Wright Brothers

& The Invention of the Aerial Age! e"hibition at the #ational Air and

$pae %useu's flaship building on the #ational %all in Washington.http://www.nasm.si.edu

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Only five bicycles manufactured by the Wrightbrothers are known to exist. This one, amodel they called the t. !lair, was built in"#$#. %ess expensive than the &an !leve, thet. !lair sold for '().*+.Lent by the Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn,

Mich.

A reprodution of the 1(99 Wright )ite

The Wrights obined their

*ing+*arping ontrol onept

and the strutural design of the

,hanute+-erring glider in their

first airraft. a biplane /ite *ith a+foot *ingspan. built in uly

1(992

http://www.nasm.si.edu/imagedetail.cfm?imageID=152

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1900 Wright lider 4reprodution5

The "$++ glider was the Wrights first piloted aircraft. -irst flighttested at itty0awk in the fall of that year, it incorporated the wirebraced biplane structure andwingwarping control system they developed with their "#$$ kite.

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1906 Wright glider 4reprodution5

!ompared to their previous gliders, the Wrights "$+) glider had a much thinnerairfoil and longer and narrower wings, which their wind tunnel tests had shownto be more efficient. To improve lateral control, they added a fixed vertical rudderto the rear of the glider. They retained the reliable forward elevator for pitch

control but made it elliptical in shape.

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1903 Wright Flyer

The "$+1 Wright -lyer made four flights atitty 0awk, 2orth !arolina, on 3ecember "4,

"$+1, the best covering #*) feet in *$seconds. 5t was the first heavierthanair,

powered aircraft to make a sustained,controlled flight with a pilot aboard.

The Wrights used their proven canard biplaneconfiguration which was rooted in their initial

"#$$ kite design. ey to the -lyers successwas its threeaxis control system, which

featured wingwarping for lateral balance, amoveable rudder, and an elevator for pitch

control.

The right wing was four inches longer than theleft to compensate for the engine being

heavier than and mounted to the right of thepilot. The wings were rigged with a slight

droop to reduce the effects of crosswinds.

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To say simply that the Wright 6rothers invented the airplane doesntbegin to describe their many accomplishments. 2or is it especially

accurate. The first fixedwing aircraft a kite mounted on a stick was conceived and flown almost a century before Orville and Wilburmade their first flights. The Wrights were first to design and build aflying craft that could be controlledwhile in the air. 7very successfulaircraft ever built since, beginning with the "$+) Wright glider, hashad controls to roll the wings right or left, pitch the nose up or down,

and yawthe nose from side to side. These three controls roll, pitch,and yaw let a pilot navigate an airplane in all three dimensions,making it possible to fly from place to place. The entire aerospacebusiness, the largest industry in the world, depends on this simple butbrilliant idea. o do spacecraft, submarines, even robots.

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7uring the *inter of 1906+1903. *ith the help of their ehani. ,harlie

Taylor. the Wrights designed and built a gasoline engine light enough and

po*erful enough to propel an airplane2 They also designed the first true

airplane propellers and built a ne*. po*ered airraft2 Ba/ in )itty -a*/.

they suddenly found theselves in a rae2 $auel 82 angley. $eretaryof the $ithsonian Institution. had also built a po*ered airraft. patterned

after a sall. unanned !aerodroe! he had flo*n suessfully in 1(9:2

To add to their frustrations. the Wrights *ere delayed by probles *ith

their propeller shafts and the *eather. giving angley tie to test his

airraft t*ie in late 19032 Both attepts failed iserably. ho*ever. and

angley left the field to the Wrights2 On 7eeber 1;. 1903. Wilbur and

Orville Wright ade the first sustained. ontrolled flights in a po*ered

airraft2

Ba/ in 7ayton. Ohio. the brothers found they had uh to do to perfet

their invention2 While the 1903 Wright Flyer did indeed fly. it *as

underpo*ered and diffiult to ontrol2 They established the *orld's firsttest flight failities at -uffan 8rairie. northeast of 7ayton 4today. the site

of Wright 8atterson Air Fore Base52 For t*o years they ade flight after

flight. fine tuning the ontrols. engine. propellers. and onfiguration of

their airplane2 At first. they ould only fly in a straight line for less than a

inute2 But by the end of 190. they *ere flying figure+eight's over

-uffan 8rairie. staying aloft for over half an hour. or until their fuel ranout2 The 190 Wright Flyer *as the *orld's firstpractical airplane2

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Wilbur and Orville were the sons of 8ilton and usan Wright and members of a

warm, loving family that encouraged learning and doing. 8ilton was a bishop inthe 9nited 6rethren !hurch, and was often away from home on churchbusiness. 6ut he wrote hundreds of letters home, and often brought backpresents from his trips, exposing his children to the world beyond their horion.5n "#4#, he brought home a rubber bandpowered helicopter, and young Wilburand Orville immediately began to build copies of it.5n "##(, 6ishop Wright moved his family to 3ayton, Ohio, the political center ofthe 9nited 6rethren !hurch. ;bout the same time, his wife usan fell ill withtuberculosis. Wilbur,

