The catapult and the 20 mph wind at Kittyhawk is what made the flight possible as the engine at the 1903 point of evolution wasn't powerful enough for a sustained flight. Chris...
Chris-
I'll have to take issue with that.
Note revision necessary here, due to a lame brain in early morning hours...No catapult was used at Kittyhawk. To use one would have violated the Wright's principles of leaving no work or achievement open to question. However, The
Huffman Prairie catapult had nothing to do with sustained flight. It allowed a plane without wheels to get off
sandy rough ground in a reasonable distance
in a restricted space. Once airborne, the catapult was history - it had no effect.
At Kittyhawk, the engine that the Wrights designed along with the propellers that the Wrights
invented (yes, invented) provided the thrust necessary for sustained flight. The wind reduced the ground speed necessary for takeoff, but once in the air, it also greatly reduced the distance traveled; the air distance was much greater than the ground distance. This was for safety reasons as well. The reason the plane came to earth when it did was that flight had been achieved, and a safe landing on the first flight needed to be assured. With porposing at low altitude and perhaps some divergence in the gusts, discretion was in order. So a rough landing. But they flew more and progressively further that afternoon.
The Wrights believed in a control-configured, rather than stable configuration, probably mostly in response to Lillienthal's death in a weight-shift plane in which he had inadequate control. That's what they meant by "controlled" flight. The Wrights had to teach themselves to fly in a very methodical way over many glider flights, but their plane required concentration to control. That it flew straight in gusty weather in which the wind could not have remained steadily along their path is a testament to their control. They deliberately flew low and slow in a plane that under ideal conditions could have turned at higher altitude.
They took a step backward the next year, before recovering late. They were then soon circling their field at Huffman's Prairie in flights of many minutes eventually approaching an hour, and landing at will. They were unable to press forward much while promoting and guarding their discoveries and waiting for the U.S. to purchase their plane, which didn't happen for too many years. By the time they flew in France in 1908, they had had fully balanced control and great range for 3 to four years. The Europeans, who had mocked them because they hadn't put on aerial displays, were absolutely shocked and made them heroes. When Bleriot barely flew the channel, the Wrights had been capable of that feat for years.
The Wright's feat was complex and the result of perhaps the most systemmatic, disciplined, and patient series of hypotheses and experiments I've ever encountered. They never worked precipitously, even knowing that Langley was preparing to attempt flight. They were indeed visited by more than one person who reported their schemes to others, including Curtiss. At least one of these people pretended to make friends, while their friend Chanute pressed for them to share secrets freely before they had been given credit and any reward for their hard work and expenses. On one occasion he even published privileged information they had shared with him.
I have my doubts about the alleged prohibition of facts about Caley, Stringfellow, or any of the others. The Wrights' complaint was well grounded in the Smithsonian's assertion that their guy, Langley, had created the "first plane capable of controlled, sustained flight" - which was obviously untrue. Langley's was not even as controllable as his model might have become, it was structurally unsound (proved), and it did not create sufficient lift. Glenn Curtis fraudulently rebuilt Langley's "Aerodrome" with his own control and lift modifications that made it marginally able to get off the water, as he did Gouple's and other planes, with the sole intention of discrediting the Wrights. When the Smithsonian would not back down on its claims that Langley was first, Orville Wright (the surviving brother) sent the "Flyer" to England, and it did not return to this country until the Smithsonian capitulated during the year of Orville's death. In view of that battle and the Smithsonian's bad faith, I don't blame Orville for getting a legal document, which I doubt prohibited anything except false claims concerning who was really first.
The Wrights had to perfect their plane and guard its secrets while spending much time defending their patent. THIS slowed their experimenting. In fact, their achievement of the first soaring flights in history at Kitty Hawk only came several after their original Kitty Hawk flights. Then Wilbur died during the litigation and the spark went out. Progress was fast, and the Wright configuration, despite modifications in favor of speed and stability, fell behind. Curtiss-Wright, just like Edison-General Electric, was the fruit of a bitter battle. I do not blame them at all for defending five years of courageous, systemmatic research for no gain. They were the first to fly controlled, and they deserved the recognition and some financial reward. Just how fair would it have been for them to have invested all that time and ingenuity, only to have Glenn Curtiss reap the profits?
The "Frenchman", Clement Ader, who "flew" did so in an ingenious contraption, too complex to control, especially by someone with no valid idea how to do so. He did indeed get barely off the ground while crashing out of control about a decade earlier. I'm a fan of his efforts, but see his achievement as very small compared to the Wrights', and ultimately just one of a number of truly unsuccessful attempts. Richard Pearse of New Zealand probably came closest "flying" further, but again apparently without any control. He lived though.
Each year at this time there is some denigration of the Wrights, and I used to flood the forums with listings of their accomplishments and method. You can find some very interesting stuff with the search engines for SSWF, SH, or the Nurflugel list, where you'll also get a lot of wisdom from NASA's Al Bowers. Anyone who wants the real story may read any of several fine, well researched and written Wright bios and analyses from the last couple decades or - even better - look up their entire papers on the internet and see how marvelous their method and accomplishements really were. It's all there to see and enjoy on photographed pages. They were spectacular engineers and scientists who had a marvelous synergy.
Note: this is my third attempt to get pictures totalling less that 1000kB to be accepted. 'guess I'll take out another...
Topic: Anniversary of Flight (Read 4137 times)