IN THE USA. Of course, there are still disputes about the palm between them, Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Russian inventor Alexander Mikhailovich Mozhaisky. And yet, the majority of votes are given precisely for the Wright brothers.
It is they who are credited with the first flight on an airplane that already had an engine. What is the first flight of the Wright brothers and in what year was it carried out? And who are these Wright brothers and their plane - what was it? All these questions you will get answers in this article. To do this, you will need to delve a little into the history of the aircraft industry.
Wilbur Wright came up with the idea to create an aircraft capable of staying well in the air and at the same time well controlled. back in 1899-1900. Based on the experience of others, they identified several key problems from the very beginning that would help create something new:
- method of practical management;
- lifting force;
- engines.
Watching the birds fly, the brothers saw that the bird leans to the side when it wants to turn. Thus, it was developed wing warping method.
In their early experiments and developments, they sought to ensure complete control over the airframe. They first experimented with a biplane kite. by trying certain ideas on it. Then they moved on to the creation of gliders. Work continued from 1900 to 1903, with varied success.
Wright brothers.
All experiments were performed by Willbur. It was he who directly controlled the glider. They tested the wing warping system. The pilot also had to lie on the lower wing, which solved the problem with aerodynamic drag.
True, not all problems have been solved. The glider was losing speed. But the effect of the parachute helped the pilot to land safely.
They began to produce wind tunnel experiments. This was necessary for the correct calculation of the lifting force. Thanks to this, it was discovery of the effectiveness of longer and narrower wings. In terms of aerodynamic performance, they were better than the wide ones.
The brothers developed a new glider, already relying on past experiences. He already had a vertical, hard rudder that helped him stay on course. Also, a more perfect wing shape made it possible to perform more.
They opened and the appointment of a vertical rudder. He helped to level the glider during rolls and gusts of wind.
October 8, 1902 they managed to achieve complete control over the glider. So was born and three-axis aircraft control system. This led them to the idea of creating an air vehicle with an engine.
Creation of a device with an engine
By 1903 they started developing a new model. It was made of a favorite material - spruce, as this type of wood is light, but at the same time strong. The propellers were also made from it. As for the engine, it was made in the brothers' bicycle shop.
The propeller was made from three pieces of spruce glued together. Its efficiency was as much as 66%. Modern studies have shown that it was even 85%.
They themselves could not find a suitable company where they could design the desired engine. So they turned to the mechanic who works in their shop, Charlie Taylor. Many of its parts were made of aluminum in order to reduce the weight of the engine, and the chain was made in a facility that specializes in heavy-duty machine chains. Of course, by modern standards, it was primitive. But given that the brothers relied only on their experience, at that time it was revolutionary.
Its wingspan was 12 m and weighed 283 kg. The engine had a power of 9 watts, weighing 77 kg.
The Wright brothers' first plane of 1903 was named Flyer 1.
Aircraft testing
First time soared into the air December 14, 1903. However, he collapsed almost immediately. Willbur wrote that the reason was a lack of experience and a small mistake. Flights that were made a little later - three days later - became successful.
Flyer layout 1.
The aircraft was able to overcome 36.5 m in 12 s. It is he who appears in the photo of the plane of the Wright brothers. The following times were even more successful - the plane was able to fly 52 and 60 meters, over 3 meters above the ground.
5 people watched over the flights, so they are also considered public.
After the tests, the brothers no longer used it. They took him home. Later, it was transferred to the British Museum. From there he was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution.
Childhood
Wilbur Wright, circa 1877
The Wright brothers were two of seven children born to Milton Wright (1828-1917) and Susan Katherine Coerner (1831-1889). Wilber Wright was born near Millville, Indiana in 1867; Orville in Dayton, Ohio in 1871. The brothers never married. Other Wright siblings were Reuchlin (1861-1920), Lauryn (1862-1939), Katrina (1874-1929), and twins Otis and Ida (1870, died in infancy). In elementary school, Orville committed a misdemeanor for which he was expelled from it. In 1878 their father, who was an evangelical bishop (en:Church of the United Brethren in Christ) and traveled widely, bought a "helicopter" toy for his younger children. The toy's device was based on an invention by French aviation pioneer Alphonse Penot. Made of paper, bamboo, and cork with a rubber band that turned a motor, it was only about a foot (30 cm) long. Wilber and Orville played with it until it broke and then built their own. In later years, they said that their games with this toy ignited a spark of interest in flying.
Early career and early experiences
The house where the Wright brothers lived at 7 Hawthorne Street in Dayton around 1900. Wilbur and Orville built the circular porch in the 1890s.
Both brothers attended high school but did not receive their diplomas. The family's unexpected move in 1884 from Richmond to Dayton (where the family lived in the 1870s) prevented Wilber from graduating after four years of high school.
During the winter of 1885-86, Wilber accidentally injured his face while playing hockey with friends, which resulted in the loss of his front teeth. Up to this point, he had been an energetic and athletic youth, and although his injury did not seem particularly serious, he became withdrawn, in addition, he did not go to Yale University, as he had previously planned. If he had gone to university, his career might have been completely different, but fate turned out to be that he began to work with Orville. Instead of university, he spent the next few years mostly at home, taking care of his mother, who by this time was terminally ill with tuberculosis, and reading books in his father's library. He helped his father during the internal conflict in his church, but he did not have his own ambitions.
Orville left high school after finishing his freshman year in 1889 to start a publishing business, designing and building his own printing press with help from Wilbur. Wilber's accident-induced depression subsided and he moved into the business with his brother as editor, while Orville was publisher of the weekly West Side News, which followed the daily Evening Events. Taking advantage of the bicycle boom, the brothers opened a bicycle repair shop and shop in 1892 (it was called Wright Cycle Exchange, later - Wright Cycle Company), and then began manufacturing bicycles under their own brand in 1896. The brothers used the money they earned from their business to fund their aeronautical experiments. In the early or mid-1890s, newspaper or magazine articles, and probably photographs of Otto Lilienthal's gliders, fell into the hands of the brothers. In 1896, three important events took place in world aviation. In May, Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley successfully launched a steam-powered drone. During the summer, Chicago engineer and renowned aviator Octave Chanute hired several young men to test different types of gliders over the sand dunes along the shores of Lake Michigan. In August, Otto Lilienthal died in the crash of his glider. These events made a great impression on the brothers. In May 1899, Wilber wrote a letter to the Smithsonian Institution requesting information and publications on aviation and receiving several pamphlets and a list of recommended readings. Fascinated by the work of Sir George Cayley, Octave Chanute, Otto Lilienthal, Leonardo da Vinci and Samuel Langley, they began their first experiments in the same year.
The Wright brothers have always appeared to society in a unified way, jointly owning the rights to their inventions. However, biographers note that Wilber was initiating aviation projects, writing about "his" car and "his" plans before Orville began to take a serious part in his brother's projects; only after that the words "we" and "our" appear. Author James Tobin argues that “it is impossible to imagine Orville more flamboyant than he was, representing the driving force that started their work and supported it from the back room of an Ohio store to meetings with oligarchs, presidents and kings. Will did it. He was a leader, from start to finish."
Idea about management
Despite the tragic fate of Otto Lilienthal, the Wright brothers adopted his strategy: gliding flight experiments that tested flight control systems before the first powered flight. The death of British aviator Percy Pilcher in a glider crash in 1899 only reinforced their belief that a sound method of practical control was the key to successful and safe flight. At the beginning of their experiments, they identified control as the unsolved third part of the "flight problem". They believed that sufficient knowledge and experience had already been accumulated to solve the other two problems - lift and engines. The Wright brothers were thus in stark contrast to the more experienced aviators of their day, especially Ader, Maxim and Langley, who built powerful engines, attached them to aircraft bodies equipped with unproven controls, and attempted to get airborne without prior flight testing. While agreeing with Otto Lilienthal's idea of a research strategy, the Wright brothers found that his method of balance and control by shifting the pilot's body weight was disastrously unreliable. They were determined to find the best solution.
