Wright flyer

For their first aircraft, the Wright brothers made wooden propellers, a gasoline engine (together with Charlie Taylor) and a spruce frame. The cost of building Flyer-1 was less than a thousand dollars, which is significantly less than the $ 50,000 received by Samuel Langley for the construction of his Aerodrome . The Flyer-1 had a wingspan of 12 m, weighed 283 kg, and was equipped with a 9 kW engine and a weight of 77 kg.

Propellers

The Wright brothers believed that the propeller model would be a simple matter and planned to use calculations for ship propellers. However, their library research did not lead to finding any basic formulas for sea or propellers, and they found themselves without a starting point in this matter. They discussed and argued for a long time about this, until they came to the conclusion that the propeller is essentially the same wing, only rotating in the vertical plane ^[1] . On this basis, they used the data of a larger number of tests in a wind tunnel to design propellers. In the final version, the diameter of the propeller was 2.6 m, the blades were made of three glued pieces of spruce. The Wright brothers chose a double “propelling” propeller (counter-rotating to quench torque), which should act on a larger volume of air than a single relatively slow propeller, and will not affect the air flow along the leading edge of the wings.

Wilber made an entry in his notebook in March 1903 that the prototype propeller had an efficiency of 66%. Modern tests in the wind tunnel of the propellers of the 1903 model showed that they had an efficiency of more than 75% in the conditions of the first flights, and in fact had a maximum efficiency of 82%. This is a great achievement, given that modern wooden propellers have a maximum efficiency of 85% ^[2] .

Engine

The Wright brothers also needed an engine for their aircraft. They wrote to several engine manufacturers, but none of them could satisfy their weight requirements for an aircraft engine. They turned to their store mechanic, Charlie Taylor , who built the engine six weeks later in constant consultation with the brothers. To keep the engine low enough, its main parts were made of aluminum, which was rare at the time. The Wright-Taylor engine was a primitive version of modern injection systems ; it had neither a carburetor nor a fuel pump . Gasoline flowed under its weight into the crankcase through a rubber tube from the fuel tank mounted on the wing strut.

The chain transmission chain resembled a similar bicycle , but it was produced by an enterprise producing heavy-duty chains for automobile engines ^[3] .

The first attempt to take off by plane was made by Wilber on December 14, 1903 , winning the right to fly first to toll, however, the plane crashed immediately after take-off, “Flyer-1” was slightly injured. In a letter to the family, Wilber wrote that the test brought “only partial success”, stating that “the power is quite enough, and if it were not for a trifling mistake and lack of experience with this machine and this start method, the machine would certainly fly beautifully” ^{[4 ]} . After the repair, the Wright brothers finally took off on December 17, 1903 , making two flights, each from ground level with a headwind at a speed of 43 km / h. Orville made his first flight, he flew 36.5 meters in 12 seconds, this flight was recorded on a famous photograph. Wilber made the next flight, having been in the air for 13 seconds, and overcoming a distance of 53 meters. The third flight had a duration of 15 seconds and a range of 60.5 meters. The height of these flights was about 3 meters above ground level ^[5] . Record Orville Wright about the last flight on this day:

Immediately after noon, Will departed for the fourth, and last, flight. The car made jumps up and down, as before, but by the time it flew 300 feet, Will felt that it is controlled much better and moves remarkably smoothly. This happened until the device reached a small hillock located at a distance of about 800 feet from the launch site. At this time, the pitching began again, and at one point in the dive the car crashed into the ground. The distance covered in this flight was 852 feet, the flight time was 59 seconds. The front wheel frame was badly damaged, but the main frame did not suffer at all. We appreciated that the machine could be put in satisfactory condition for flights again in a day or two.

Original text

Wilbur started the fourth and last flight at just about 12 o'clock. The first few hundred feet were up and down, as before, but by the time three hundred feet had had covered, the machine was under much better control. The course for the next four or five hundred feet had but little undulation. However, when out about eight hundred feet the machine began pitching again, and, in one of its darts downward, struck the ground. The distance over the ground was measured to be 852 ft; the time of the flight was 59 seconds. The frame supporting the front rudder was badly broken, but the main part of the machine was not injured at all. We estimated that the machine could be put in condition for flight again in about a day or two. ^[6]

Five people were witnesses of flights: Adam Etheridge, John Daniels and Will Doug from the coast rescue team; area businessman W.S. Brinkley; and Johnny Moore, a country boy, which allows us to consider these flights as the first public flights. The telegraph operator, who transmitted the telegram to their father, became a source of information leakage against the brothers' wishes, and very inaccurate messages appeared in several newspapers the next day ^[7] .

After the men towed Flyer back after his fourth flight, a powerful gust of wind turned him over several times, despite attempts to prevent this. Heavily damaged, the plane no longer took off.

Publications in the press attracted the attention of well-known businessmen from the Godfrey and Samuel Cabot brothers. sent congratulations to the Wright brothers and asked for a detailed description of the car. Upon receiving an answer, Godfrey sent a message to his distant relative, a senator from pc. Massachusetts , a close friend of President Theodore Roosevelt . Lodge, in turn, passed information about the Wright’s car to the Ministry of Defense, but this did not produce a result ^[8] .

The aircraft is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Aviation and Cosmonautics . However, this was preceded by disputes and litigation between the Wright Brothers and the Smithsonian Institution due to the latter's refusal to recognize the priority of the first flight for the Wright Brothers.

Data Source: ^[9]

Specifications

• Crew : 1 person
• Length : 6.4 m
• Wing span : 12.3 m
• Height : 2.7 m
• Wing area: 47 m ²
• Empty weight: 274 kg
• Curb weight: 338 kg
• Powerplant : 1 × inline four-cylinder engine
• Engine power: 1 × 12 hp ^[ten]

Flight characteristics

• Maximum speed: 48 km / h
• Wing load: 7kg / m ²

• Wright brothers
• Wright flyer ii

• Wright Flyer in the Encyclopedia "Corner of the Sky"
• Nasa.gov
• Wrightflyer.org
• Wrightexperience.com
• Under The Hood of A Wright Flyer Air & Space Magazine
• 1942 Smithsonian Annual Report acknowledging primacy of the Wright Flyer
• History of the Wright Flyer Wright State University Library