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Wright brothers

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First flight, December 17, 1903.

File:Wilburwright.jpg
Wilbur Wright
Orville Wright

The Wright Brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 - January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 - May 30, 1912), are generally credited with the design and construction of the first practical aeroplane, and making the first controllable, powered heavier-than-air flight along with many other aviation milestones. However, their accomplishments have been subject to many counter-claims by some people and nations at their start, and through to the present day.

Early career and research in Dayton, Ohio

The Wright brothers grew up in Dayton, Ohio, where they ran a bicycle repair, design and manufacturing company (the Wright Cycle Company). Drawing on the work of Sir George Cayley and Otto Lilienthal, they extended the technology of flight with the principles of control still used today. They had researched and initially relied upon the aeronautical literature of the day, including Lilienthal's tables; but finding that the Smeaton Coefficient (a variable in the formula for lift and the formula for drag) was wrong, had a wind tunnel built by their employee, Charlie Taylor, to perform practical tests. Their work and projects with bicycles, gears, bicycle motors, and balance (while riding a bicycle), were critical to their success in creating the mechanical airplane.

Flights at Kitty Hawk and Dayton

The Wright Brothers first made gliders, using an intricate system called “wing warping.” If one wing bent one way, it would receive more lift, which would make the plane lift. If they could control how the gliders wings warped, then it would make flying much easier. To allow warping in the first gliders, they had to keep the front and rear posts that hold up the glider unbraced. The warping was then controlled by wire running through the wings, which led to sticks the flyer held, and he could pull one or the other to make it turn left or right.

In 1900 they went to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to continue their aeronautical work, choosing Kitty Hawk (actually Kill Devil Hill) because of its strong and steady winds. They experimented with gliders at Kitty Hawk in 1901 and 1902. On March 23, 1903 they applied for a patent (granted as U.S. patent number 821,393, "Flying-Machine", on May 23, 1906) for the novel technique of controlling lateral movement and turning by "wing warping". In 1903, they built the Wright Flyer, carved propellers and had an engine built by Taylor in their bicycle shop in Dayton. Then on December 17, 1903 Orville Wright took to the air. Orville's controlled flight, of 36 meters (120 feet) in 12 seconds, was recorded in a famous photograph. In the fourth flight of the same day, the only flight made that day which was actually controlled, Wilbur Wright flew 259 meters (852 feet) in 59 seconds [1].

The flights were witnessed by 4 lifesavers and a boy from the village, making it arguably the first public flight. The Wright brothers invited only a few witnesses to their early flights, in order to protect their patent rights.

The Wrights established a flying field at Huffman Prairie, near Dayton, and continued work in 1904, using a catapult take-off system to compensate for the lack of wind in this location. By the end of the year, the Wright brothers had sustained flights of 5 minutes, circling over the prairie, which is now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

In 1904 and 1905, the Wright Brothers conducted over 80 flights from Huffman Prairie in Dayton, Ohio, inviting the press and friends and neighbors. However their achievements were not widely known outside of Ohio. Here they completed the first aerial circle and by October 5, 1905 Wilbur set a record of over 39 minutes in the air and 24 1/2 miles, circling over Huffman Prairie.

The brothers became world famous in 1908 and 1909 when Wilbur toured Europe demonstrating their aeroplane, while Orville demonstrated the flyer to the United States Army at Fort Myer.

On May 14, 1908 the Wright Brothers made the first two-person aircraft flight with Charlie Furnas as a passenger. Thomas Selfridge became the first person killed in a powered airplane on September 17, 1908 when a propeller failure caused the crash of the passenger-carrying plane Orville was piloting during military tests at Fort Myer in Virginia. In late 1908, Madame Hart O. Berg became the first woman to fly when she flew with Wilbur Wright in Le Mans, France.

The Wright brothers brought great attention to flying by Wilbur's flight around the Statue of Liberty in New York in 1909.

Also in 1909, the Wrights won the first US military aviation contract when they built a machine that met the requirements of a two-seater, capable of flights of an hour's duration, at an average of 40 miles per hour. That year the Wrights were also building Wright Flyers in factories in Dayton and in Germany.

The Wrights took over 300 photographs of flights and many other events of those pioneer days of aviation.

Wilbur Wright died from typhoid fever, while Orville Wright died from a heart attack while fixing the doorbell to his home in Oakwood, Ohio.

Earlier and Later Flying Craft

There are many claims of earlier flights made by other flying machines in various categories and qualifications. See: Early flying machines

Lighter then air balloons, dirigibles, airships had been taking people into the sky for much of the 18th century before the Wrights, and several people had been working on heavier then air flying machines as well. Numerous claims before the Wrights aspire to the title of being the first powered, controlled, and self-sustaining flight (or minor variations of this classification). Several claims are actually after the Wrights, and lay claim by discounting the Wrights attempt either on the basis of its authenticity (that its valid enough) on some technical basis of the flyer in relation to the technical details to the title, or sometimes both. (Note that claims earlier then the Wrights are often criticized on similar grounds)

The flights that took place has what is usually considered to be reasonable proof, including photos and multiple eyewitnesses. However, some of the strongest claims can be considered to lie in the design qualities of the craft itself and the spread of those features to other pioneers. The ability of the Wrights to demonstrate the source of, and in many cases explain the features that they combined and developed into the first working airplane (aeroplane), along with the ability to see these same features turn up in later craft is among the most powerful evidence of what they accomplished.