1899 Wright brothers kite: front and side views, controls visible. The skew of the wing is visible in the lower figure. (drawing by the Wright brothers at the Library of Congress)
Based on observations, Wilber concluded that birds change the angle of their wing tips to make their body turn to the right or left. The brothers decided that it would also be a good way for the flying machine to turn - to "roll" or "tilt" in the direction of the turn, just like birds do - and just like cyclists: this was an experience the brothers were familiar with. . In addition, it is very important how they calculated that this method would allow balance to be restored if the side wind tilted the aircraft to one side (lateral balance). They puzzled for a long time how to achieve the same effect with artificial wings and eventually invented a method - wing warping.
Other aviation pioneers believed that flying was no different in terms of control from moving on the surface of the earth, other than the fact that the vehicle was above the surface of the earth. They imagined that flight control was possible with a steering wheel like a ship's, as if the aircraft was always in the air at the same height, like a train, car or ship on the earth's surface. The idea of slowly tilting or rotating from one side to the other was seen as undesirable or not considered at all. Some of these other experimenters, including Langley and Chanute, sought an elusive ideal of "inherent stability", believing that an aircraft pilot would not be able to respond quickly enough to gusts of wind to actually apply mechanical flight control. The Wright brothers wanted the pilot to have absolute control over his craft. For this reason, in their early designs, there is no striving for the stability of the structure itself (like a positive angle wing). They deliberately developed them in 1903, first using negative angle wings, which are inherently unstable but less susceptible to capsizing by gusty side winds.
Flying
Before flights
In July 1899, Wilber tested wing warping by building and flying a 1.5-meter kite shaped like a biplane. As a result of skew or warping of the wings, one side of the wing receives more lift and rises, starting to turn towards the lower end. The skew was carried out by four cables attached to a kite. The cables were attached to two sticks held by the person launching the kite and who pulled them in opposite directions so that the wings turned and the kite turned right or left respectively.
In 1900 the brothers came to the Kitty Hawk Valley, North Carolina, to begin their experiments with gliders. They chose the site on the advice of Octave Chanute (in response to a letter from Wilber), who suggested a sandy coastline with regular winds and a soft landing surface. They selected Kitty Hawk after a thorough study of meteorological data from the National Weather Service, Letter to the Weather Service. This location, though remote, was closer to Dayton than Chanute's other suggested locations, which included California and Florida. The remoteness of the place also gave them the opportunity to avoid the interest of reporters, who in 1896 described Chanute's experiments on Lake Michigan as something of a circus show. It was necessary to travel by train from Dayton to Cincinnati; change to an overnight train at Old Point Comfort, Virginia (near Newport News); then by ferry to Norfolk; by train to Elizabeth City, North Carolina; and by sea at Kitty Hawk, located on the so-called Outer Banks in North Carolina.
Gliders
Main article: Glider Wright
The design of the Wright brothers' first full-size glider was based on the work of their predecessors: the Chanute-Herring biplane glider, which made successful flights in 1896 near Chicago; lift data published by Lilienthal. The struts between the wings of their glider were surrounded by cables in their own modification of Chanute's Pratt Truss, a bridge-like design that was used in the 1896 glider. The Wright brothers installed a horizontal elevator in front of the wings instead of behind them, this feature was done in order to avoid falling and crashing similar to that which killed Lilienthal. (Later, when Santos-Dumont flew his 14 bis in Paris in , the French called this arrangement of the horizontal stabilizer " duck"Because of the similarity with a duck in flight.) According to some biographers of Wright, Wilber probably made all the flights before, perhaps this is due to his charisma and the desire to protect his younger brother from risk.
* (This wing created a nose roll problem; the Wright brothers changed the bow on the spot.)
1900 glider
Glider 1900. There are no photos with the pilot.
The brothers only flew gliders for a few days in the early fall of 1900 at Kitty Hawk. On the first test, probably on October 3, Wilbur was the pilot, while the glider flew like a kite low above the ground, constantly held by cables. Most of the testing of the glider was without a pilot, using sandbags, chains, and even a local boy as ballast. Control was tested using a warped wing with control from the ground. Wilber (but not Orville) made about a dozen free flights, all on the same day. For these tests, the brothers moved 6 kilometers south to the Kill Devil Hills, a group of sand dunes up to 30 m high (where they camped for the next three years). Although the glider's lift was less than expected (which was the reason most of the testing was unmanned), the brothers were satisfied as the elevator worked well and no crashes occurred. However, a small number of flights could not give the opportunity to truly experience wing warping.
The pilot had to lie on the lower wing, which made it possible to reduce aerodynamic drag. They made all their flights in this position in the next five years.
1901 glider
Orville in Kitty Hawk with a 1901 glider, nose up; he didn't have a tail.
Hoping to increase lift, they built a glider of 1901 with a much larger wing area and made 50 to 100 flights in July and August at distances from 6 to 118 m. The glider lost speed several times, but the effect of the parachute from the elevator allowed Wilber to make safe landings, instead of falling. These incidents led the Wright brothers to turn to the canard pattern, which they used until 1910. The glider, however, left two big problems unresolved. Firstly, he was able to provide only approximately one third of the calculated lift, and secondly, he could not always properly respond to the skew of the wing, turning in the opposite direction - this was caused by an anomalous movement of the center of pressure of a strongly curved wing profile at low angles of attack.
The weak lift acting on gliders led Wright to question the accuracy of Lilienthal's data, as well as the "Smeaton coefficient" for air pressure, which had been used for over 100 years and was part of the accepted equation for lift.
The calculation formula used by the Wright brothers (and earlier Lilienthal) made it possible to calculate lift for wings of various shapes. Based on data obtained from flying kites and gliders, Wilber determined (and this was confirmed by subsequent tests) that the Smeaton number is about 0.0033, and not 0.0054, as was generally accepted and which led to an error in the calculations.
Returning home, the brothers installed a miniature Lilienthal fender and a counter-plate on the bicycle's third, horizontal, freewheeling bicycle wheel in front of the handlebars. The results, based on the turn time of the third wheel, confirmed their suspicions regarding the calculation of the lift force, but were not reliable enough and required improvement of the instrument. The Wright brothers also concluded that empirical studies with varying wing shapes on full-size gliders were too expensive and time-consuming. Putting aside their bicycle with a third wheel, they created a wind tunnel and began systematic testing on miniature wings from October to December 1901. The “weights” they invented to hold the wings in the tunnel were made from bicycle spokes and scrap metal and looked very unaesthetic, but were just as important to the ultimate success as their gliders. The Wright brothers' device for measuring lift made it possible to calculate the coefficients for each type of wing. They could also observe the operation of the wings through the glass at the top of the wind tunnel.
1902 glider
Big improvement
On the left is a 1901 glider flown by Wilbur (left) and Orville. On the right is a 1902 glider flown by Wilbur (right) and Dan Tate, assistant.
Improvements are visible in comparison. The glider of 1901 flies with a steep angle of attack due to low lift and high drag. The glider of 1902 flies at a flat angle and is held on cables almost horizontally, which demonstrates a much better aerodynamic quality of the aircraft.
Lilienthal only made tests of the "rotating arm" on wings of a few shapes, and Wright erroneously assumed that his calculations were correct for their wings, which had a different shape. The Wright brothers took a huge step forward and performed major wind tunnel tests on 200 wings of various shapes and profiles, followed by extensive testing of 38 of them. The tests, according to their biographer Howard, "were the most important and successful aeronautical experiments ever conducted in such a short time with so few materials and on such a modest budget." The key discovery was the efficiency of longer and narrower wings: they had better lift-to-drag ratio. These shapes provided much better lift-to-drag ratio than the wider wings the brothers had previously used.
With new knowledge and a more accurate calculation of the Smeaton number, the Wrights designed their 1902 glider. With wind tunnel test data, they flattened the airfoil, reducing wing camber. The wings of the 1901 glider had a much larger camber, a very unfortunate feature of Wright's apparatus that was copied directly from Lilienthal's drawings. With the new wind tunnel test results, Wright abandoned the use of Lilienthal's data, now using only their own calculations in their projects.
As before, the Wright brothers' 1902 glider made its first flights as an unmanned kite. Working with the wind tunnel proved to be very useful: the lift force of the glider corresponded to the calculated one. The new airframe also had a new feature: a rigid vertical rudder, which was supposed to eliminate a number of problems that had arisen earlier.
