Wright brothers


The Wright Brothers, Orville Wright (1871 - 1948) and Wilbur Wright (1867 -
1912), are credited with the invention of the airplane and controllable
powered heavier-than-air flight.

The brothers grew up in Dayton, Ohio, where they ran a bicycle repair,
design and manufacturing company (the Wright Cycle Company). Drawing on the
work of Sir George Cayley, they extended the technology of flight with the
principles of control still used today. They had researched and initially
relied upon the aeronautical literature of the day, including Otto
Lilienthal's tables but, finding that the Smeaton Coefficient, a variable in
the formula for lift and the formula for drag was wrong, designed and built
a wind tunnel to perform practical tests.

In 1900 they went to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to continue their
aeronautical work, choosing Kitty Hawk (actually Kill Devil Hill) because of
its strong and steady winds. They experimented with gliders at Kitty Hawk in
1901 and 1902. On March 23, 1903 they applied for a patent for their
airplane design. In winter of 1903, they built the Flyer, carved propellors
and built an engine in their bicycle shop in Dayton. Then on December 17,
1903 Orville Wright took to the air. Orville's uncontrolled flight, of 120
feet in 12 seconds, was recorded in a famous photograph. In the fourth
flight of the same day, the only flight made that day which was actually
controlled, Wilbur Wright flew 852 feet in 59 seconds. (See:
http://www.thewrightbrothers.org/fivefirstflights.html )

The Wrights established a flying field at Huffman Prairie, near Dayton, and
continued work in 1904, using a catapult takeoff system to compensate for
the lack of wind in this location. By the end of the year, the Wright
brothers had sustained flights of 5 minutes, circling over Huffman Prairie.
It is now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The Wright brothers invited only a few witnesses to their early flights, in
order to protect their patent rights.

The brothers became world famous in 1908 and 1909 when Wilbur toured Europe
demonstrating their aeroplane, while Orville demonstrated the flyer to the
United States Army at Ft. Meyer.

The Wright brothers brought great attention to flying by Wilbur's flight
around the Statue of Liberty in New York in 1909.

Others claimed to have built heavier-than-air machines capable of flying
under their own power. Karl Jatho flew with his self-made motored gliding
airplane already in 1903 and was able to start without the aid of a
catapult. Samuel Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,
attempted to fly his "Aerodrome" weeks before the Wrights flew. Although his
attempts failed, the Smithsonian Institution continued to boast that his
Aerodrome was the first machine "capable of flight." Another claimant was
Richard Pearse.

However, the Wright brothers' three-axis system of control, using wing
warping (later supplanted by ailerons) to control roll, elevators to control
pitch and angle of attack and a rudder to control yaw, made flight stable
and sustainable. The same principles are still in use in all modern aircraft.

Controversy in the credit for invention of the airplane has been fueled by
the Wrights' secrecy while their patent was prepared, by the pride of
nations, and by the number of firsts made possible by the basic invention.
See Aviation history.

See Paul Laurence Dunbar for the Wrights' contributions to the career of the
distinguished African American poet.

The Wrights took over 300 photographs of flights and many other events of
those pioneer days of aviation. On the occasion of the opening of the new
Hangar-7 on August 22, 2003 at Salzburg Airport, this pictorial legacy will
be on display for the first time in Europe in a exhibition.