Continued, page two. The Wright Flyer:
The Wrights had no illusions about the 1903 flyer. It was not a practical airplane. Rather, it was a "proof of concept" machine, and that's how they treated it. They just wanted to know that they were right, and that they could safely lay claim to their patent rights. They said that the airplane they built in 1905 was "practical" because it could fly circles as well as distances, and could be relied upon to stay in the air as long as necessary..more or less.
But the fact remains that it did fly four times that day. Here are some intimate glimpses of the machine itself:
They had to build their own power system because no automobile dealer wanted his engine associated with "two nuts who thought they could fly." The truth was that none of the manufacturers had an engine that weighed less than 200 pounds. The Wrights' bicycle machinist, Charlie Taylor, turned out one that was about 152 pounds, dry, and could develop 16 brake horsepower. It used about 12 hp on December 17th, 1903. In the picture, that long tank on the left is for cooling fluid, the smaller tank on the right is for gas.
It looks like a bicycle chain, but nobody could pedal a bike with a chain that big.
They had their chains made at a foundry in Dayton, and, according to the Smithsonian, the patterns exist today.
In their genius, the brothers crossed, or twisted, one the chains so that the propellers turned in contra-rotation, cancelling out torque. How's that for 1903 technology?
The flyer was instrumented. There was an annemometer, lent to them by their mentor Octave Chanute, and there was a stop watch. They knew they'd need documentation.
Look at how the wing was constructed. The fabric was sewn like a sock which slid over the framework and tacked in place.
The wingtip ends were actually buggy bows, made by a Dayton buggy manufacturer.
The airplane was designed to come apart in three sections (wingtips and center) for packing. That probably qualifies it as the world's first Ultra-Light.
The pilot's hips fit in a cradle that would slide to the left or right to operate the wing-warping system. By twisting the entire wingtips in opposing directions, the Wrights were able to bank the airplane into a turn. This system was later modified by their rival Glenn Curtiss, who built it into ailerons attached to struts half-way between the upper and lower wings of his airplane. Curtiss and the Wrights fought in the courts over patent rights.