By 1902, the brothers realized that wing warping resulted in different wingtip drag. The large lift force at one end of the wing also led to an increase in drag, which prevented the vehicle from turning towards the lowered wingtip. This is how the tailless glider of 1901 behaved.
The improved wing shape allowed for longer flights, and the rear rudder prevented unwanted yaw so effectively that it created a new problem. Sometimes, when the pilot tried to level the craft after a turn, the glider would not respond to corrective wing warping and would continue to turn. The glider glided towards the lower wingtip, which resulted in a yaw descent. Wright called this phenomenon "good digging"; modern aviators refer to it as a "sharp turn to the ground".
Orville could not help but see that a rigidly fixed rudder created resistance to the effect of corrective wing warping when attempting to level the airframe after a turn. He wrote in his diary on the night of October 2: "I studied the new vertical rudder." The brothers then decided to make the rear handlebar movable to solve this problem. They hinged the rudder and connected it to the wing warp mechanism, whereby in one motion the pilot controlled both rudder deflection and wing warping at the same time. Tests have shown that the movable rudder should deviate in the opposite direction from the wing that has more drag (and lift) when the wing is warped. The counterforce generated by the turned wing allowed the wing's corrective warping to reliably recover from a turn or wind swell. In addition, when the glider banked, the rudder pressure overcame the effect of the difference in drag and the nose of the craft aligned in the direction of the turn, eliminating adverse yaw.
Thus, the Wright brothers discovered the true purpose of the movable vertical rudder. Its role was not to change the direction of flight, but rather to level the craft during bank turns and to level out in the event of a roll and gusts of wind. In fact, turn - a change in direction - was made using the control of horizontal rotation by skew of the wing. The principles remained the same when wing warping was replaced by ailerons.
With the help of a new method of control, the Wrights achieved true control of their apparatus for the first time, this happened on October 8 and became the most important invention in the history of aviation. In September and October, they made 700 to 1,000 flights, the longest of which lasted 26 seconds, and its range was 190 m. Hundreds of well-controlled flights after installation convinced the brothers to start building a flying machine heavier than air with an engine.
Thus, the Wright brothers were able to control the glider along three axes: wing warp - roll (longitudinal axis), nose elevator - pitch (transverse axis) and tail rudder - yaw (vertical axis). On March 23, the Wright brothers applied for their famous "flying machine" patent based on the flights of their successful 1902 glider. Some aviation historians believe that the creation of a three-axis flight control system on a glider of 1902 was as important, and perhaps even more significant, than the installation of engines on the 1903 Flyer. Peter Jakab of the Smithsonian believes that the 1902 glider improvement is essentially the invention of the airplane.
with motor
In 1903, the Wright brothers built an engine-powered Flyer-1, the material of which was the usual construction material for Wright devices - spruce, a strong and light tree. They also designed and manufactured wooden propellers as well as a gasoline engine made in their bike shop. They thought the propeller model would be a simple matter and planned to use ship propeller calculations. However, their library research did not lead to finding any basic formulas for marine or air propellers, and they found themselves without a starting point in this matter. They discussed and argued about this for a long time until they came to the conclusion that the propeller is essentially the same wing, only rotating in a vertical plane. On this basis, they used data from more wind tunnel tests to design propellers. In the final version, the propeller diameter was 2.6 m, the blades were made of three pieces of spruce glued together. The Wright brothers chose a twin "push" propeller (counter-rotating to dampen torque), which would have to act on a larger volume of air than a single, relatively slow propeller, and would not affect the air flow over the leading edge of the wings.
Wilber made an entry in his notebook in March 1903 that the prototype propeller was 66% efficient. Modern tests in a wind tunnel of propellers of the 1903 model showed that they had an efficiency of more than 75% in the conditions of the first flights, and in fact had a maximum efficiency of 82%. This is a very big achievement, considering that modern wooden propellers have a maximum efficiency of 85%.
The early engines used by the Wright brothers are believed to have disappeared to this day, a later example, serial number 17 of 1910, is on display at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.
The Wright brothers wrote to several engine manufacturers, but none were able to meet their aircraft engine weight requirements. They turned to their shop mechanic, Charlie Taylor, who built the engine in six weeks in constant consultation with the brothers. To keep the weight of the engine low enough, its main parts were made of aluminium, which was rare at the time. The Wright-Taylor engine was a primitive version of modern injection systems, it had neither a carburetor nor a fuel pump. Gasoline flowed under its own weight into the crankcase through a rubber tube from a fuel tank mounted on a wing strut.
The flights were witnessed by five people: Adam Etheridge, John Daniels and Will Doug from the shore rescue team; area businessman W. S. Brinkley; and Johnny Moore, a country boy, making these flights the first public flights. The telegraph operator carrying the telegram to their father became the source of a leak against the brothers' wishes, and highly inaccurate reports appeared in several newspapers the next day.
After the men towed the Flyer back after its fourth voyage, a powerful gust of wind overturned it several times, despite attempts to prevent it. Badly damaged, the aircraft was no longer airborne. The brothers sent it home, and Orville restored it years later, giving it to display in the US and then to the British Museum (see the Smithsonian dispute below), until it was finally installed in Washington DC in 1948.
Subsequent planes of the Wright brothers
The Wright brothers certainly took steps to ensure that attention to their flights was minimal. Fearing that competitors would take advantage of their ideas, and still without a patent, they flew only once after October 5th. Since that time, they refused to fly until the conclusion of a binding contract for the sale of the aircraft. They wrote to the US government, and then to the UK, France and Germany with a proposal to sell the flying car, but refused demonstration flights, insisting on the preliminary signing of the contract. They didn't even want to show pictures of their Flyer. The US military, which spent $50,000 on Langley Airfield, the cutting-edge aircraft of its time, only to see it crash twice into the Potomac, was especially unresponsive to pleas from two unknown Ohio bicycle manufacturers. Thus, unrecognized and persecuted, the Wright brothers continued their work in complete obscurity, while other aviation pioneers such as the Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont and the American Glenn Curtiss were in the spotlight.
The Wright brothers did not fly in 1906 and negotiated with the American and European governments during this period. After finally signing contracts with the French company and the US Army, they returned to Kitty Hawk in May with the 1905 Flyer, which had redesigned pilot and passenger seats, and began to prepare for important exhibition flights for their contracts. Under the contracts, the aircraft had to be capable of carrying a passenger. Following preliminary tests in which sandbags were placed in the passenger seat, Charlie Furnas, an assistant from Dayton, became the first passenger of the aircraft, participating in several short flights on May 14. For safety reasons and because of a promise made to their father, Wilber and Orville never flew together. Later that day, after a solo seven-minute flight, Wilber experienced his worst crash when, still not well versed with the two vertical control sticks, he apparently turned one of them the wrong way and dropped the Flyer into the sand at a speed of 75 to 90 kilometers per hour. He suffered minor injuries and a broken nose, but this accident put an end to flying.
Patent
The 1903 patent application, which the brothers wrote with their own hands, was rejected. In early 1904, they hired a well-known Ohio patent lawyer, Harry Toulmin, and on May 22, 1906, received U.S. Patent No. 821,393 for The Flying Machine.
Application for a patent. From the archives of the Patent Office.
The patent was based on a 1902 glider flight (unpowered).
The importance of the patent lay in the registration of a new and highly useful method management flying machine, regardless of the presence of an engine. The text describes the wing warping technique, but also emphasizes the possibility of using other methods of adjusting the outer parts of the wings of the machine to different angles on the left and right sides in order to control roll. The concept of changing the wingtip angles in any suitable way is the central idea of the patent. The patent allowed the Wright brothers to win lawsuits against Glenn Curtiss and other aviation pioneers who used ailerons to control roll, a technique similar to that described in the patent and demonstrated by the Wright brothers in their demonstration flights in 1908. American courts have decided that ailerons are also covered by the language of the patent, but European court decisions have been less categorical (see below). The patent also describes a controllable tail vertical rudder and its innovative use in combination with wing warping, allowing the aircraft to make coordinated turn, a technique that prevents unfavorable yaw, which caused the risk of a 1901 glider coup during Wilber's flights. In addition, the patent describes a front elevator used for lifting and lowering.
demonstration flights
The brothers' contracts with the US Army and a French private company depended on successful demonstration flights as a condition. The Wright brothers were to share the effort. Wilber sailed for Europe; Orville was supposed to fly near Washington.
