# Presentation: 478902

## A Wright Brothers  Centennial Celebration

**A** **Wright Brothers**  **Centennial Celebration**

**FAA Northwest Mountain Region Airports Conference****April 8, 2003**

**Mike Lavelle**

**“****Because of the Wright Brothers now we now have airports”**

**Notes:**
 Discuss the outline of the talk and how long it will take
 Discuss this picture and John Daniels
 Not to mention we have airports do to the Wrights

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**Notes:**
 Flight was a very complex problem
 It hadn’t been solved for cemeteries 
 What happen that morning wasn’t luck
 What  was there road to get there
 Did the consider the job done?

##  Why Were They Successful?

-  **Why Were They Successful?**

**How Did They Do It?**

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**How**** ****Did They Do It Differently?**** **

**Notes:**
Four Flight that day
 Orville/Wilbur/Orville/ Wilbur  Wilbur Longest 852 feet last flight
Let father know 
Who were the Wright brothers?
 What made them successful 

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**Wright Family Home**
**7 Hawthorn Street Dayton, Ohio**

**Susan and Milton Wright**
**Married 1859**

**Notes:**
 Father Bishop Milton Wright of the United Brethren in Christ Church
 lived in home from 1871 to 1878 again from 1885 to 1914
 Bought in 1937 by Ford Museum today in the Ford collection Greenfield Village
 Brothers part of five children family
 Susan Catherine mothers name
 Education
 personalities
 Mothers influence
Bishop Milton Wright, was a strict disciplinarian, but he and his wife, Susan, were also warm, loving, protective, and encouraged intellectual interest and constructive activity. Susan, the daughter of a carriage maker, was remarkably mechanically adept, and she taught her children to make all manner of things. 

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Wilbur**
**1867-1912**

**Orville**
**1871-1948**

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**Katherine**
**1874 - 1929**

**Notes:**
Home is now part of the Ford Museum in Greenfield Michigan.
 Wilbur born 1867 on a farm near Millville Ohio Died at the age 45 of typhoid 
 Orville lived to the age of 73
 More than High School drop outs- explain education
 Always mechanically inclined Orville rebuilt a printing press, turned into a weekly neighborhood news paper West Side News.
 Bicycle becoming very popular 1890’s. Wilbur like to race. Orville long rides -go into the business 
 Katherine's Role

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**Bicycle Repairs 1892**

**Wright Custom Bicycles 1895**

**1127 West Third Street Dayton**

**Notes:**
Repair shop initial one of 13 in Dayton at the time
Successful with custom Wright Models
 Period of time became interested in Aeronautics 1896 with reading about Lileinthal and his Aug 1896 accident.
 Ideal for the preparation of aviation

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Notes:**
Reading about Lilienthal the Wrights gained a fair degree of familiarity with aeronautic by the summer of 1896.

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Octave Chaunte **
**1832-1910**

**Well Known Successful Professional Civil      Engineer.**
** ****1875 Determined England and the Continent Engineers though Flight was a Real Possibility.**
** ****1885 began survey of the Literature.**
** ****Promoted Engineering Discipline and Research for Aeronautics.  **

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

## The Wright Brothers And Their Process of Flight

**LANGLEY**

**CHANUTE**

**INFORMATION **
**EXCHANGE**
**1890 TO 1903**

**The Wright Brothers And Their Process of Flight**

**Notes:**
Langley and the Smithsonian  role

## The Wright Brothers And Their Process of Flight

**Langley**

**Langley Aerodrome**

**The Wright Brothers And Their Process of Flight**

**Notes:**
Langley continued

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Notes:**
Wrights’  considered it ideal for their beginning structure First kite modified.