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After the 190 flying season. the Wrights ontated the ussia. offering to sell a flying ahine2 They *ere turned

do*n tie and tie again ++ governent bureaurats thought they *ere

ra/pots? others thought that if t*o biyle ehanis ould build asuessful airplane. they ould do it theselves2 But the Wright persisted.

and in late 190;. the

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As their fae gre*. orders for airraft poured in2 The Wrights set up airplane

fatories and flight shools on both sides of the Atlanti2

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8atent fights and business troubles behind hi. Orville Wright built a sall

laboratory in his old West 7ayton neighborhood2 -ere. he *or/ed on anything

that aught his interest2 -e did soe aeronautial *or/. helping to develop a

raing airplane. guided issile. and !split flaps! to help slo* an airraft in a

dive2 But he also *or/ed on an autoati reord hanger. a toaster. and

hildren's toys2 In short. he tin/ered2

A Boeing ;C; is ;0 etres 4636 ft5 long. 19 etres

4:3 ft5 high and needs a run*ay of 3.6 / 410.00ft52 It *eighs a assive 39C :6 /g 4(;0.000

pounds5 at ta/eoff2 -o* does it stay in the airD

http://www.howstuffworks.com/airplane.htmhttp://www.howstuffworks.com/airplane.htm

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>eplia of Wright Brothers' Wind Tunnel. +10+39

%y brother Orville and I built a retangle+shaped open+ended*ind tunnel out of a *ooden bo"2 It *as 1: inhes *ide by 1:

inhes tall by : feet long2 Inside of it *e plaed an

aerodynai easuring devie ade fro an old ha/sa*

blade and biyle+spo/e *ire2 We direted the air urrent fro

an old fan in the ba/ shop roo into the opening of the*ooden bo"2

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In fat. *e soeties referred to one of the t*o

open ends of the *ind tunnel as the !goesinta! and

the other end as the !goesouta2! An old one+

ylinder gasoline engine 4that also turned other

tools in the shop. suh as our lathe5 supplied the

po*er to turn the fan2 This *as beause there *as

no eletriity in our shop2 In fat. even the lights

*ere gas lights2 It too/ us about a onth ofe"perienting *ith the *ind tunnel *e had built to

learn ho* to use it effetively2 =ventually *e

learned ho* to operate it so that it gave us results

that varied less than one+tenth of a degree2Oasionally I had to yell at y brother to /eep hi

fro oving even Eust a little in the roo beause

it *ould disturb the air flo* and destroy the

auray of the test2

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Over a t*o onth period *e tested ore than t*o hundred

odels of different types of *ings2 All of the odels *ere

three to nine inhes long2 Altogether *e easured

onoplane *ing designs 4airplanes *ith one *ing5. biplanes.

triplanes and even an airraft design *ith one *ing behindthe other li/e 8rofessor angley proposed2 8rofessor

angley *as the diretor of the $ithsonian %useu at the

tie and also trying to invent the first airplane2 On eah little

airraft *ing design *e tested *e loated the enter of

pressure and ade easureents for lift and drift2 We also

easured the lift produed by *ings of different !aspet

ratios2! An aspet ratio is the ratio or oparison of ho*

long a *ing is left to right 4the *ing span5 opared to the

length fro the front to the ba/ of the *ing 4the *ing

hord52 $oeties *e got results that *ere Eust hard to

believe. espeially *hen opared to the earlieraerodynai lift nubers supplied by the eran illienthal2

-is nubers *ere being used by ost of the early aviation

inventors and they proved to be full of errors2 illienthal

didn't use a *ind tunnel li/e Orville and I did to obtain and

test our data2

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We finally stopped our *ind tunnel e"perients Eust before

,hristas. 19012 We really onluded the rather relutantly

beause *e had a biyle business to run and a lot of *or/ to do

for that as *ell2 It is diffiult to underestiate the value of that verylaborious *or/ *e did over that hoeade *ind tunnel2 It *as. in

fat. the first *ind tunnel in *hih sall odels of *ings *ere

tested and their lifting properties aurately noted2 Fro all the

data that Orville and I auulated into tables. an aurate and

reliable *ing ould finally be built2 =ven odern *ind tunnel data*ith the ost sophistiated euipent varies oparatively little

fro *hat *e first disovered2 In fat. the aurate *ind tunnel

data *e developed *as so iportant. it is doubtful if anyone *ould

have ever developed a flyable *ing *ithout first developing this

data2 $oeties the non+glaorous lab *or/ is absolutely ruial

to the suess of a proEet2 In any ase. as faous as *e beae

for our !Flyer! and its syste of ontrol. it all *ould never have

happened if *e had not developed our o*n *ind tunnel and

derived our o*n orret aerodynai data2 + Wilbur Wright

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