Faced with strong skepticism in the French aviation community and outright disbelief from some newspapers, who called the brothers "bluffeur" (fr. bluffers, bluffers ), Wilber began official demonstration flights on August 8 at the racecourse near Le Mans, France. Its first flight lasted only one minute and 45 seconds, but its ability to easily turn and fly in circles amazed and stunned spectators, including several French aviation pioneers such as Louis Blériot. In the days that followed, Wilber made a series of technically demanding flights, including a figure-eight trajectory, demonstrating his piloting skills and the machine's potential beyond that of any other aviation pioneer of the day.
The French public was excited by the exploits of Wilber, thousands of people gathered for his flights. The next morning, the Wright brothers woke up world-famous. Former skeptics apologized and congratulated Wilber on successful flights. The editor of L'Aérophile, George Besançon, wrote that the flights ".. completely dispelled all doubts. None of the former detractors of the Wright brothers dare to doubt today the previous experiments of these people, who really made a real flight for the first time ... "The well-known French aviation enthusiast Ernest Archdeacon wrote:" For a long time the Wright brothers were accused in Europe of deceit ... Today they are honored in France, and I feel great pleasure... ...doing justice."
Orville conducts a demonstration flight for representatives of the US Army, Fort Mer, Virginia, September 1908. Photographer C.H. Claudy.
Orville built on his brother's success by demonstrating a second, nearly identical Flyer to U.S. Army officials at Fort Mere, Virginia, beginning September 3, 1908. On September 9, he made the first hour-long flight, having been in the air for 62 minutes and 15 seconds.
Wreck at Fort Mere. Photographer C.H. Claudy
Patent Wars
In 1908, the brothers sent a warning to Glenn Curtiss about infringement of their patent rights, because he was selling his aircraft, which were equipped with ailerons. Curtiss refused to pay Wright's patent fees and sold his aircraft to the New York Aeronautical Society in 1909. Wright began a lawsuit that lasted a year. Lawsuits were also filed against foreign aviators who made demonstration flights in the United States, including the famous French aviator Louis Paulan. European companies licensed by the Wright brothers sued aircraft manufacturers in their countries. Trials in Europe brought only partial success. Despite the support of the French government, the litigation dragged on until the patent expired in 1917. A German court invalidated the patent because it had been revealed in speeches by Wilbur Wright in 1901 and Octave Chanute in 1903. In the US, the Wright brothers signed an agreement with the American Flying Club to license an air show the club held, freeing participating pilots from the threat prosecution. The organizers of the show paid the Wright brothers compensation. The Wright brothers won their first court case against Curtiss in February 1913, but an appeal was filed.
First known commercial flight Wright Company shipment took place on November 7, 1910, with two rolls of silk delivered from Dayton to Columbus, Ohio (105 km), for a large Moorenhouse-Marten store, and payment was $ 5,000. The pilot of this flight, which was in fact advertising flight, became Phil Parmeli. The distance was covered in one hour and six minutes. The silk was cut into small pieces and sold for souvenirs.
Between 1910 and 1916 flying school Wright Company 115 pilots were trained at Huffman Prairie by Orville and his assistants. Several trainees became famous, including Henry "Hap" Arnold, the future five-star general, commander of the US Air Force in World War II, who led the US Air Force when it was created; Calbraith Perry Rogers, who made the first coast-to-coast flight in 1911 (with repeated stops and crashes) in a Wright Model EX aircraft called "Vin Fiz" after the beverage sponsor; and Eddie Stinson, founder of the Stinson Aircraft Company.
Disputes with the Smithsonian Institution
Orville repeatedly pointed out that the Airfield was nothing like Langley's, but the Smithsonians were adamant. Orville responded by donating the restored 1903 Flyer to the London Science Museum in 1928, refusing to put it on display at the Smithsonian because he believed the institution had "perverted" the history of flying machines. Charles Lindbergh tried to mediate the dispute, but did not succeed. In 1942, after years of controversy that tarnished the institution's image, the Institute finally published for the first time a list of Aerodrome improvements and retracted the misleading claims that had been made after the 1914 trials. Orville privately approached the British Museum to return the Flyer, but the aircraft remained in storage until the end of World War II and arrived in the US after Orville's death.
Orville Wright
Orville succeeded to the presidency Wright company after Wilber's death. Sharing Wilber's aversion to business but not his business acumen, Orville sold the company in 1915. He, Catherine, and their father Milton moved into a mansion in Hawthorne Hill, Oakwood, Ohio, which had recently been built by a wealthy family. Milton died in his sleep in 1917. Orville made his last flight as a pilot in 1918. He went out of business and became an aviation official, serving on various official boards and committees, including the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, NASA's predecessor. Katherine married a former classmate in 1926, a marriage that Orville disapproved of. He refused the invitation to the wedding and stopped communicating with her. He met with her, probably at Lorin's insistence, just before she died of pneumonia in 1929.
Heritage
Cinema
The story of the Wright brothers has been filmed several times. In addition, the brothers appear in some films as minor characters, there are documentaries, animation and educational films about aviators, their inventions and flights.
In two films, the roles of the Wright brothers are also played by siblings. Yes, in a historical film Wilbur and Orville: The First to Fly() starred Stacey and James Keach, and in the family comedy Around the world in 80 Days() Owen and Luke Wilson.
In the 1976 TV movie The Winds of Kitty Hawk The brothers are played by Michael Moriarty and David Huffman.
As supporting characters, the brothers also appear in films Conquest of the Air (), Young Einstein() and some others.
Literature
In Russian
- Zenkevich M. A. The Wright Brothers (Series: Lives of Remarkable People). - M .: Journal and newspaper association, 1933. - S. 200.(electronic version)
- Wilson M. American scientists and inventors / Per. from English. V. Ramses; ed. N. Treneva. - M .: Knowledge, 1975. - S. 99-110. - 136 p. - 100,000 copies.
In English
- Anderson, John D. Inventing Flight: The Wright Brothers and Their Predecessors. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8018-6875-0.
- Ash, Russell. The Wright Brothers. London: Wayland, 1974. ISBN 978-0-85340-342-5.
- Combs, Harry, with Caidin, Martin. Kill Devil Hill: Discovering the Secret of the Wright Brothers. Denver, CO: Ternstyle Press Ltd, 1979. ISBN 0-940053-01-2.
- Crouch, Tom D. The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003. ISBN 0-393-30695-X.
- Howard, Fred Wilbur And Orville: A Biography Of The Wright Brothers. New York: Ballantine Books, 1988. ISBN 0-345-35393-5.
- Jakab, Peter L. Visions of a Flying Machine: The Wright Brothers and the Process of Invention(Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight Series). Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1997. ISBN 1-56098-748-0.
- Kelly, Fred C., ed. Miracle At Kitty Hawk, The Letters of Wilbur & Orville Wright. New York: Da Capo Press, 2002. ISBN 0-306-81203-7.
- Kelly, Fred C. The Wright Brothers: A Biography Authorized by Orville Wright. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, originally published in 1943, 1989. ISBN 0-486-26056-9.
- Langewiesche, Woflgang. Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying. New York: McGraw-Hill, Copyright 1944 and 1972. ISBN 0-07-036240-8.
- McFarland, Marvin W., ed. The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright: Including the Chanute-Wright Letters and the Papers of Octave Chanute. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001, originally published in 1953. ISBN 0-306-80671-1.
- Tobin, James. To Conquer The Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. ISBN 0-7432-5536-4.
- Wallechinsky, David and Wallace, Amy. The New Book of Lists. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2005. ISBN 1-84195-719-4.
- Wright, Orville. How We Invented the Airplane. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1988. ISBN 0-486-25662-6.