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**What information is needed to solve the problem? **

**Where can the information be found?**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Did not set out to discover the theoricatical principles of flight. **
**Set out to understand the why and how of flight.**
** ****Intuitively used a strict engineering approach  **
** **

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**Notes:**
Their worked focused on the design feature to make an aircraft fly.
Concerned with such things as airfoil size, location of stabilizing surfaces 
Type structure
investigated the lift and drag relationship

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Letter - Wilbur Wright to the Smithsonian Institution May 30 1899**
-                   ***“******I have been interested in the problem of                   mechanical flight ever since a boy”***
***                   “ ******I am about to begin a systematic study                      of the subject in preparations for practical work to which I expect to devote  what time I can spare from my regular business”***
***“******I wish to avail myself of all that  is all ready known”***

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

## They focused on what design would make an aircraft fly

**They focused on what design would make an aircraft fly**
**Airfoil shape**
**Wing Platform**
**Control System**
**Overall Construction **
**Lift and Drag Relationship**

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**Integrated Into the whole Aircraft design**

**Notes:**
No component more important than the other  
 Wright considered the entire aircraft other experimenter made the fundamental error of not doing this 

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**The Main Challenges To Controlled Powered Flight**
** ****A Structure To Support The Lifting Surface**
** ****A Means Of Propulsion **
**  ****A Control System**

**Integrated Into the whole Aircraft design**

##   A control System 

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**The Main Challenges To Controlled Powered Flight**
** ****A Structure To Support The Lifting Surface**
** ****A Means Of  Propulsion **
**  ****A control System**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**1899 Wright Kite - Replica**

**5 Foot Wing Span**
**13 Inch Chord**
**Pine Frame**
**Flown Summer 1899**

**Notes:**
The demand for light weight strong structure was more important in aircraft than in bicycles
 Less then two months after writing to the Smithsonian the Wrights had defined the basic requirements for a heavier-than-air flying machine
 they successful built and flew a small five ft aircraft that had the rudimentary form, the structural design and means of control that lead to their ultimate success in 1903. 
 First flown by Wilbur between July 20 and August 6 1899
 Wrights earliest technology contribution.
 Reject Lilrnthals hang gliding control methods
 Pitch control they read about from other experimenters
 Recognized the importance of lateral control
 Solution both technical and intellectual 

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Wing Warping Concept**

**Wright Characteristic: Conceptual Thinking to actual application.  **

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Wing Warping Control 1899**

**Notes:**
Sketch of 1899 kite built to explore wing warping.
Note removal of the for and aft wire crossbracing which enabled the wings to be warp
 Two English patents in the 19th Century neither developed
 Gallaudet Yale Physics Professor Nov. 12 1898 Friends told him to pursue other areas for the good of his career.

## Roll Control

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**1899 Wright Kite - Replica**

**5 Foot Wing Span**
**13 Inch Chord**
**Pine Frame**
**Flown Summer 1899**
**Roll Control**

**Wright Characteristic:  Application  between Technologies**

**Notes:**
Actually, it wasn't a kite at all but a small glider designed to test a revolutionary new method of controlling an airplane. Early in the summer of 1899, Wilbur Wright had discovered that he could twist or "warp" the wings of a biplane by drawing the "corners" (where the struts joined the wings) together with cables. When the wings twisted, the angles of attack (the angles at which the wings meet the wind)  changed -- one end of each wing would be angled up, producing more lift, while the opposite ends were angled down, producing less. This would cause the biplane to roll

Wilbur built a small glider with a 5- or 6-foot wingspan, patterned after the "double-decker" glider which Octave Chanute first tested in 1896. Wilbur, however, eliminated the fore and aft bracing wires and attached the wings to the struts with "wire hinges" -- cotter pins looped through one another. This allowed the wings and struts to move back and forth. He attached control lines to the four front corners of the model, allowing him to twist the wings from the ground. When he flew the kite in late July of 1899, it behaved precisely as he hoped -- he could roll it right or left with a small movement of his wrists. Thus encouraged, he and Orville planned their first man-carrying glider.

