On December 17, 1903 two bicycle
builders from Dayton, Ohio launched
a flimsy looking craft on a flight of 120 feet in 12 seconds, at a speed
of 6.8 miles per hour on the remote
sands of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They would
complete three more flights that day, trading time piloting the craft from a prone
position on the bi-plane’s lower
wing. The longest flight covered 852 feet, achieved an altitude of
about 10 feet, and lasted 59 seconds. Damaged on the final landing,
but reparable, a gust of wind flipped the plane several times as it was being moved. It never flew again. The two inventors, brothers Orville and
Wilber Wright, and five witnesses
were on hand for the flights. Three of the men were from a nearby U.S.
Life Saving Service station. One of them, John T. Daniels
snapped a photo of the first flight
with a camera that had been pre-positioned by Orville.
At the end of the day the brothers sent a telegram to their father tersely
announcing their success and instructing him to “inform the press.” It turned out most of the press wasn’t interested. The Wright’s hometown Dayton paper refused to print
the story, skeptical that it was
true and convinced that even if the story were true, the flights were “too
short to be of importance.” A telegrapher
picked up the story and gave it unauthorized
to a Virginia paper, which the next day carried a wildly inaccurate story, which was devoid of details. The secretive Wrights did not issue their own statement and full description of the flight until
January. Even then, their claims
were widely doubted and mocked.
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| Octave Chanute's glider experiments inspired the Wright Brothers and the older scientist became a mentor to them. |
Most people who kept abreast of
rapidly developing technology knew that manned flight was imminent. Nobody expected the obscure
Wright Brothers to be the ones to make the breakthrough.
The 1890’s had produced an explosion of
experimentation on flight, most of it using kites and gliders. In 1895 Octave Chanute
had gathered several enthusiasts to test glider designs on the shores of Lake
Michigan and himself had developed a
bi-plane kite/glider which could carry
a man hanging below it.
It was press reports of these experiments that first interested the Wright
Brothers in flight. Soon they were building their own kites, based
generally on Chanute’s design. They were in contact with Chanute from
1900 and he was impressed by their work.
He encouraged them and even helped them locate Kitty Hawk as an ideal place to
conduct manned flight experiments. He also visited them there and
witnessed their glider flights.
In Canada Alexander Graham Bell, one of the most respected inventors in the world,
was also intrigued and began his own kite experiments. Even earlier German
Otto Lilienthal was soaring with his single
winged hang-glider, making over 2,000 flights by leaping from hills from
1891 until he was killed in a crash in 1895. Other Europeans were taking up his work.
But most experts expected the final breakthrough to be made by Charles
Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. With
the assistance of the Smithsonian staff, Langley had constructed model aircraft he called Aerodromes.
These featured tandem wings, one in front of the other. After
success with gliders, he mounted a
steam-engine on two models and successfully
launched them with a catapult from a deck
on a houseboat on the Potomac River near Quantico,
Virginia on May 6, 1896. The second of the unmanned models flew at 25
mph more than 5,000 feet. Realizing that a steam engine would be too heavy for a manned version, Langley
secured a $50,000 contract from the War Department to test and develop a
full size Aerodrome capable of carrying a man. In development since 1898,
the plane, now powered by a 25hp internal
combustion engine was ready for
testing by the fall of 1903. In a test
in October the plane had fallen like a
rock into the water after being launched. A second test on December 8
failed just as spectacularly drawing
derision from the press, which had been breathlessly covering with expectations
of success. Discouraged, Langley gave up his experiments. Langley
had failed because his engine was still
too heavy for his air frame and the frame
was too delicate for the unanticipated stress of flight.
The Wrights had
already solved these problems, along
with a major obstacle to manned
flight—how to control the aircraft in
flight—make it turn, rise, and descend. This is where their meticulous scientific approach,
their technical skills as builders and mechanics, and a well
appointed machine shop at their
disposal made all of the difference.