- Walsh, John E. One Day at Kitty Hawk: The Untold Story of the Wright Brothers. New York: Ty Crowell Co, 1975.
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Classmates
American inventors, aircraft designers and pilots Wilber and Orville Wright entered the history of aviation as brothers who were the first to fly on an aircraft they built. They loved each other dearly and always worked together. As kids, they joined a kite club. Soon their snakes became the best. Enterprising young Americans have achieved such skill that they even began to sell their first "flying machines" - kites - to other guys. Child's play grew into a passion for the idea of human flight in a controlled machine heavier than air.
December 17 is considered the birthday of aviation. It was on this day in 1903 that an airplane piloted by Orville Wright took off. The aircraft stayed in the air for 12 seconds and, having overcome 40 m, fell to the ground.
The French believe that the palm should be awarded to Clement Ader, whose aircraft took off the ground by 20 cm in 1890. Gustav Whitehead, a German by birth, made the first flight in the United States. New Zealanders proudly remember Richard Pearse, who in March 1903 flew 135 m in a bamboo and canvas monoplane and crashed into a fence (which once again confirms how important the control system of an aircraft is).
Speaking in Chicago in September 1901 to members of the Western Society of Engineers, Wilber Wright declared that the most difficult thing to control an aircraft after it had taken off the ground. The pilot cannot immediately master the art of piloting, and he needs some time to learn how to fly. The Wright brothers carefully studied the experience of the German engineer Otto Lilienthal, the most experienced pilot of his time, who made thousands of flights on gliders of his own design. But they understood that the control systems of a motorized aircraft and a glider are different, and flight stability is achieved by changing the position of the wingtips.
Everything before December 17, 1903 is the prehistory of aviation, which began a thousand years before our era with the first Chinese kites. According to ancient chronicles, in 206 BC. these kites lifted Chinese scouts into the air. One and a half thousand years later, Marco Polo saw with his own eyes in the Celestial Empire that such flights were not fiction. In Europe, they basically didn’t go up, but jumped down, building wings for themselves. The first person to survive was Oliver, an English Benedictine monk, in 1010, who jumped from Malmesbury Abbey and landed 125 paces away, breaking his legs. Other "flights" ended more tragically. Leonardo da Vinci created drawings of an aircraft that we would call a hang glider. But the design remained on paper. And in 1783, the history of aeronautics, but not aviation, began with the hot air balloon of the Montgolfier brothers. Here the palm belongs to the Wright brothers.
Wilbur and Orville were born in 1867 and 1871, respectively, to a family of six children. One day, my father brought home a toy with wings that, with the help of a twisted elastic band, rose into the air. Orville recalled that she simply fascinated them with her brother.
Most of the time the family lived in Dayton, Ohio. When Wilbur was already finishing school, a misfortune happened to him: while playing hockey, he was hit in the mouth with a stick. The wound was not severe, but gave complications. As a result, the boy fell into a depression that lasted three years. There was no question of continuing education. By this time, Orville had graduated from high school, but he also refused to go to college. Together with his school friend, he began to print advertisements, postcards to order, and even published several short-lived newspapers. Orville talked Wilbur into the business.
The brothers were very friendly. Wilbur recalls that they “played together, worked together and eventually thought. We have always discussed our thoughts and ideas together, so everything that has been done in our lives has been the result of conversations, suggestions and discussions that we had among ourselves.” Both never married.
Working with printing presses, the brothers showed a fair amount of ingenuity, constantly inventing various devices from improvised materials. Once a visiting printer from Chicago, having familiarized himself with their machines, said: “They really work, but it’s completely incomprehensible how.”
Then came a new hobby - bicycles. By 1892 they had their own shop and workshop. The bicycle boom in the United States was in full swing: monsters with a huge, taller than human front wheel were replaced by the familiar bicycle with wheels of the same diameter - a safe car that began to be in huge demand.
The brothers successfully invented their own models, which they traded until 1907. According to historians, it was the bicycle business that was the turning point in the development of Wilbur and Orville as inventors of aeronautical machines. After all, there is something in common between a bicycle and an airplane - the need to maintain balance, control movement.
A new sharp turn in life happened when the book of the German inventor Otto Lilienthal "Air flight as the basis for aeronautics" fell into the hands of the brothers. Lilienthal designed gliders, on which he made more than 2 thousand flights, and began to design an aircraft with a 2.5 horsepower engine. If he had not died during the next flight in a glider in August 1896, perhaps the Wright brothers would not have taken priority in creating an aircraft.
After reading the book Lilienthal, which became their desktop, Wilbur and Orville began to collect all available literature on apparatuses heavier than air and asked the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to send them links to all available English-language works on this topic. Having studied them, they concluded: "The question of maintaining balance has been an insurmountable obstacle in all serious attempts to solve the problem of human flight in the air." The answer to this question, in their opinion, was in the creation of a system for controlling the apparatus along three axes by means of cables, and a person must be able to constantly control the rotary, inclined and rotational movements of the apparatus parts.
With this conviction, they set about creating their first glider, on which they were to learn to fly. The brothers did not have an engineering education, but they understood that it was impossible to do without calculations, and they took up textbooks. Based on the work of Lilienthal, they were able to calculate that if they wanted to lift a large glider into the air, a head-on wind speed of about 30 kilometers per hour would be needed. The brothers asked the US Weather Bureau for a list of the windiest areas in the country. As expected, Chicago, which Americans call the Windy City, turned out to be the most suitable. But they wanted to work away from onlookers and journalists.
Sixth on the Weather Bureau's list was Kitty Hawk. In those days, it was a godforsaken fishing village on one of the islands that stretched along the coast of North Carolina in a narrow chain of almost 290 kilometers. Today, this chain of Outer Banks is a favorite vacation spot for Americans who come to sunbathe on ocean beaches. And about 250 years ago, when the settlement of the islands began, they were notorious. Near Kitty Hawk, for example, there is the village of Nags Head - Nag's Head. According to legend, pirates settled there, who robbed ships that came to the shores of America. At night, in bad weather, the pirates put lanterns around the neck of the horses and let them along the coast. The sailors mistook the lights for lighthouses and sent their ships directly to the coastal rocks. The rest is a matter of technique. It may be legend, but the Wright brothers' museum shop in Kill Devil Hills, and throughout North Carolina, still sell maps of the Outer Banks coastline showing hundreds of shipwrecks.
Kill Devil Hills is located between Kitty Hawk and Nags Head, and the name of the place in translation means Kill the Devil Hills. There are high sand dunes, reaching 30 meters. Since 1900, Wilbur and Orville have been constantly running between Dayton and Kill Devil Hills, building and testing aircraft in their bicycle shop.
First, they launch the glider like a tethered kite, and once again they are convinced that the problem of automatic stability has not been completely solved by Shaniut, there is still work to be done.
Wilbur and Orville Wright start building gliders of their own design. They are building a biplane glider with a wingspan of 12 meters, and Professor Shanyut is invited to test it, who willingly responded and helped them with his experience and knowledge.
The brothers began by gliding over the hills. "It was the only way to study the equilibrium conditions," they say.
The glider of the Wright brothers differed significantly from the gliders of Lilienthal and Chanute. They used horizontal depth rudders, placed forward of the wing on special rods, and behind the poles arranged vertical plates that acted as rudders. To maintain lateral balance, the Wright brothers first used the method of warping the trailing edge at the ends of the wings. With the help of levers and special rods at one end of the wing, the edge deviated, at the request of the pilot, either up or down, while at the other end of the wing, the bend occurred in the opposite direction. This helped to correct rolls.
Naturally, the hanging position of the pilot, as it was on the gliders of Lilienthal and Chanute, was no longer suitable here, and the Wright brothers were located, lying on the lower wing. Leaning on their elbows, they could move the control levers. But in connection with this, a new question arose: how to scatter and land? The inventors adapted light skids from below under the wing, on which the glider landed, like on skis. And the takeoff was even easier: the pilot lay down in his seat, took control levers in his hands, and two assistants lifted the glider by the ends of the wings, ran with it against the wind and, feeling how the lifting force balances the force of gravity, strongly pushed the glider down the hill.
