Download pptx - The Wright Brothers. Chapter 2, Lesson 1 Chapter Overview The Wright Brothers Developing Aircraft

The Wright BrothersThe Wright Brothers

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

Chapter OverviewChapter Overview

The Wright Brothers

Developing Aircraft

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

How the Wright Brothers Succeeded in the First Flight


All pilots face three challenges: Get up in the air Stay up Control the craft

Pilots experimented in flight with: Models Full-size gliders Manned and powered, full-size aircraft

Chapter 2, Lesson 1



The Wrights chose a glider as their starting point

They could focus first on balancing and controlling the aircraft

Power (an engine) could come later They applied what they learned at each

step to make the next one go more smoothly

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

Step One: Unmanned Box Kite


The Wrights’ kite had A five-foot wingspan

and biplane structure Struts that connected

the upper and lower wings

Bracing strung diagonally between the struts

Courtesy of the Air Force Historical Research Agency

Chapter 2, Lesson 1



They discovered that they didn’t need to tilt an entire wing to turn the craft:

Needed to twist only the ends of the wings

They called this process “wing warping” In the summer of 1899, Wilbur Wright

successfully tested the kite in a field

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

Step Two: Manned Gilders

Step Two: Manned Gilders

Between 1900 and 1902, the brothers built three gliders

They wanted to test it for control and liftOnly after doing this would they put a

man aboard

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Wright GlidersWright Gliders

The early glider experiments taught the brothers three important things:

How to control climb and descent The best design for the shape of the wing How large the wing area had to be to

sustain lift

Courtesy of Wright State University

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

The First Glider (1900)The First Glider (1900)

In their experiments in 1900, the Wrights placed an elevator at the front of the glider

Earlier designers mounted elevators behind the wings

But the Wrights found it easier to control climb and descent when the elevator was placed forward

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

The First GliderThe First Glider

They also focused on airfoil—a wing’s profileZeroed in on curve of the wingTried to design a wing that shifted the center

of pressure toward the front edge of the wing

Placed the highest point of the wing’s arc closer to the outer edge than to the center—to create greater stability and control

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

The First GliderThe First Glider

The brothers test-flew their glider at Kill Devil Hills in 1900

It didn’t crash, but clearly improvements were necessary

The Wrights headed back to Ohio to build the next version

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The Second Glider (1901)The Second Glider (1901)

The first glider didn’t have nearly enough lift So for their 1901 glider, the brothers

increased the wing area to 290 square feet This glider was also a big disappointment The brothers couldn’t control it well when

they tested it at Kill Devil Hills It flew less than 300 feet—time to return to

Dayton!

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The Wind TunnelThe Wind Tunnel

The brothers built a wind tunnel in their bicycle shop to test model-size wings

Made them of sheet steel Cut more than 200 model

wings of different shapes


Chapter 2, Lesson 1

The Third Glider (1902)The Third Glider (1902)

This glider had two fixed, vertical rudders behind the wings

Test flights showed that this resulted in erratic behavior during turns

So the Wrights tried a single, movable, vertical rudder

This improved control

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

The Third GliderThe Third Glider

The third glider had:Forward elevatorElliptical shapeLonger, skinnier wingsWing area of 305 feetLow angle of attack

This design was a success The brothers took to the air in the North

Carolina dunes more than 700 times in the fall of 1902

Courtesy of NASA

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

Step Three: A Manned, Powered Aircraft

Step Three: A Manned, Powered Aircraft

The brothers set out to fit their plane with an engine

They tried to buy one ready made

But no one met their needs or price

So they had their bicycle mechanic, Charles E. Taylor, build them a four-cylinder, 12-horsepower engine

The 1903 Engine viewed from the side

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

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DelaysDelays

In September 1903 they returned to Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills

First they had to build a trolley track to give their powered aircraft a running start

Bad weather also caused delays The brothers tossed a coin, and Wilbur won However, on the first test flight of the Wright

Flyer, he crashed it It took three days to repair the damaged craft

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

First Flight!First Flight!

