Wright brothers

Wright Brothers

Wilbur Wright

Orville Wright

Original photograph of the first flight with engine of history on March 17, 1903. To Orville Wright commands; to the right, his brother Wilbur.

The Wright brothers, Wilbur (Millville, Indiana, April 16, 1867-Dayton, Ohio, May 30, 1912) and Orville (Dayton, Ohio, August 19, 1871-30 January 1948), were two aviators, engineers, inventors, and aviation pioneers, generally jointly named, and recognized worldwide as those who successfully invented, built, and flew the world's first airplane, although there is some controversy. about it.

By launching it into the air with an external catapult, a short flight was achieved, long enough to test the plane's travel and control system. Its first flight is said to have been made on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, aboard the Flyer I.

His great contribution to flight was travel control through rolling. Until then, existing aircraft had designs that made them difficult to control because the need to tilt the wings to change direction had not been considered.

They built a kind of wind tunnel to measure the lift produced by different profiles at different angles of attack. They flew a 35 kg airplane, built with the heavy materials of the time, with an engine of only 12 horsepower (currently a similar 23 kg ULM flies with 54 hp). The current reproductions of the Flyer I are very difficult to fly, even in the hands of expert pilots, since they need an external boost provided, for example, by a catapult.

On May 22, 1903, the Wright Brothers patented their invention: the airplane, at the US Patent Office.

The brothers had finished the plane in 1903 and were trying to sell it to different countries; France, England and the United States itself were interested. But the Wright brothers did not want to show the plane until there was a signed contract with a commitment to purchase. No one wanted to sign the contract without seeing the planes (it was all believed to be a hoax because almost no one had ever seen the brothers fly, especially since they were geeks of the time with few media friends.) and they couldn't sell them if they taught it lightly.

They had a patent on a method of flight, but it had been difficult for them to obtain and it was not a guarantee of anything, especially outside the United States.

Origins

During the 1890s, the brothers became interested in aviation, especially with the idea of building and flying a heavier-than-air aircraft that could take off under its own power. At that time, both managed a bicycle factory in Dayton, Ohio, United States, and began to read and study aviation-related books and documents with great interest. Following Lilienthal's ideas, in 1899 they began to build gliders. At the end of the century, they began to make their first successful flights with their prototypes, in Kitty Hawk (North Carolina), a place chosen because in that area they could find constant winds, which also blew in the same direction, thus facilitating flights. with gliders. In addition, the area had a flat ground, which made landings easier.

After carrying out several tests and flights with gliders, they decided, in 1902, to make a heavier-than-air plane. They became the first team of designers to carry out serious tests to try to solve certain aerodynamic, control and power problems, which affected the airplanes manufactured at that time. For a successful flight, engine power and aircraft control would be essential, and at the same time the aircraft needed to be well controlled. The tests were difficult, but the Wrights were persevering. At the same time, they manufactured an engine with the desired power, and solved the flight control problems, thanks to a technique called roll, little used in the history of aviation, but which worked at the low speeds at which the plane would fly..

The plane they made was a biplane they called the Flyer (Spanish: Volador). The pilot remained lying on the lower wing of the plane, while the engine was located to the right of the other wing, and turned two propellers located between the wings. The roll technique consisted of ropes attached to the wingtips, which the pilot could pull or release, allowing the aircraft to rotate about the longitudinal and vertical axes, allowing the pilot to be in control of the aircraft. The Flyer was endowed with longitudinal and vertical maneuverability. It was an important improvement in the way of maneuvering compared to Otto Lilienthal's gliders, which, although they already allowed control of the aircraft, was mainly carried out by moving the crew member himself to change the center of gravity, in a similar way to how on modern hang gliders.

Wright Brothers Inventions

The Wright brothers are credited with the first prolonged and verified powered flight on December 17, 1903; from then on the evolution of aircraft was extremely slow. But this was not a reason for the inventions of Wilbur and Orville Wright to stop.

From the first flight of the Wright Flyer, they made three more flights, the best being the last one with 260 meters covered in 59 seconds. It had a four-cylinder, 12-hp, water-cooled engine driving a pair of propeller propellers, via a chain drive.

With the glider n.3 (1902) the Wrights perfected the control system. A rear movable rudder worked with a rotary fin to compensate for drag caused by the aileron-tip rotary system, facilitating smooth banked turns.

Chosen by the aristocracy

Model A was piloted by various important figures, including Charles de Lambert. In 1909 he made his most important flight when he covered 116 kilometers in less than two hours.