During September and October 1902, Wilbur and Orville Wright made about a thousand flights with their glider. The length of some of them reached two hundred meters.
Thanks to the improved control, the pilots were now not afraid of even very strong winds.
“Having received accurate data for our calculations,” they write, “and having achieved an equilibrium that is sufficiently stable both in wind and in a calm atmosphere, we found it possible to start building an apparatus with a motor.”
The experience of building gliders was the best fit for Wilbur and Orville Wright when working on the first aircraft. In fact, it was the same biplane glider, only slightly larger and more durable. And a gasoline engine with a capacity of 12 horsepower and weighing about 100 kilograms was installed on the lower wing. Nearby was a cradle for the pilot with rudders. The motor developed 1400 revolutions per minute and, with the help of chain drives, rotated two pushing propellers with a diameter of 2.6 meters, located symmetrically behind the wings.
Both the gasoline engine and the propellers were made by the brothers themselves. The motor, however, was still far from perfect and rather heavy, but still better than a steam engine with its enormous weight and meager power. A lot of work had to be done on the propellers. The Wright brothers did many experiments until they finally found the right sizes for them. They made very important conclusions, which aircraft designers still use today, namely, that for each aircraft and engine, the propeller must be calculated separately.
With the same thoughtfulness and thoroughness, the Wright brothers built every detail, every node of the structure. Finally everything was ready.
The morning of December 17, 1903 was overcast and cold. A gusty wind from the ocean whistled dejectedly through the crevices of the plank shed where Wilbur and Orville were finishing the final preparations for their winged machine. Having had a quick bite, the brothers threw open the wide doors of the barn. Far away, beyond the sandy spit of the beach, the surf roared restlessly, the wind whirled the sand. The first desire was to close the doors and warm up by the brazier, because the wind was exasperating with might and main. However, the brothers wanted to quickly test their creation, and the cheerful merry fellow Orville, looking at the eldest, Wilbur, read consent in his eyes. Then he pulled the cord, and a small flag was raised on a high pole over the barn. It was a prearranged signal.
In the distance, on a sand dune where a small rescue station was located, they waved in response, and the brothers, without waiting for the helpers to arrive, pulled their airplane out of the barn.
Five people came up from the rescue station and volunteered to help. Young sailors and old sea wolves, bored by winter idleness, examined the winged wonder with curiosity, holding it tighter in gusts of wind.
Next to the shed was a wooden tower, from which Wilbur and Orville laid a wooden rail, about forty meters long, strictly against the wind. The assistants did not immediately realize what it was for. But then the brothers hoisted onto the rail a two-wheeled cart on bicycle hubs, on which the airplane was installed. Then Wilbur and his assistants lifted a rather heavy load suspended on a block to the top of the tower, and then from it, again through blocks, he led a rope to the cart. The most ingenious of the sailors realized that all this device resembled a catapult and was necessary for take-off: after all, the plane had no wheels, and for landing, as on previous gliders, only wooden skids were adapted from below.
The brothers stopped near the plane. Wilbur's pocket watch showed ten thirty in the morning. Everyone wanted to fly first. Reasonable and calm, Wilbur took out a coin and briefly asked:
- Heads or tails?
- Eagle! Orville exclaimed impatiently.
The coin soared into the air and fell back into his palm. Eagle!
Thirty-two-year-old Orville jumped up like a boy and habitually climbed onto the plane. Wilbur helped start the engine, and while it warmed up, Orville lay down beside the roaring engine in the pilot's cradle and adjusted himself once more to the controls.
The elder Wilbur moved to the edge of the wing, held it in a horizontal position, feeling how, with an increase in engine speed, the trembling from the car was transmitted to him.
Finally, Orville raised his hand in the pilot's seat - the signal "Ready to fly." Then the older brother pressed the brake lever. The load on the tower broke from the stopper, the blocks creaked. The airplane, together with the trolley, started off and, picking up speed, rushed forward along the rail. Wilbur, after running a few steps, released his wing and froze in place. The sailors, too, followed the takeoff with intense attention, and suddenly saw how the airplane broke away from the cart and soared into the air. He flew uncertainly, like a barely fledged chick that fell out of the nest, then soaring three or four meters up, then descending to the very ground. But he flew!
And from the consciousness of this miracle, one of the young sailors could not stand it and shouted: "Hurray!"
But then the airplane pecked with its nose and sank down on its runners on the sand. Wilbur clicked the stopwatch and glanced at the dial. The flight lasted twelve seconds. Only twelve seconds!
"... True, for a very short time," the Wright brothers wrote, "if we compare it with the flight of birds, but this was the first time in world history when a machine carrying a person rose by its own power into the air, in free flight passed a known horizontal distance , without reducing its speed in the least, and finally descended to the ground without damage.
And although the "known distance" was only thirty-odd meters, it was from him that the victorious path of flying vehicles heavier than air began.
Now it was Wilbur's turn. He flew a little longer and a little further. The brothers seemed to compete with each other. In the third flight, Orville already felt the effectiveness of control.
“When I flew about the same distance as Wilbur, a strong gust of wind struck from the left side, which lifted the left wing up and threw the car sharply to the right. I immediately turned the handle to land the car, and then started working with the tail rudder. when the left wing touched the ground first, proving that the lateral control on this machine is much more effective than on previous ones.
In the fourth flight, Wilbur was in the air for 59 seconds and flew a distance of about three hundred meters.
The Wright brothers measured this distance in steps and were satisfied. The workers of the rescue station, who witnessed this historic event, rejoiced along with the brothers. They helped drag the car back to the start. And while Orville and Wilbur shared their impressions, a strong gust of wind suddenly came up from the ocean. He picked up the airplane, circled it above the ground and threw it on the sand. All attempts to keep the car were in vain.
From the airplane in an instant there was only a pile of debris. The sky seemed to take revenge on people for the fact that they dared to invade its limits.
But the Wright brothers were stubborn. Having dragged the wreckage of the car into the barn, they immediately began to discuss the project of a new, more advanced airplane.
Wilbur and Orville decided to leave Kill Devil Hills and return to Dayton. A pasture ten miles from their home was chosen to continue the work. By that time they became famous all over the world. People came to see the tests, paid a lot of money to find out from neighboring farmers when the next flight would take place. And the brothers were seriously afraid that competitors would be able to copy their model before their creation was patented. It was decided to stop flying until better times. In October 1905, the plane was driven into a hangar, and for two and a half years the Wright brothers did not fly.
All this time they were negotiating with the US War Department and even a number of European governments, trying to find a client to conclude a contract to build a commercial aircraft. Again, they took to the air only in 1908. Demonstration flights were carried out in France and Germany, and only later it was possible to agree on demonstrating the capabilities of the aircraft to American military officials. The signal corps of the US Army set a condition: a contract for the production and sale of aircraft will be signed if the device can stay in the air for about an hour, and there must be a passenger on board. The first flight ended in disaster: the plane crashed on a field in Fort Myer, Virginia. Orville was injured and his passenger was killed. And only a year later, Orville returned to Fort Myer to demonstrate the capabilities of the new model, which exceeded all expectations. The contract was signed, and the brothers created the Wright Company Corporation. Its headquarters were in New York, and the plant was in Dayton.
From 1910 to 1915, the Wright Company built 12 different types of aircraft. Orville estimated that their plant produced approximately 100 cars. However, at first things were not going well, so I had to look for other ways to make money. The brothers organized a flying school for everyone, and also began to train French and American military pilots. In parallel, they decided to create a group of pilots who were supposed to perform demonstration flights. Wilbur and Orville hoped that selling tickets to spectacles that could be held all over the country would bring good profits. However, this business lasted only two years: it had to be abandoned when two of the six pilots of the group died in accidents.
From the moment the company was founded, the brothers began to face intense competition, including from European aircraft manufacturers. Wilbur and Orville filed numerous lawsuits against American and foreign designers and pilots, who, in their opinion, violated their copyrights, protected by a number of patents. Now the time has come for the brethren to take up international law, in which they have not been very successful. So, in Germany, the courts decided not in favor of the Wrights. In France, the case dragged on until 1917, when the brothers' patents expired.