They had observed how birds, particularly soaring birds like gulls, controlled their flight by altering the angle of one wing relative to another allowing them to
bank into a turn into finding a way to make a man-made wing do the same thing. The eventual result was wing warping, by which a system of pulleys and cables were used to twist the trailing edges of
the wings in opposite directions.
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| The Wrights tested and developed their wing warping technique in glider flights. A minor crash with Orvil at the controls and Wilber running to his aid. |
The wing
warping technique was first used by Wilber on a 5 foot box kite built like a
bi-plane in 1899. It was so successful that the brothers went to
Kitty Hawk to test a full size model the next year. The plane had cambered
wings—a curving rather than flat surface
and an elevator to control risings and descending in the front. It
had no tail, as the brothers at this
time did not believe one was necessary for control. For several days they
flew the plane as a kite in the stiff winds. One day they took it to the
sand dunes to be launched as a glider with Wilber as the pilot.
About a dozen flights were made on one day. The glider’s lift was lower than expected and they
did not get enough air time to fully test the wing warping
technology.
A larger glider
tested in 1901 was a disappointment.
Lift was not efficient and the craft
sometimes responded to wing warping
by turning the opposite direction
intended, an effect called adverse yaw.
Discouraged the brother returned home. They determined that the data on wing lift derived from
Lilienthal’s experiments was unreliable.
They built a crude wind tunnel to test various wing configurations and kept meticulous records of the
results. That fall Chanute invited Wilber to address the Western
Society of Engineers about the results of their tests. It was
the first public airing of their work,
but attracted little attention at the time.
Using the
results of more than 200 wind tunnel tests of various airfoil shapes, the brother designed a new glider for 1902
with longer, narrower, and flatter wings. As tests proceeded
a vertical rear rudder was added
which was controlled by the same cable as the wing warping. The rudder stabilized the craft as the wing
warping allowed it to bank into turns.
They achieved true control in turns
for the first time on October 2. They made hundreds of glides of a few
hundred feet each successfully maneuvering with the new control system.
They returned
to Dayton convinced that they were ready to progress to powered flight.
They were also so confident that they applied for a patent on the Flying Machine
on March 23, 1903. Specifically they protected
their system of three-axis control—a
front elevator for pitch, wing warping for roll, and rudder for yaw.
However in a sentence of the patent application that would be important in
future years, they admitted that other techniques than wing warping might be developed for adjusting
the outer portions of a machine's wings to different angles on the right and
left sides to achieve lateral control.
 | |
| The light weight 4 cylinder aluminum block engine built by the Wrights and their machinist Charlie Taylor solved the problem that had doomed Charles Langly's expensive but doomed experiments. |
Having devised
an air frame and control system, the brothers turned to a power source.
Avoiding Langley’s pit fall, the brother knew that they needed a light weight
internal combustion engine. Unable to find one from existing manufacturers, the Wrights decided to build their own engine from scrap in
their shop. They had all of the machine tools necessary and a skilled mechanic, Charlie
Taylor. Their major innovation
was using light weight aluminum for
the block. The 4-cycle vertical 12 hp,
180 lb engine had a gravity feed
for the fuel instead of a carburetor—sort
of a primitive fuel injection system.
The efficient motor was intended to power two push propellers via a chain drive.
The propellers
were another challenge. The brothers discovered that no one had ever done studies on propeller design. After deciding that in an aircraft a
propeller was essentially a rapidly
rotating airfoil. They again turned to extensive wind tunnel tests to
determine the best configuration. Each hand-made blade was eight foot long and made of three laminations of specially dried spruce.
They proved to be amazingly efficient—even
better than the brothers suspected. Modern tests show them to have a peak efficiency of 82% comparing well
to the best performing modern blades
at 85%.
The finished Flyer
had a wingspan of 40.3 feet and weighed 605 lbs. By the Wrights
careful calculations it cost less than
$1,000 to build compared to the government’s $50,000 investment in
Langley’s failure.
