The Wright Brothers - Frontier in Flight

Wilbur Wright, born 1867 in Indiana and Orville Wright, born 1871 in Ohio, began their famous lives living under a devout Bishop father and a stern mother. Throughout their childhood, they showed considerable aptitude for anything involving mechanics. One night, their father brought them a toy which seems to have spurred in them a desire to create a "flying device". This toy was, apparently, a small object made out of cork with two propellers driven by elastics.

Wilbur was a keen athlete who loved to compete. He expressed the desire to go on to a higher-level sport, when, at the age of 18, his face was smashed by a hockey stick. Almost overnight, Wilbur became a recluse, keeping primarily to himself.

Orville was not as keen in sporting and competition as Wilbur, and had somewhat of a bad attitude toward school. He became bored in his senior year, and dropped out, failing to graduate.

In high school, Wilbur and Orville had a modest reputation for their mechanical aptitude. Although neither sought higher education, they were both considered intellectuals.

After 'finishing' formal education, they proceeded to make themselves self-taught engineers. Their first venture was to open a bike shop, which was not common. As teenagers, they procured a pair of bicycles for themselves. After mastering the workings, they became well known throughout the area for the maintenance of bicycles. This helped them greatly in the operation of their bike shop. It became a very successful business, peaking when the brothers built their own models, called the Wright Special.

The death of a famous glider pilot, Otto Lilienthal, rekindled the Wright's interest in aviation. The bike shop did a brisk business in the spring, summer and fall, but the winter led to almost no business. This opened up a slot in the brother's schedule in which they could pursue their interest in aviation. They also sent letters to various aviators of the time in order to acquire information on what was already known about flight.

The Wright Brothers knew that the invention of powered flight would be prosperous and profitable to whoever did it first. They figured that it would take several years of following the scientific method (the seven steps as stated by archimedes), but that the solution was well within sight. By dedicating a certain time each year to their experiments and making sure the proper funds would be available, they started out with an advantage over others pursuing the same goal.

While talking with a customer in the bike shop, Wilbur absentmindedly twirled a piece of cardboard, forming it into the general shape of two wings stacked upon each other. He instantly envisioned a glider with a set of double wings, flexible in the wind.

After implementing this idea in a kite, the brothers moved to a full-scale glider. They were informed by a French aviator that the area of Kitty Hawk, NC, would best suit their testing purposes. After hiring someone to tend to their bike shop, they developed a new table for wing specifications after much testing. By putting the wind tunnel (which had been invented previously) to practical use for the first time, they were able to devise this table. This new table went against the unspoken given of the time, made by a German experimenter, Lillienthal. Further tests in a wind tunnel (a device whose potential was first recognized by the Wrights) proved their tables correct. By the end of the summer, the Wrights knew that their next step would be a powered craft.

The next year, Wilbur and Orville looked for an engine that would be powerful enough to lift the craft, while light enough so that the plane would be able to leave the ground. There weren't any commercial engines available that met these requirements, so the Brothers, with the help of their mechanic at the shop (Charles Taylor), designed and created an engine to meet these specifications.

Side view of a Wright Flyer; notice the propellors and engine

In the Air!

The engine was installed into a new glider the following year, along with a propeller system (two propellers going in the opposite direction; if they went in the same direction, the craft would pitch, or yaw, to the side the props were spinning). This first airplane had major problems with the propeller shafts and the engine. After repairs, they tried again in the middle of the winter. Using a new track system at Kitty Hawk, Orville Wright made the first powered flight, going approx. 100 feet before landing.

Unfortunately, later in that historic day as the brothers and some of the bystanders were rolling the first flyer back into the hangar, it was caught by the wind and started rolling end over end, eventually destroying the plane, so that it couldn't be repaired. Less than 3 weeks later, the Wrights issued a statement to what had happened at Kitty Hawk on December 17, but nearly everyone in the United States took no notice at all over it. Europe took some interest as a few sparse inventors started to experiment with flight, but overall flight was only a ripple in the pond in the world's news. For the next two seasons of 1904, the Wright brothers spent most of their time trying to perfect a new flyer, later named the Flyer II that could fly around in some of the less open spaces of Dayton. In September, the Flyer II was a huge success as Wilbur Wright completed a full circle of _ mile in under a minute. Improvements kept on coming for the Wrights as a Flyer III was used in June of 1905. In October, this Flyer flew for a whopping 38 minutes and came down due only to lack of fuel.

Over the next few years, the Wright brothers were constantly trying to get the attention of the United States army, so that the U. S. could be the first to be able use planes for possible warfare. The army was extremely reluctant, as it only agreed to have a plane built for them in 1908. Later in 1908, the two brothers split up so that they could show the success of their flying machines to the world. Wilbur traveled to Europe to tour the continent with his Flyer. Overall, his tour was a huge success and had many effects, as Wilbur returned with many contracts to build planes and sent a huge spark throughout Europe for flying inventions. Orville spent his time showing how a plane could be used to the United States Army. Orville was flying for the first time with two passengers and was also attempting to fly safely for an hour in Virginia (hoping to impress the army), but ended tragically when he crashed and his counterpart, Lt. Thomas Selfridge was killed.

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Fame and Fortune

Throughout the rest of Wilbur's life, he was heralded as a hero in the U. S. and Europe. Both brothers received gold medals from Dayton, Ohio, the United States Congress and a medal from the French Academy of Sciences, in addition to aero club medals from Britain and France. In 1912, Wilbur Wright died from typhoid fever at the age of forty-five. Orville was now the president of the Wright Company. Orville received many other medals and honorary degrees from colleges such Yale and Harvard over the course of the next 30 years. These awards were received, however, only after many controversies over who exactly invented the first flying machine. Many frauds who had done basic experimentation before the Wrights claimed that they, not the brothers, first invented the flying machine (even though their tests were not even close). Using the Wright Patent and legal documentations, they were able to 'set things straight'.

In 1915, Orville decided to sell the company to an Eastern company and start another company known as the Wright Aeronautical Corporation. Up until the United States entering World War I, there were many patent infringements and suits that slowed the progress of flight here, while huge advances were being made in Europe. During the War, the Wright Company was forced to work with competitor Glenn Curtiss and to produce a radial air-cooled plane invented by Robert Lawrence. After this, the Wright Company became a common plane manufacturer. Orville continued research and experimentation in his lab, but failed to invent anything else as spectacular as the first aircraft.

Clockwise From Top: Modern 737 Jet, B-25 (WWII fighter), and B-2 Spirit (Modern day stealth bomber)

Changing the World

The impact across the world at the time was tremendous. For many years, inventors tried to make planes be larger, hold more weight, fly faster, and help in warfare as well as transportation. This search to improve is still ongoing today, but is very different from that of the time of the early part of the twentieth century. The first idea for the plane was the bomber, which was a basically a plane with a pilot who drops bombs out of the side. This idea expanded and by World War II 30 years later, bombers could hold hundreds of bombs, carry atomic weapons and fly safely and efficiently for hours and hundreds of miles. From this, the idea of planes as transportation was born which, instead of dropping its cargo, carries it to the final destination. Today, planes can carry hundreds of people for thousands of miles over the course of about 10 hours.

The Wright brothers expanded the huge science of flight to the world, which created a massive increase in the idea of flight for warfare and transportation. If it weren't for these two men, powered flight would have undoubtedly been discovered, but not as early as it was.

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