Everyone knows the story about the Wright brothers triumph on the dunes of Kittyhawk, North Carolina...
but less is said about why the Wright brothers were so ahead of their time. After all, there were numerous crackpot inventors all over the world building winged contraptions and a few even managed to get off the ground. What set Wilbur and Orville Wright ahead of the pack had nothing to do with wing loading or horsepower, it was their understanding of the need for control.
The Wrights intuitively understood something almost everyone else had overlooked: steering. Using a peculiar method called "wing warping" Wright aircraft could use most of the main wings to control roll, and it was remarkably effective. Add in their carefully designed twin tail surfaces and their canards (yes, the first airplane had canards!) and the result was a plane that didn't just stay off the ground but one that could do it with purpose.
When Wilbur Wright toured Europe in 1908, what astounded onlookers the most was how easily the Wright Flyer could be made to change direction or height. At a time when awkward machines hopped and sputtered into the air, Wilburs seemingly effortless circuits around fields in France and Italy left everyone spellbound. French aviator Léon Delagrange summed up the matter succinctly: “Nous sommes battus.”
~ After all, it isn't flying if you're helpless as a newborn baby, that's called "falling." ~
Great explanation + video. I was never completely sure if it used one or not.
@Mostly I've done a bit of digging and come across a well constructed explanation of what you mention. TLDR, the 1903 Wright Flyer used a wooden track as a runway, but not a catapult.
If you fast forward to 15:45 this video sums it up nicely.
The craft continued to gain altitude sustainable for long distances after the first flight, which was, technically very short, but was followed by distances too long to be considered gliding. @Mostly
people who comment santos Dumont are IQ 3
@Mostly His final aircraft, the Demoiselle, is an absolute masterpiece. I am tempted to build one for SP! But the 14 bis was considerably inferior to the Wright designs.
K @AWESOMENESS360
@PoinX25tlessWhyShouldI I have my doubts
Nothing @AWESOMENESS360
I just came here to learn about ol’ Wilbur and Orville, what happened in the comments?!
Interesting debate about the wright brothers and their aircraft:
Many people considered the wright flyer to be more of a glider than an actual plane due to it needing a catapult system to take off. The 14bis created by Alberto Santos was flown in 1906 and lots of people this consider this to be the first formally classified plane to ever fly.
There were many flying contraptions before the Wright flyer, but they were more flying carriages than individual aircraft, as the lines between an aircraft and another new invention, the motorized carriage, and those were janky peices of wood with a rudimentary engine that hardly even got it off the ground, the most that any of those flew were only a few feet if my memory is correct, so the Wright flyer is also important as a means to separate the motorized carriage from aircraft. (Thank you past gas podcast presented by donut media that you should definitely check out, sponsor me donut)
@CharlesDeGaulle2 F104Deathtrap wanted to block you, but you were quicker. You may not have known that at the time of making your comment, so I will not enforce the rule about bypassing the block. From now on, I will consider the block to be mutual, and the rule about bypassing the block will be in power, so please do not try to contact F104 again on the site. If you have no other purpose for this alt, I'd like to ask you to delete it.
@VolcanicAsh Ader failed to fly. Every single time he made an attempt in front of credible witnesses, his machines wobbled off to one side and crashed. Even if they had ever lifted off the ground, they had no means of steering. Putting yourself in a trebuchet and wearing a parachute would be more effective and far less expensive.
Meanwhile, the Wrights travelled the world, flying hundreds of times in front of hundreds of thousands of people, often with passengers. They even opened a school and taught other people to fly!
This nonsense about Ader is just a fairytale made up by jealous minds.