| |
|
Wall Street History
https://www.gofundme.com/s3h2w8
|
09/26/2003
Kitty Hawk, Part III
I apologize that this has developed into a rather dysfunctional
series on the Wright brothers, but the weather I ran into last week
while visiting the Kitty Hawk, North Carolina area dictated that I
change the schedule a bit.
In part I of our series I touched on other events taking place in
1903, the year in which Kitty Hawk was witness to the first
flight, as well as the role of Samuel Langley in the controversy
that soon surrounded the Wright brothers achievement. Part II
went back and listed some of the more important dates in history
as far as the search for human flight was concerned.
Of course I should have reversed I and II, but oh well we
continue.
I only touched briefly on the early years of Orville and Wilbur in
part I and having now had the chance to do more research, I
realize this warrants more discussion.
Wilbur (4/16/1867-5/30/1912) and Orville (8/19/1871-
1/30/1948) were the 3rd and 6th children born to Milton and Sara
Wright. Milton founded a radical offshoot of the Church of
Christ (“Old Constitution”), though it was actually tamer than it
sounds. Having traveled a ton to spread the word, Milton and
family eventually settled in Dayton, Ohio.
Wilbur and Orville were very curious kids growing up, yearning
to learn more about the world around them, and they were also
most appreciative of their upbringing. Orville once wrote:
“(We) were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where
there was always much encouragement to children to pursue
intellectual interests; to investigate whatever aroused our
curiosity.” [Source: “First Flight: The Wright Brothers and the
Invention of the Airplane,” Tom D. Crouch *This is the
primary source for this column.]
Sister Katharine added, “No family ever had a happier childhood
than ours had.”
Orville and Wilbur were exceedingly close. Wilbur:
“From the time we were little children, my brother Orville and
myself lived together, played together, worked together and, in
fact, thought together Nearly everything that was done in our
lives has been the result of conversations, suggestions and
discussions between us.”
But neither officially graduated from high school, though it also
needs to be pointed out that in those days high school was far
tougher than it is today. Wilbur did have plans to study at Yale,
but he suffered a serious injury playing a form of ice hockey
when the stick smashed into his mouth. For the next 3 years he
was a semi-invalid and had to deal with depression. Meanwhile,
Orville only finished 11th grade, after which he decided to set
himself up as a printer in 1889 following the death of their
mother.
At about the same time, though, the bicycle craze was sweeping
Dayton and the brothers (Wilbur having finally recovered from
his injury) decided to get into the business in 1892, opening up a
shop where they not only repaired bicycles but designed their
own models starting in 1895.
The Wright brothers began to draw parallels between riding a
bike and flight. The key was control and they approached the
invention of the airplane knowing two things: “The machine
would have to be controllable and, like a child learning to ride a
bike, they would have to teach themselves to fly it.” [Crouch]
Others around the world were drawing the same conclusions at
this time, linking the bicycle to aviation. In June 1896, the editor
of the Binghamton (NY) Republic made this prescient comment
concerning the invention of a heavier-than-air flying machine
and the role of bicycle designers.
“The flying machine will not be in the same shape, or at all in the
style of the numerous kinds of cycles, but the study to produce a
light, swift machine is likely to lead to an evolution in which
wings will play a conspicuous part.” [Crouch]
Another fellow, James Howard Means, wrote, “To learn to wheel
we must learn to balance. To learn to fly one must learn to
balance.” [Crouch]
Well, it just so happened that the manufacturing process for a
bicycle was perfect for the Wright brothers and their quest to
design an aircraft. The kinds of precision crafted metal pieces
that they were making for the two-wheeler could be used for
their flying machine. The two also realized that just as a bicycle
rider learned to internalize the process of riding one, so man
would eventually learn to master the motions required to control
a plane.
One of the first inspirations for the brothers was the German
experimenter Otto Lilienthal, who published perhaps the
definitive book on aeronautics for his time back in 1889.
Lilienthal completed 2,000 flights on 18 different gliders
between 1890 and his death in a glider crash in 1896 and his
demise had a profound effect on Wilbur and Orville. Wilbur
explained:
“The brief notice of his death that appeared in the telegraphic
news of that time aroused a passive interest which had existed
from my childhood.”
The brothers wrote the Smithsonian Institution in Washington for
information on the printed works that existed on the topic of
aeronautics and the Smithsonian’s secretary, Samuel Langley,
who was already working himself on the problem (see part I),
was helpful in passing along recent material.
The Wrights were great at analyzing the problems of others and
they concluded that the invention of the airplane required:
“wings developing sufficient lift to support the weight of the
machine and pilot; an engine powerful enough to propel the craft
to flying speed; and a means of controlling the machine in the
air.” [Crouch]
The key, again, was the problem of control. Wilbur explained,
“The equilibrium had been the real stumbling block in all
serious attempts to solve the (issue) of human flight, and that this
problem of equilibrium in reality constituted the problem of
flight itself.” [Crouch]
Now before I continue I need to apologize because we’re going
to have to get technical here in closing part III of our story, but
it’s the only way to properly paint the picture. I also need to
teach myself, so I’m dragging you along for the ride.
As author Tom Crouch describes, one evening in July 1899,
Wilbur was working in the bicycle shop when he began fiddling
with a long, slender, inner-tube box.
“When he held the ends of the box and twisted his hands gently
in opposite directions, a helical (ed. spiral) twist moved back and
forth across the box. If the horizontal faces of the box were the
two wings of a biplane, and the vertical faces were the struts
supporting and separating the wings, he reasoned, a twist in
either direction would increase the angle of attack (the upward
tilt of the wing relative to the airflow), and thus the lift, on one
side and decrease it on the opposite side. The pilot of such an
aircraft, provided with suitable controls, could balance the wings
with ease, or bank for a turn. It was the technique that would
come to be known as wing-warping – the precursor of ailerons
on today’s aircraft – and it was one of the Wrights’ most brilliant
and original contributions to aeronautics.”
Wilbur then built a model out of bamboo to demonstrate the
principals to Orville.
The three main issues in solving the problems of flight involved
control, lift and propulsion; or ‘pitch,’ ‘yaw,’ and ‘roll.’
Picture a little Cesna plane. The pitch is the ‘elevator’ in the
rear, below the ‘rudder’ (which is responsible for yaw), and the
roll is controlled by ‘ailerons,’ these being located on the wings
(the flaps you see going up and down). [On the Wright brothers
first plane, the elevator was out front and the pilot controlled the
ailerons manually, while lying down on the wing.]
Just a further word on ‘roll’; Orville and Wilbur had observed
that a soaring turkey vulture “steadied itself or turned by twisting
up a wingtip to roll its body, (so) the Wrights designed a wing-
warping system for the Flyer. Moving the hip cradle warped the
trailing edge of one wing up and the other down, rolling the
aircraft to control it.”
OK, now that I’ve confused some of you, and I haven’t supplied
you with a simple diagram to help describe the processes, we’ll
finish (I promise) our story next week with the final days in
December 1903 and the first flights (they had four on December
17). This coming December, when the news is full of stories on
this amazing feat that changed the world, you’ll thank me for the
head start.
Brian Trumbore
|
|
|