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American self-taught mechanics Wilber (1867-1912) and Orville (1871-1948) Wright (Orville & Wilbur Wright) became interested in aviation in the last years of the nineteenth century. It was a time of rapid technological progress. However, before the implementation of one of the most daring ideas of man - to build a machine for flying through the air - it was, as it seemed then, still very far away. Tests of aircraft with steam engines built by Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky (1825-1890) in Russia, Clement Ader (Clément Agnès Ader, 1841-1925) in France, Hiram Maxim (Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, 1840-1916) in England ended in failure. The experiments of the first glider pilots turned out to be tragic: in 1896 in Germany, Otto Lilienthal (Otto Lilienthal, 1848-1896) crashed to death during a flight on a makeshift glider, three years later the same fate befell his English follower Percy Pilcher (Percy Sinclair Pilcher, 1866- 1899)…
Fortunately, progress is based on the fact that individual failures cannot completely stop the development of a promising idea and, in the end, it wins. It was the death of Otto Lilienthal (more precisely, reports of this event in the press) that gave birth to an interest in aviation in the Wright brothers. At first, Wilber and Orville Wright, who lived in the small town of Dayton, Ohio, and worked as mechanics in their own bicycle shop, simply read everything they could get about aviation. And then they discussed for a long time what the future “flying machine” should be like and how to avoid the mistakes of their predecessors.
Finally, in 1900, the Wright brothers took up the design of aircraft. Then their plans did not extend further than glider flights. They decided to model the wing of their future glider on the model of the American biplane glider Octave Chanute (Octave Chanute, 1832-1910), but the similarities between the devices ended there. The Wright brothers' glider did not have a tail, the pilot was lying on the lower wing, the control method was fundamentally different.
Speaking at a meeting of the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago in 1901, Wilbur Wright explained these innovations as follows: “After much deliberation, we finally came to the conclusion that the tail was more a source of trouble than a help, and therefore decided to completely abandon its use. . It is logical to assume that with a horizontal - and not vertical, as on the devices of Lilienthal, Pilcher and Chanute - the location of the glider during the flight, the aerodynamic resistance would be noticeably less ... In addition, the control method used by Lilienthal, which consisted in moving the body of the pilot, seemed to us insufficient fast and efficient; therefore, after lengthy discussions, we came up with a combination consisting of two large surfaces, as on the Chanute glider, and a smaller surface placed a short distance ahead in such a position that the effect of the wind on it will compensate for the effect of the movement of the center of pressure of the main surfaces.
However, the most important innovation in the design of the aircraft, which Wilber did not mention in the report, was the lateral control system due to wing warping. An increase in the angle of attack at one end of the wing and its simultaneous decrease at the other created the moment of forces necessary to equalize rolls and to maneuver in flight. It was the prototype of the ailerons - the standard control of modern aircraft. This way of controlling the glider, the Wright brothers “peeped” from the birds.
 Like Leonardo da Vinci, the Wright brothers spent a lot of time watching birds to understand how they change direction in flight. Wilber Wright wrote in his diary that when a bird loses its balance due to a gust of wind, it regains it by turning the ends of its wings in opposite directions: immediately begins to rotate around the longitudinal axis. Photo (Creative Commons license): Jim Clark |
The Wright brothers built their first glider in the summer of 1900 and tested it in the fall. To do this, they chose a secluded place Kitty Hawk on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Soft sandy soil and constantly blowing winds made it very comfortable for flying. The device weighing 22 kg, with a wingspan of just over five meters and with a person on board, was supposed to be launched on a leash, like a kite. Through this method of testing, the Wright brothers hoped to get good practice in management without exposing themselves to great danger.
However, these plans were not given to be realized. The lift of the wing was much less than expected, and the force of the wind was not enough to lift a man into the air. Therefore, the apparatus was almost always tested without a person, controlled from the ground. Short flights with a man were successful only during gliding descents from hills after a preliminary run towards the wind. Since the pilot was lying on the wing and therefore could not participate in the takeoff run, the glider was accelerated to takeoff speed by two assistants supporting the device by the wing.
By the following summer, the Wrights had built a new, larger glider. The control system remained the same, only the warping of the wing was now achieved not by deflecting the handle, but by moving the wooden frame to the side, controlled by the movement of the hips of a person lying on the wing.
Trials of the new airframe began at Kitty Hawk in July 1901. Alternately piloting the glider, the Wright brothers completed several hundred flights. The maximum planning range was 118 m. However, the inventors believed that they were still far from final success.
The first truly successful glider was created by the brothers a year later. Its construction was preceded by studies of the profile and shape of the wing in a wind tunnel designed by them. This made it possible to make a number of improvements that increased the aerodynamic perfection of the aircraft. The most important of these was the use of a wing of a larger span, as well as a change in the profile of the wing. Of great importance was the improvement of the lateral control system. Convinced that it was impossible to control the direction of flight only with the help of warping the wing, the Wrights installed a vertical tail on the new glider behind the wing. It was connected to the wing warping system so that it automatically turned in the right direction. Thanks to this, the difference in the resistance of the lowered and raised wing was compensated and it became possible to make the correct turns with a roll.
On this glider, the Wrights in 1902 performed about a thousand flights. The total time spent in the air was 4 hours. The best flight had a range of 190 m and lasted 22 seconds. The following year, the record flight duration was increased to 70 seconds. Despite the large size (wingspan 10 m, area 30.5 m ^ 2), the glider was reliably controlled even in strong winds.
And then they thought about the aircraft ... This decision left a noticeable imprint on the nature of the activity of the inventors. If at first the Wrights treated glider flying as a sport and regularly introduced everyone to their achievements, then, having started work on the aircraft, they tried to classify information about its design, realizing that primacy in solving the problem of flight would bring them fame and fortune. For this reason, they avoided discussing the details of their design activities with the American scientist and inventor Samuel Langley (Samuel Pierpont Langley, 1834-1906), who was also involved in the construction of the aircraft, refused to visit the French glider Ferdinand Ferber in Kitty Hawk.
The engine and propellers for the aircraft were made in Dayton during the winter and summer of 1903. Custom made 12 hp four-cylinder water-cooled petrol engine. With. It was a lightweight version of a conventional car engine and weighed 90 kg.
The aircraft was modeled after the glider of 1902, but due to the increased weight of the apparatus, the dimensions of the wing were increased. The area of the controls was also increased - the single surfaces of the rudders were replaced with double ones. Runners were installed under the wing for landing on sandy soil.
The final assembly of the biplane, with two counter-rotating pusher propellers, was made in the fall of 1903, after arriving at the test site at Kitty Hawk. The engine was located on the lower wing, on the side of the pilot. As on the devices of previous years, a person was placed in flight lying down and controlled the warping of the wing with a lateral movement of the hips. Ahead there were two handles, one for controlling the elevator, the second for turning the engine on and off. The take-off weight was 340 kg, the wing area was 47.4 m2, the wingspan was 12.3 m, the length of the aircraft was 6.4 m, and the propeller diameter was 2.6 m.
Due to the weight of the aircraft, the Wrights were forced to abandon the previous launch method, when volunteer helpers from among the local residents helped the aircraft take off, supporting it by the wing. In addition, this method could raise doubts whether the flight was carried out only at the expense of engine power. Therefore, we decided that the plane would take off without any outside help. It was assumed that the run-up would go along a wooden rail 18 m long, the upper surface of which was sheathed with iron. The aircraft could roll along the rail on a small cart, separated after takeoff. To reduce the length of the takeoff run, the start had to be made strictly against the wind.
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Leonardo da Vinci thought about flying in the sky with the help of a special device in the 16th century, but the first flight was officially registered at the beginning of the last century. There is still fierce debate about who we owe the possibility of air travel to, but the fact remains that the first flight was officially registered in 1903. The very first airplane in the world was invented by the Wright brothers.
Aviation history
The first attempts to build an aircraft capable of lifting a person into the air began at the end of the 18th century. The history of the invention of the aircraft dates back to England, when Sir George Cayley took up this issue seriously and published several scientific papers in which he detailed the principle of construction and operation of the prototype of the modern aircraft.
