Inventions | Airplane

The invention: The first heavier-than-air craft to fly, the airplane revolutionized transportation and symbolized the technological advances of the twentieth century.

The people behind the invention:

Wilbur Wright (1867-1912), an American inventor

Orville Wright (1871-1948), an American inventor

Octave Chanute (1832-1910), a French-born American civil engineer

Although people have dreamed about flying since the time of the ancient Greeks, it was not until the late eighteenth century that hotair balloons and gliders made human flight possible. It was not until the late nineteenth century that enough experiments had been done with kites and gliders that people could begin to think seriously about powered, heavier-than-air flight. Two of these people were Wilbur and Orville Wright.

TheWright brothers were more than just tinkerers who accidentally found out how to build a flying machine. In 1899,Wilbur wrote the Smithsonian Institution for a list of books to help them learn about flying. They used the research of people such as George Cayley, Octave Chanute, Samuel Langley, and Otto Lilienthal to help them plan their own experiments with birds, kites, and gliders.

They even built their own wind tunnel. They never fully trusted the results of other people’s research, so they repeated the experiments

of others and drew their own conclusions. They shared these results with Octave Chanute, who was able to offer them lots of good advice.

They were continuing a tradition of excellence in engineering that began with careful research and avoided dangerous trial and

error.

Before the brothers had set their minds to flying, they had built and repaired bicycles. This was a great help to them when they put their research into practice and actually built an airplane. From building bicycles, they knew how to work with wood and metal to make a lightweight but sturdy machine. Just as important, from riding bicycles, they got ideas about how an airplane needed to work.

They could see that both bicycles and airplanes needed to be fast and light. They could also see that airplanes, like bicycles, needed to

be kept under constant control to stay balanced, and that this control would probably take practice. This was a unique idea. Instead

of building something solid that was controlled by levers and wheels like a car, theWright brothers built a flexible airplane that was controlled

partly by the movement of the pilot, like a bicycle. The result was the 1903 Wright Flyer. The Flyer had two sets of

wings, one above the other, which were about 12 meters from tip to tip. They made their own 12-horsepower engine, as well as the two

propellers the engine spun. The craft had skids instead of wheels.

On December 14, 1903, theWright brothers took the Wright Flyer to the shores of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where Wilbur Wright made the first attempt to fly the airplane. The first thing Wilbur found was that flying an airplane was not as easy as riding a bicycle. One wrong move sent him tumbling into the sand only moments after takeoff.Wilbur was not seriously hurt, but a few more days were needed to repair the Wright Flyer.

On December 17, 1903, at 10:35 a.m., after eight years of research and planning, OrvilleWright took to the air for a historic twelve seconds. He covered 37 meters of ground and 152 meters of air space. Both brothers took two flights that morning. On the fourth flight, Wilbur flew for fifty-nine seconds over 260 meters of ground and through more than 800 meters of air space. After he had landed, a sudden gust of wind struck the plane, damaging it beyond repair. Yet no one was able to beat their record for three years.

Those first flights in 1903 got little publicity. Only a few people, such as Octave Chanute, understood the significance of the Wright

brothers’ achievement. For the next two years, they continued to work on their design, and by 1905 they had built theWright Flyer III.

Although Chanute tried to get them to enter flying contests, the brothers decided to be cautious and try to get their machine patented

first, so that no one would be able to steal their ideas.

News of their success spread slowly through the United States and Europe, giving hope to others who were working on airplanes of their own. When the Wright brothers finally went public with the Wright Flyer III, they inspired many new advances. By 1910, when the brothers started flying in air shows and contests, their feats were matched by another American, Glen Hammond Curtiss. The age of

the airplane had arrived.

Later in the decade, the Wright brothers began to think of military uses for their airplanes. They signed a contract with the U.S.

Army Signal Corps and agreed to train military pilots. Aside from these achievements, the brothers from Dayton, Ohio, set the standard for careful research and practical experimentation. 

They taught the world not only how to fly but also how to design airplanes. Indeed, their methods of purposeful, meaningful, and highly organized research had an impact not only on airplane design but also on the field of aviation science in general.