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

_**Testing Area Requirements**_
-  **Sandy Area**
**Slopes Free of Trees**
** ****Adequate Winds**
** ****Reasonable Weather in the Fall/Winter months**
** **

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**1900 Kitty Hawk Camp**

**Notes:**
September 1900 1901-1903 Camp site four miles South Kill Devil Hills
Dayton to Elizabeth City train then flat bottom fishing boat across Albemarle Sound Israel Perry
Wilbur stayed with the Tates
Orville brought cooking stove first Gasoline on the Outerbanks 

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**1900 Machine**

**Wing Span 17.5 Feet**
**Wing Camber 1/20**
**Wing Area 165 Square Feet**
**Weight 52 Pounds**
**Cost $15**

**Notes:**
Their first man-carrying glider, which they tested at Kitty Hawk in 1900, had a wingspan of 17 feet. It would have been 19, but Wilbur could not find the lengths of lumber he needed in North Carolina lumberyards to make long spars. It had aerodynamic controls for two axes  a forward elevator to control pitch and a unique system of cables that warped the wings to roll the aircraft. The 1900 glider had responded well to its controls, but it did not produce enough lift to support a 150-pound pilot unless flown in a relative wind of 26 miles per hour  a speed that the Wright brothers considered much too fast to be safe.
 Original design using Lilienthal data enough lift for a pilot with an 18MPH wind.
 Wilbur couldn’t find Spruce long enough for the spars had to settle on white pine 2 feet shorter. Wing Area 165 instead of designed 200
 Cloth French Sateen
 Truss mechanism 15 Gauge Steel 
 This reduced wing area now needed 21 MPH wind.
 Purpose to gain experience and data.
 2 minute flying time
 Validated wing warping

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Wind Damage October 1900**

**Notes:**
Wrecked by the wind took three days to repair
Before return to Dayton took Glider to a sand dune 100 feet high to make additional flights  Kill Devil Hills.
Made about a dozen flights
Like hoe the glider behaved
Pleased with the results of wing wrapping
 Not a lot of air time to practice
Knew had to make improvements, Wind design, control in flight and power

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**1901 Kitty Hawk Camp**

**Notes:**
 Left Dayton 7 July 1901
Brought parts to assemble larger Glider
 Built  a lager shed for new Glider 25’ by 12’ feet Hinged from the front and back
 What do you do when your machine is only producing 30% lift you calculated? 
 Wing Area Increased to 290
 Increased wing camber 1 to 12
 Wing Span 22 feet
 AR same as 1900  About 3.4 
 Camp Visitors
Chaunte
 Spratt
 Huffaker with ties to Langley

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Orville Standing by up ended 1901 Glider**

**Notes:**
98 pounds
 Lifting area 290 SQ. Ft.
 Increased camber from 1 to 22 to 1 to 12
 Chaunte and Lilienthal data used 

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**Notes:**
Wing Wrapping Mechanism 
Largest machine to data 

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

* *_**1901 Wright Glider replica**_
** ****built by **
**Nick Engler**
** ****Louis Chmiel **
**Mary Jane Favorite**
**Joe McDaniels**

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**1901 Wright Glider**

**Notes:**
Control in front for safety
Display of Wing Wrapping

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**1901 Glider Flown  As A Kite**

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**Rope**

**Drag**

**Lift**

**Notes:**
Measure Lift

The 1901 glider was the largest glider ever built. Its puzzling performance (based on their expectations from the previous year) led to many kite tests, the results of which led the Wrights to question the theoretical basis for their work to that point (O. Wright, pp. 17-18). Throughout the tests of 1899-1901, the practice of "kiting" the machine allowed the Wrights to make controlled, carefully monitored experiments, which produced reliable, accurate data. These tests are the direct predecessors of the groundbreaking wind tunnel tests of 1901-1902. 
 Began testing 27 July  
 17 Flights in 13 MPH wind
 Wing Area 290 sq..ft.
 Weight 240 lbs..
 Wing Span 22 feet
 AR3.3

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Notes:**
Didn’t perform as well as excepted.  Worst than the performance than the 1900 machine.