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| The famous First Flight photo snapped by John T. Daniels of the near-by Kitty Hawk Life Boat Station. |
Back at Kitty
Hawk in the fall of 1903 and feeling the pressure from Langley’s anticipated
attempts, things at first did not go well. There were weeks of delay caused by propeller shafts broken in testing
which required two trips back to Dayton to supervise machining new parts to exacting
specifications. On December 14 with Wilber at the controls, they
finally attempted a flight, but the engine stalled after just three seconds and
the Flyer was damaged. Finally, they succeeded three days later.
In 1904 using a
new machine, the Flyer II,
the brothers set up an airfield in a
pasture near Dayton to continue their tests. Lighter winds and lower air
density reduced lift and made
flights more difficult. Of the
first two attempts with the local press
in attendance, the first was a failure
and the second was unimpressive.
As what little public interest there was
waned, the brothers adapted to
the new circumstances by extending the
rail along which the Flyer was launched
and using a catapult to give it extra air speed for takeoff. By fall,
using these techniques they were achieving longer and longer flights. On
September 20 Wilber flew the first
complete circle flight. They solved persistent control problems by enlarging
both the elevator and the rudder and moving them farther from the
wings. Soon they were going substantial distances over a ¾ mile course.
On October 5 the Flyer II made the last and longest flight of the year—24.5
miles in 38 minutes.
The Wrights
were now convinced that they had a commercially viable product and began
to transition out of the bicycle
business to concentrate on manufacturing and sale of airplanes.
The problem was selling them. Only sketchy local press coverage described
the progress of 1904 and the Wright’s claims were skeptically received both in
the U.S. and Europe.
The Wright’s business strategy was risky at best, fueled by their fears that their secrets might be revealed and their patents stolen. They abandoned
flying and testing entirely. They sent letters to the U.S.
and European governments offering the Flyer for sale but declining to demonstrate it, or even show a photograph of a plane in flight until a signed contract was in hand. With public skepticism of their achievement mounting, they failed to
attract much, if any interest.
Meanwhile
others were ramping up their own efforts
at flight. The Aéro-Club de France, whose members included many of
the foremost engineers in Europe,
stepped up their support for experimenters. On October 23, 1906 Brazilian
born Alberto Santos-Dumont, already famous as the developer of the dirigible, made public
flights in Paris in his 14-bis bi-plane. Although
the longest flight of the day lasted only 22 second under power and spanned 700
feet and the aircraft was incapable of making controlled turns, the Aéro-Club
certified it as the first powered heavier than air flight.
In Nova
Scotia, Bell formed the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA)
in 1907 to support and sponsor experimentation. Early members included American motorcycle racer Glenn
Curtis, U.S. Army Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, and two University
of Toronto students, Fredrick Baldwin, and John H. D. McCurdy.
They built the Red Wing and on March 12, 1908 made the first
public flight in North America over Keuka Lake in Up State New York. The innovative bi-plane was the first with an enclosed cockpit. Continuing their work the AEA developed the aileron—a hinged control surface attached to the trailing edge of a wing
to control the aircraft in roll.
This dramatic advancement
immediately made wing warping—and the Wright Flyers—obsolete.
Curtis designed
and flew the June Bug, a third AEA plane, incorporating the
aileron. On July 4, 1908, he flew 5,080 feet, to win the Scientific
American Trophy for the first public
flight of more than 1 kilometer and its $2,500 purse. This was considered the first pre-announced public flight in America. Curtis bought the rights to the June Bug
from the AEA and used it as the basis for his Curtis No. 1. When
he went into production, he became a
competitor of the Wrights who had stayed on the sidelines too long.
During their hiatus from flying,
the Wright’s finally received their
patent on the Flyer in 1906 and journeyed to Europe to try to
interest governments there in the machine. In 1908 they finally got contracts from the French and U.S.
governments for the delivery of a Flyer each, pending demonstration
flights. The U.S. contract called for the plane to carry a passenger.