On 17 December, Orville took the controls The Flyer rose into the air and stayed aloft

for 12 seconds and traveled 120 feet Orville had made the first controlled,

sustained, heavier-than-air human flight with a powered aircraft

The brothers took turns piloting the Flyer for three more flights

The fourth and final launch lasted 59 seconds, and the craft traveled 852 feet

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Dec 17, 1903, 10:35 A.M., Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

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Anatomy of the Wright FlyerAnatomy of the Wright Flyer

Equipped with an engine and propellers Biplane with wingspan of 40 feet, four inches,

and a wing area of 510 square feet Wings had spars and ribs (covered in muslin) Struts and bracing between top and bottom

wings Plane also had a front elevator Rudder at the rear (covered in muslin) Skids rather than wheels

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Anatomy of the Wright Flyer Anatomy of the Wright Flyer


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How the Flyer WorkedHow the Flyer Worked

The brothers controlled their craft with:

the forward elevator (pitch) the use of wing warping (roll) a single, movable rear rudder (yaw)

Surprisingly, the pilot did not sit upright

The pilot lay on his stomach in a padded cradle on the lower wing

Courtesy of Comstock Images

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

How the Flyer Worked How the Flyer Worked

To the pilot’s left was a lever that he used to control the up-and-down movement of the elevator

By moving his hips, he pulled on the cables connected to the wings and rudder (directing the plane left or right)With the new, flexible rudder, the plane finally turned

in the intended directionThe cables attached to the wings twisted one wing

down while forcing the other wing up

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Principles of Airplane FlightPrinciples of Airplane Flight

To get the Wright Flyer off the ground, the brothers had to solve the principles of flight:

Lift Drag Thrust Angle of attack Center of pressure Airfoil Shape Relative wind

Orville and Wilbur assembling the 1903 Flyer (detail)

Courtesy of “Wright State University

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

Principles of Airplane FlightPrinciples of Airplane Flight

An engine and propellers gave Wilbur and Orville the ability to use not only lift but also thrust to propel their plane

Vertically mounted propellers could provide the airflow for thrust

They needed 90 pounds of thrust to propel the Wright Flyer

Their 12-horsepower engine and the large propellers proved equal to the task

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

Wright Brothers’ Involvement With the US Army


The Wright brothers continued refining their airplane

In January 1905, they had contacted their representative in Congress (R. M. Nevin) and tried to interest the US government in buying their airplane

Their offer was turned down

Chapter 2, Lesson 1



The British and French governments were interested in buying the Flyer

But the brothers wanted the US government to have the first crack at owning a Wright Flyer

On 22 May 1906 they received a government patent for their invention

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The Wright Brothers’ PatentThe Wright Brothers’ Patent

Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

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Bids for a Government Plane Bids for a Government Plane

On 23 December 1907, Gen James Allen sent out a request for bids to build a plane for the government

The Wright Flyer met the bid requirements

Orville Wright signed a contract on 10 February 1908 selling the Flyer to the US government

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

The Challenge

They had to build a flying machine that:Has a speed of 40 miles per hourCan carry two people (350 pounds)Has sufficient fuel for 125 miles nonstopCan be controllable in flight in any directionCan fly for 1 hour, land at the takeoff pointHas a simple & transportable starting deviceCan land in a field without being damageTrain 2 pilots for the Army

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Ways the Wright Brothers Contributed to Army Aviation

Ways the Wright Brothers Contributed to Army Aviation

Orville spent much of 1908 and 1909 improving the Flyer

He made more test flights and took up military passengers

One such flight tragically ended in a crash that seriously injured Orville and killed 1st Lt Thomas Selfridge—the first US military aviation casualty

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

Ways the Wright BrothersContributed to Army Aviation

Ways the Wright BrothersContributed to Army Aviation

The brothers switched roles in mid-1909 Wilbur trained two pilots for the Army—1st Lt Frank P.

Lahm and 2d Lt Fredric E. Humphreys A third pilot, 1st Lt Benjamin Foulois, got instruction

late that month Foulois went on to fly in WWI and achieve the rank of

major general and Chief of the Army Air Corps

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Army AirplanesArmy Airplanes

It took a while for the Army to decide how to use airplanes during war

At first, the Army thought that airplanes would be useful only for aerial reconnaissance

World War I brought about a change in strategy

But before that could happen, airplanes needed improvements to make them faster, sturdier, and more reliable

Chapter 2, Lesson 1

Next….Next….

Done—the Wright brothers

Next—developing aircraft

Courtesy of NASA