Wrights’  approach to the problem
 Had been using the best aviavibile
 Something was wrong with their own data
 start from stretch  
 Camp Visitors
Chanute
Spratt
Huffaker

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Wilbur Flying 1901 Glider**

**Notes:**
Machine almost uncontrollable in pitch
 CP was a foot off form where they thought it should be
 Poorer control
 Needed large pitch control inputs
1901 Flight Summary
 Held stationary performed less than Lilienthal data
 L/D less than excepted
 between 5 to 12 degrees angle of attack 
 Larger surface machine can be controlled   

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

_**End of 1901 Flying Season**_
** ****Discouraged**
** ****Correspondence with Chanute**
** ****Chanute provides encouragement**
** ****Wilbur gives presentation to the society of Western Engineers on their progress to date.**

**Notes:**
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"	I am sending you herewith photo and description of our pressure testing machine... Our greatest trouble was in obtaining a perfectly straight current of wind, but finally by using a wind straightened, and changing the resistance plane to a position where its ill influence was much reduced and also by breaking it up into a number a narrow vertical surfaces instead of a single square. The instrument itself was mounted in a long square tube or trough having a glass cover. After we began to make our record measurements we allowed no large object in the room to be moved, and no one except the observer was allowed to come near the apparatus, and he occupied exactly the same position beside the trough at each observation. We had found by previous experience that these precautions were necessary, as very little is required to deflect a current a tenth of a degree, which was enough to seriously affect the results." 2 	
The Wrights tested over 150 airfoils of varying shape, camber and aspect ratio. Beyond proving Lillenthals' table to be in error, they also found new, more efficient wing designs. Finally they studied the problem of the skidding during wing-warping. 
"	

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**1902 Wrights’ Bicycle Test Rig **

**Notes:**
Rudimentary device used to measure lift. The horizontal wheel had two surface. One flat plate for reference and one cross section airfoil. As you pedal on the bicycle the cross section airfoil would generate lift spinning the wheel overcoming resistance of the flat plate.
In studying our troubles relating to lateral balance, we reasoned that possibly the trouble might be due to the fact that the wing to which an increased angle of incidence had been imparted would receive not only an increased lift, but also an increased backward pressure or resistance and that this might so decrease the speed of the wing, as compared to the opposite wing, that its lift would be reduced sufficiently from this cause to wipe out the increase in lift, due to its greater incidence... We reasoned that if the speeds of the left and right wings could be controlled, the advantage of the increased angle of incidence of one wing and decreased angle of the other could be utilized as we had originally intended... We decided to use the surface at the rear... and, for the sake of simplicity, we decided to use a fixed vertical vane, as we reasoned that if the machine attempted to turn on a vertical axis, the vane at the rear would be exposed more and more to the wind and would stop further turning of the machine..." 1 	
By the time the Wrights began to design their next glider all the disappointment of the previous season had disappeared. They now felt that not only would man fly within their lifetime but they would probably be the first. 

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Wright Brothers 1901 Wind Tunnel**

**Notes:**
The Wrights were the first to verify laboratory results with actual flight tests. If they had never done anything beyond compiling and verifying their lift and drag tables, we would still remember the Wright brothers for their substantive contribution to the development of aviation.
The wind tunnel also marked an important change in the intellectual posture of the Wright brothers. Prior to September 1901, they were more enthusiasts than scientists.
They were the first aeronautical investigators ever to measure the performance of their aircraft in actual flight and compare the results with laboratory data -- in this case, Lilienthal's data. Their quandary was that the flight performance did not match the data and they had absolutely no idea how to explain this discrepancy except a hunch that Lilienthal's tables were wrong.
Wind Specs.
 6 foot in length
 30 MPH Flow
 1HP Gas Engine
 Second Floor Bike Shop 

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**Wind Tunnel Balance Mechanism  to Measure Lift and Drag of Airfoils**