Back in Kitty Hawk, the brothers modified a version of the 1905 Flyer III with side-by-side seats on the lower wing
and upright control levers.
Three years out of practice flying
they had trouble adapting.
Wilber had a near fatal crash on May
14. After ironing out problems, Wilber went to Europe to meet the French,
and Orville went to Washington for a demonstration of his own.
To say that the French were skeptical of Wright is putting it mildly.
By 1908 there were several aviation pioneers taking to French skies.
Wilber began public demonstrations on August 8 near Le Mans. In
several flights that day he demonstrated superiority to anything the French had
in the air conducting challenging figure-8
turns and making flights of impressive
length and altitude. In a single day Wilber swept away doubt.
Overnight he and his machine were celebrities.
At last the Wrights were getting the
attention they deserved.
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| Wilber Wright pilots a demonstration for dignitaries on his succesful 1909 tour of Europe. |
Orville duplicated his brother’s
success for the Army at Ft. Myer in Virginia on September
3. As demonstrations continued, the flights grew longer. By
September 9 he became the first man to
be airborne for more than an hour.
But tragedy struck on September 17
when with Lt. Selfridge aboard a propeller
shattered and the Flyer crashed.
Selfridge was killed, the world’s first aviation fatality, and
Orville grievously injured.
Despite the accident, the Army granted a
year extension on the contract so that Orville could recover and continue
demonstrations in a new aircraft.
After months of recuperation Orville and his sister Kathleen sailed
to Europe to join Wilber’s successful sales trip. The now famous pair
were entertained by royalty and presidents and—more important—sold planes and trained pilots before returning to the U.S. in 1909 to yet more
accolades, including a meeting with President William Howard Taft.
Back home, their Wright’s first
priority was defending their patents. They sued Glenn Curtis and
anyone else who attempted to build, fly,
or market airplanes. The bitter
litigation dragged on for years.
Curtiss went about building a major
aviation company concentrating on engines and sea planes. The Wrights, distracted
by the suits, failed to continue to
make significant improvement in their Fliers, which were
obsolete by 1911. The whole
American aviation industry languished. Soon the French, Germans, and
even the Dutch were leapfrogging
American products.
Wilber, who spearheaded the relentless round of
lawsuits, died of typhus in 1912. In 1914 the Supreme Court
finally ruled in the Wright’s favor in the patent case with Curtis.
Vindicated by the decision, Orville decided to sell the company and retire.
With the World War I, the government demanded that all aviation
manufactures join in the Manufacturers Aircraft Association, to
which member companies paid a blanket
fee for the use of aviation patents. Both the company then known as Wright-Martin
and Curtis received what were essentially
$2 million dollar bribes by the government to join the consortium.
By that time
both faced tough sledding with the Army.
By 1913 11 Army pilots had been killed in crashes. All six Wright Model
C planes were destroyed in fatal
crashes. The Army determined that the pusher type planes built by both the Wrights and Curtis were inherently unstable and announced that
henceforth they would purse on tractor aircraft with the engines in front. Orville had resisted
changing over, fearing the new style
might void his patents.
When America
entered World War I, the domestic
aviation industry was so backward that
no company could be found to produce planes capable of modern combat.
The Army Air Corps had to go to war in planes purchased in Europe from the French and English.
Eventually French designed Spads were produced under license in the States and by war’s end American technology was finally catching up. The Curtis Company, which had adapted more readily, was in better shape.
By 1929 the
companies founded by the former bitter rivals were merged as the Curtis-Wright Corporation, still a major aerospace company.
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| A lonely Orville Wright in his later years. |
Orville had a long, bittersweet retirement. He
became estranged from his sister
because he did not approve of her husband. Never married, he lived alone in a Dayton mansion.
He feuded with the Smithsonian,
which had honored Langley with the instillation
of his Aerodrome and a claim that
it was the first aircraft “capable” of flight. He served on the board
of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), predecessor agency to the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Orville Wright died as the honored elder statesman of aviation on January 30, 1948.
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