New Delhi: Capturing the sky! We all dream of it one day or another. But two brothers achieved this on December 17, 1903. The Wright brothers touched the sky on this day and flew their first aeroplane on it. The day is also celebrated as Wright Brothers Day in the US.
Orville and Wilbur Wright, famously known as the Wright brothers, were American aviation pioneers who invented, built, and flew the world’s first successful aeroplane.
The Wright brothers made the first controlled flight of a powered aeroplane, the Wright Flyer, on December 17, 1903, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 1904, they created the Wright Flyer II, which flew for longer periods and completed the first circular flight. In 1905, they built the Wright Flyer III, known as the first practical fixed-wing aircraft.
Read on to know more about the Wright brothers’ aeroplane.
The Wright Flyer: Design and Construction
The Wright Flyer is known by several names, such as the Kitty Hawk, Flyer I, or the 1903 Flyer. It was the first aeroplane to fly with a person on board, using power and control, on December 17, 1903. It was invented and flown by brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright. This flight began in the early era of aviation.
The Wright brothers made four flights with it in an area that is now part of Kill Devil Hills, located about 4 miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
The Wright brothers used spruce for the straight parts of the frame, like the wing spars, and ash wood for the curved parts, like the wing ribs.
The wings had a design with a one-inch rise for every twenty inches in length. They covered the wings with 100 per cent cotton muslin called “Pride of the West”. This fabric had 107 threads per inch in one direction and 102 in the other, making a total of 209 threads.
Since they couldn’t find a suitable automobile engine, they asked their employee Charlie Taylor to create a new lightweight engine. He designed a 12-horsepower gasoline engine that weighed 180 pounds and held 1 US gallon of fuel. The engine powered twin propellers using a sprocket chain drive, similar to bicycle technology. To prevent the engine’s torque from affecting how the plane handled, they crossed one drive chain so that the propellers turned in opposite directions.
The propellers were 8.5 feet long and designed based on airfoil number 9 from wind tunnel tests. This design gave the best “gliding angle” for varying angles of attack. The engine connected to the propellers using chains, with a sprocket gear reduction of 23-to-8.
Wilbur calculated that slower-turning blades could create more thrust and that having two blades was better than a single blade spinning faster. The propellers were made of three layers of spruce, covered with duck canvas at the tips, and painted with aluminium paint.
Orville Wright (Photo credit: Camerique/Getty Image)
Wilbur Wright (Photo credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images)
Innovation and Engineering: The Wright Brothers’ Technological Advancements
On November 5, 1903, the brothers tested their engine on the Wright Flyer, but the propeller hubs came loose before they could tune the engine. The drive shafts were sent back for repair and returned on November 20. A hairline crack was discovered in one of the propeller shafts.
Orville returned to Dayton on November 30 to make new spring steel shafts. On December 12, the brothers installed the new shafts on the Wright Flyer and tested them on their launching rail system, which included a wheeled launching dolly.
During practice, the Wright Brothers achieved a propeller speed of 351 RPM and generated a thrust of 60 kg. The Wright Flyer was a canard biplane with a wingspan of 40 feet 4 inches, a camber of 1-20, a wing area of 510 square feet, and a 21 feet 1 inch length.
The right-wing was 10 cm longer because the engine was 14 to 18 kg heavier on that side. The Flyer weighed 274 kg when empty.
The Wright Flyer rolled on a 60-foot track made of 2x4s, which they called the “Junction Railroad.” The Flyer rested on a launching dolly with a 6-foot plank and two wheels made from bicycle hubs. A wire held the plane back while the engine and propellers ran until the pilot was ready to go.
The Flyer had three instruments:
A Veeder recorder counted the number of times the propeller turned.
A stopwatch tracked the flight time.
A Richard hand anemometer, attached to the front strut, measured the distance covered.
The First Flight: December 17, 1903
After returning to Kitty Hawk in 1903, the Wrights assembled the Flyer while practising with the 1902 Glider. On December 14, 1903, they felt ready for their first powered flight. With the help of nearby lifesavers, they moved the Flyer to the incline of a sand dune, Big Kill Devil Hill, for a gravity-assisted takeoff. The plane left the rail, but Wilbur pulled up too sharply, stalled, and came down after covering 105 feet in 3.5 seconds, sustaining little damage.
After three days of repairs, they were ready again on December 17. That day, the wind averaged over 32 km/h, so they laid the rail flat on the ground, facing the wind. This time, the wind provided the airspeed needed for takeoff.
Since Wilbur had already piloted first, Orville took the controls. His flight lasted 12 seconds, covering 120 feet — shorter than the wingspan of a Boeing 747.
The Wright brothers took turns flying on that day. They made four short flights at low altitudes. Each flight went straight without any turns and ended with bumpy, unplanned landings.
The final flight, performed by Wilbur, was the longest, covering 852 feet in 59 seconds. This was much longer than the previous flights, which measured 120, 175 and 200 feet and took 12, 12 and 15 seconds, respectively.
The landing from the last flight broke the front elevator supports. The Wrights hoped to fix it for a longer flight of 6 km to Kitty Hawk village. Right after that, a strong gust of wind lifted the Flyer and flipped it over, damaging it beyond repair. It was never flown again.
On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers achieved the world’s first successful controlled, sustained flight of a powered aeroplane, the Wright Flyer. Their invention featured a lightweight engine meticulously crafted with spruce, ash, and cotton muslin. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