**Notes:**
This small wind tunnel balance allowed the Wrights to measure lift and drag of various experimenter airfoils 
invited by Octave Chanute to speak to the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago, Wilbur began to review all of their progress with the first 2 gliders. The more he looked at the data the more he suspected that the poor lift of the machines may be due to errors in the Smeaton coefficient and Lillenthal tables. For a time we were led to suspect that the lift of the curved surfaces little exceeded that of planes of the same size, but further investigation and experiment led to the opinion that... the well-known Smeaton coefficient of 0.005V2 for the wind pressure at 90 degrees is probably too great by at least 20 per cent; ...that Lilienthal's estimate that the pressure on a curved surface having an angle of incidence of 3 degrees equals 0.545 of the pressure at 90 degrees is too large, being nearly 50 per cent greater than very recent experiments of our own with a special pressure testing machine indicate"	
The brothers finally settled on a value of 0.0033 for the coefficient of air pressure. Corroboration of the Lillenthal tables, however, required experimental data, so Orville and Wilbur built a wind tunnel in the back of their bicycle shop. 

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**1902 Kitty Hawk Life Saving Station and Crew**

**Notes:**
By this time the Wrights were well known and were also assisted by the folks from the Kitty Hawk area.
Additional Wind Tunnel Notes
 Wind Tunnel Program mid-October to Dec. 7 1901
 Tested over 200 airfoils tabulated data for 48
 Balance device  measured Lift coff. Directly
 Device for Drag 
 Also address AR of a wing for the desired L/D

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

**Camp Kitchen 1902**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**1902 Glider Flown As A Kite**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Wilbur Making Gliding Flight 1902**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Wilbur Gliding 1902**

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Orville Making Gliding Turn 1902**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Wilbur Doing The Same 1902**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

_**1903 Wright Engine Spec.**_

**Bore** - 4 inches**Stroke** - 4 inches**Displacement** - 201 cubic inches**Compression ratio** - 4.7:1**Horsepower** - 12.5 hp**Cooling** - Liquid**Lubrication** - Splash system**Dry weight** - 180 pounds

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

## The Wright Brothers And Their Process of Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Their Process of Flight**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

_**Wright 1903 Aircraft**_
-  **Wing Span 40 Ft.4in.**
** ****Cord 6Ft.6.5in.**
**Wing Area 510 Sq. Ft. **
** ****Wing Droop 10 degrees **
**Length 21 Ft. .75 in.**
** ****Empty Weight 605 lbs.**
** ****Engine Output 12.5 H.P.**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**1903 Camp**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**1903 Camp**

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Engine Installation**

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

## The Wright Brothers And Their Process of Flight

**Manly and Langley**

**Langley Aerodrome  8 Dec. 1903**

**The Wright Brothers And Their Process of Flight**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Wilbur Damaged Machine 14 Dec. 1903**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**17 December 1903, Kitty Hawk North Carolina**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**17 December, 1903  Four successful Flights **
** ****Longest 852 Feet in 59 Seconds. Home for Christmas**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**The 1904 "Huffman Prairie" Flyer **

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**1908 Fort Meyer Flight Trials**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**Collage Park Maryland**

## The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight

**1867-1912**

**1875-1948**

**The Wright Brothers And Controlled Powered Flight**

##  Pioneer Aircraft -Early Aviation before 1914             Philip Jarett

** **_**The Airplane A History of Its Technology**_**         John D. Anderson **
_**Visions of a Flying Machine**_**                                    Peter L. Jakab**
**  ****The Wright Brothers and the Process  of Invention      **
**                                                                                        **
** **_**The Bishop’s Boys The Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright**_** **
**                                                                                         ****Tom Crouch**
** **_**Miracle At Kitty Hawk The Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright**_
**                                                                                          ****Fred C. Kelly**
** **_**The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright  Volumes 1 and 2**_
**                                                                             ****Marvin W. McFarland**

**References**