The inventor began his work with birdwatching. The scientist devoted a long time to measuring the flight speed of birds and the wing span. These data subsequently became the basis of several publications that marked the beginning of the development of aviation.
In his first sketches, Cayley envisioned the aircraft as a boat with a tail at one end and a pair of oars at the bow. The structure was supposed to be driven by oars, which would transfer rotation to a cruciform shank at the end of the vessel. In this way, Cayley unmistakably depicted the main elements of the aircraft. It was the work of this scientist that laid the foundation for the development of aviation and became the impetus for the development of the concept of the aircraft.
The pioneer of aviation in its modern sense was another English inventor - William Henson. It was he who received an order to develop a project for an aircraft in 1842.
The "steam air crew" proposed by Henson described all the main elements of a propeller-driven aircraft. As a device that moves the entire structure, the inventor proposed to use a propeller. Many of the ideas proposed by Henson were subsequently developed and began to be used in early aircraft models.
Russian inventor N.A. Teleshov patented the project for the construction of an "aeronautics system". The concept of the flying machine was also based on a steam engine and a propeller. A few years later, the scientist improved his project and was one of the first to propose the idea of creating a jet aircraft.
A feature of Teleshov's projects was the idea of transporting passengers in a closed fuselage.
Who invented the airplane
Despite the fact that the development of the design of the aircraft was carried out by many scientists in the middle of the 19th century, the invention of the aircraft is attributed to the Wright brothers, whose airplane made a short flight in 1903.
Not everyone agrees that the Wright brothers were the first. Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont designed, built and tested the world's first airship prototype in 1901. It was then that it was proved that controlled flights are indeed possible.
According to another version, the championship in the invention of the first working aircraft should be given to the Russian inventor A.F. Mozhaisky, whose name will forever remain in the history of aviation. Thus, disputes about who invented and who created the aircraft are still ongoing.
Interesting! Despite the fact that the invention of the aircraft is officially awarded to the Wright brothers, all Brazilians are sure that Santos-Dumont invented the world's first aircraft. In Russia, it is believed that the first prototype of a modern aircraft was built by Mozhaisky.
The work of the Wright brothers
The Wright brothers were not the first inventors of the airplane. Moreover, the first uncontrolled human flight also does not belong to them. Nevertheless, the Wright brothers were able to prove the most important thing - that a person is able to fly an aircraft.
It was Wilbur and Orville Wright who first carried out controlled flight on an aircraft, thanks to which the idea of the possibility of carrying out passenger transportation by air was further developed.
At a time when all scientists were puzzling over the possibility of installing more powerful engines to lift the aircraft into the air, the brothers focused on questions of the ability to control the aircraft. The result was a series of wind tunnel experiments that provided the basis for the development of airplane wings and propellers.
The first powered glider built by the brothers was named Flyer 1. It was made of spruce, as this material is lightweight and durable. The device was driven by a gasoline engine.
Interesting! The engine for the Flyer-1 was made by mechanic Charlie Taylor, a design feature was light weight. To do this, the mechanic used duralumin, also called duralumin.
The first successful flight was made on December 17, 1903. The plane climbed a few meters and flew about 40 meters in 12 seconds. Then there were repeated tests, as a result of which the duration and altitude of the flight increased.
Santos Dumont and 14bis
Alberto Santos-Dumont is known as the inventor of hot air balloons, he is also sometimes credited as the creator of the world's first controlled aircraft. He also owns the invention of airships, which were controlled by an engine.
In 1906, his plane called "14-bis" took off and flew over 60 meters. The height to which the inventor raised his aircraft was about 2.5 meters. A month later, Alberto Santos-Dumont flew 220 meters on the same plane, setting the first longest flight record as a result.
A feature of the "14-bis" was that the design was able to take off on its own. The Wright brothers failed to achieve this, and their plane took off with outside help. It was this nuance that became fundamental in the debate about who should be considered the inventor of the first aircraft.
After the "14-bis" the inventor seriously engaged in the development of a monoplane, as a result, the world saw the "Demoiselle".
Alberto Santos-Dumont never rested on his laurels and kept his inventions a secret. The inventor willingly shared the designs of his aircraft with thematic publications.
Aircraft Mozhaisky
The scientist presented the project of his aircraft for consideration back in 1876. Mozhaisky faced a misunderstanding of the officials of the Military Ministry, as a result, he was not allocated funds to continue his research.
Despite this, the scientist continued to develop, investing his own funds, which is why the construction of the prototype of the Mozhaisky aircraft dragged on for many years.
Mozhaisky's plane was built in 1882. The first tests of the aircraft ended in disaster, but witnesses claim that the aircraft still rose some distance from the ground before it crashed.
Since there is no documentary evidence of the flight, it is impossible to consider Mozhaisky the first person to fly an airplane. However, the development of the scientist served as the basis for the development of aviation.
So who was the first
Despite numerous disputes about the year in which the aircraft was invented, the first officially registered flight belongs to the Wright brothers, which is why the Americans are considered the "fathers" of the first aircraft.
It is inappropriate to compare the contribution to the development of aviation by the Wright brothers, Santos-Dumont and Mozhaisky. Despite the fact that Mozhaisky's first aircraft was built 20 years before the first controlled flight, the inventor used a different construction principle, so it is impossible to compare his aircraft with the Wright brothers' Flyer.
Santos-Dumont was not the first to fly, but the inventor used a fundamentally new approach to the construction of an aircraft, thanks to which his device took to the air on its own.
In addition to the first controlled flight, the Wright brothers made a significant contribution to the development of aviation, the first to propose a fundamentally new approach to the construction of the propeller and wings of the aircraft.
It makes no sense to argue which of these scientists became the first, because they all made a huge contribution to the development of aviation. It was their work and research that became the basis for the invention of the prototype of the modern airliner.
The first military aircraft
Prototypes of the Flyer by the Wright brothers and the Santos-Dumont aircraft were used for military purposes.
If the brothers initially pursued the goal of inventing technology that would give an advantage to the American army, then the Brazilian Santos-Dumont was against the use of aviation for military purposes. Despite this, his work served as the starting point for the creation of a number of aircraft, which were then used during the war. Interestingly, Mozhaisky initially also pursued the construction of an aircraft that would be used for military purposes.
The first jet aircraft appeared at the height of World War II.
The first passenger aircraft
The first passenger aircraft appeared thanks to I.I. Sikorsky. The prototype of the modern airliner took off in 1914 with 12 passengers on board. In the same year, the Ilya Muromets airliner set a world record by making its first long-distance flight. He flew the distance from St. Petersburg to Kyiv, making one landing for refueling.
The airliner also participated in the transport of bombs during the First World War. The war forced Russian aviation to freeze in development for some time.
In 1925, the first K-1 aircraft appeared, then the world saw Tupolev passenger airliners and aircraft developed by KhAI. Since that time, more and more attention has been paid to passenger aircraft, they are acquiring greater passenger capacity and the ability to fly over long distances.
History of the development of jet aircraft
The first idea of a jet aircraft was proposed by the Russian inventor Teleshov. An attempt to replace the propeller with a piston engine was made in 1910 by a designer from Romania, A. Coanda.
These attempts were unsuccessful, and the first successful test of a jet aircraft took place in 1939. The tests were carried out by the German company Heinkel, however, several mistakes were made during the design of the model:
- wrong choice of engine design;
- high fuel consumption;
- frequent need for refueling.
However, the first jet prototype was able to achieve a high rate of climb - more than 60 meters in one second of flight.
Due to design errors made, the jet aircraft could not move more than 50 kilometers from the airfield, due to the need for frequent refueling. Due to a number of shortcomings, the first successful model never got into mass production.
The first production aircraft was the Me-262 in 1944. This model has become an improved version of the previous Heinkel model.
Then the development of jet aircraft was picked up by Japan and Great Britain.
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Thus, jet aircraft appeared in the midst of the Second World War. They have serious combat victories on their account, however, the losses among them are also very high. First of all, this is due to the fact that the pilots simply did not have time to complete a full-fledged training in managing a fundamentally new aircraft. From the moment of the first successful flight to the advent of jet aircraft, only 30 years passed, during which there was a big breakthrough in aviation.