Many earlier attempts featured powerful powerplants or very light powerplants, many had wing designs of some effectiveness, many had the ability to glide (translate forwards speed into lift, and some had control mechanisms. The Wright brothers' patented three-axis system of control, using wing warping (later supplanted by other 3-axis control systems), an effective enough wing design for the craft's weight, a light enough motor with power to maintain for steady flight, a effective system to turn the engine power into thrust (the propeller), and some other features allowed it to be significantly better then any previous manned flying machine. The careful balance between all these areas are seen in any craft capable of sustained flight, and they first happened in the flyer.

Still, controversy in the credit for invention of the airplane has been fuelled by the Wrights' secrecy while their patent were prepared, by the pride of nations, by the number of firsts made possible by the basic invention, and other assorted issues.

Flight issues about whether crafts have been aided by ground effect for there flights, if it has been verified that a craft rose above a height where it could take advantage of even some ground effect can be a source of debate as many counter-claims also did not fly very high.

Another source of attack is that some of the recreations of the Wright Flyer do not fly. The reasons for failures of recreations usually stem from an inability to know exactly the Wright's design and to duplicate the conditions of the flight. Things that even the Wrights do not know about their first Flyer that enabled it to fly are lost to history, such as things like the octane of the fuels used, and the small details of aerodynamics that can have disproportionate impact on planes ability to fly. The Wrights initial troubles with there own recreation (the first was destroyed), the Flyer II, makes the matter even harder. Regardless, some recreations do fly, and the Flyer II's impressive performance and flights largely vindicate the design.

After their Kitty Hawk flights, which used a rail but no mechanical assistance in windy conditions, the Wrights developed a weight-powered catapult to aid initial acceleration) in Ohio. This method of launching has been the source of controversy for some attacks on the Wrights claim. Some consider that a plane incapable of taking off using its own power could not be a true aircraft, but choosing a non-standard definitions does not necessarily exclude the Wrights.

Just as many aircraft do not have enough power to take off in certain conditions, the Flyer's trouble with achieving its take off speed on land to take off was real issue. However, the Flyer did manage to get off the ground under its own power in some instances, and its powered and controlled flights after it was aided in achieving its take-off speed by the catapult largely redeem it. Furthermore, if an aircraft does not have enough peak power to overcome the extra drag from being in contact with the ground some other means must be done to overcome it, which is done in a number of ways. In modern aircraft a landing gear and long runways enable them to build up speed so they can take off. This important advancement would have to wait till Alberto Santos-Dumont and the flight of the 14 Bis to be implemented in aircraft also included the Wright's developments. Catapults do remain in use on aircraft carriers where planes cannot build enough speed to take off, but these still makes use of landing gear.

Once again, most counter-claims to having the 'first plane' often have some truth to them, as many heavier then aircraft became airborne before the Wrights and endlessly more advanced machines came after. But the Wright Flyer stands out as the first practical flying machine(airplane/aeroplane) with a combination of features not present in ones before, and distributed to (or re-invented) by ones that came later, and are present in virtually all viable planes in some form. (primarily effective wings, 3-axis control, a effective system to generate power and turn into thrust, and effective takeoff system).

The Smithsonian Issue

In the early 1900s professor Samuel P. Langley was secretary of the Smithsonian Institute. He had a claim to being "father of flight" as he had for many years worked on gliders and successful powered models, and his assistant C M Manley was actually employed by the US government to construct aircrafts for military use. However his full-sized planes (he called them 'aerodromes') were complete failures as far as flying performance was concerned, yet the Smithsonian proposed a display which would not have made this clear. Orville Wright didn't like anybody else hogging the credit so the Flyer was instead loaned to the London Science Museum and Orville stated it wouldn't be returned until he and his brother were acknowledged as the "Fathers of Powered Flight". The Smithsonian eventually agreed, but the Flyer remained at Kensington in London until 1948. On November 23 1948 the executors of the estate of Orville Wright wrote a contract with the Smithsonian Institute regarding the display of the aircraft and in the contract it stated: "Neither the Smithsonian Institution or its successors, nor any museum or other agency, bureau or facilities administered for the United States of America by the Smithsonian Institution or its successors shall publish or permit to be displayed a statement or label in connection with or in respect of any aircraft model or design of earlier date than the Wright Aeroplane of 1903, claiming in effect that such aircraft was capable of carrying a man under its own power in controlled flight." If this wasn't fulfilled the Flyer would be returned to the heir of the Wright brothers.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

See Paul Laurence Dunbar for the Wrights' contributions to the career of the distinguished African American poet.

Impact on Dayton

See Dayton for city history. The Wrights contributions to the city of Dayton were and remain immeasurable. From their use of local materials, when Requarth Lumber Company wood was used to construct the first Flyer and other airplanes, to the encouragement of local arts and sciences, as with Dunbar, to their financial and political contribution as with the massive Air Force base and museum, the Wright Brothers altered the city's history even more dramatically than that of the world.

See also

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