Wrights on a mission

Listen to this article:

Wrights on a mission

WRIGHT brothers Wilbur and Orville made history 114 years ago, one week shy of Christmas on December 17, 1903, for piloting the first powered airplane 20 feet (6 metres) above a wind-swept beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the US.

The flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet (36 metres). Three more flights were made that day with Orville’s brother Wilbur piloting the record flight lasting 59 seconds over a distance of 852 feet (258 metres).

Today, as we approach Christmas, the year 2017 is ending and we look forward to 2018, let’s pause for a minute as we arrive at the very historic day 114 years ago — a day that changed the course of history for the globalisation of aviation and developments to take us from a simple home fabricated machine with a flight that lasted only 12 seconds, to the supersonic era — where one can travel faster than the speed of sound.

Travelling on majestic and gigantic 747 Boeing Jumbo Jets or A380 Air Bus planes in colourful livery, taking-off or landing at an airport with grace and composure, is a great feat of human endeavour itself.

Human beings should awe at the sheer mechanical-hydraulic electronic and electrical engineering; not to mention the avionics, aeronautical design, aerodynamic control systems and the material architecture of these majestic aircraft.

These two “aviators, engineers, inventors, and aviation pioneers” are credited with “inventing, building, and flying” the world’s first successful airplane. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft on this famous historical day December 17, 1903 — four miles south of Kitty Hawk in the American state of North Carolina.

In 1904-05, the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible.

The brothers’ fundamental breakthrough was their invention of three-axis control, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium.

This method became and remains standard on fixed-wing aircraft of all kinds. From the beginning of their aeronautical work, the Wright brothers focused on developing a reliable method of pilot control as the key to solving “the flying problem”.

This approach differed significantly from other experimenters of the time who put more emphasis on developing powerful engines. Their first US patent, 821,393, did not claim invention of a flying machine, but rather, the invention of a system of aerodynamic control that manipulated a flying machine’s surfaces.

Orville was born on August 19, 1871 at Dayton, Ohio and died on January 30, 1948 in the same city, at the age of 76. He had three-years of high school education, and listed his occupation as printer/publisher, bicycle retailer/manufacturer, airplane inventor/manufacturer and pilot trainer.

Wilbur was born on April 16, 1867 at Millville, Indiana and died on May 30, 1912 at the young age of only 45. He had four years of high school education, and listed his occupation as editor, bicycle retailer/manufacturer, airplane inventor/manufacturer and pilot trainer.

The Wright brothers were two of seven children born to Milton Wright (1828-1917), of English and Dutch ancestry, and Susan Catherine Koerner (1831-1889), of German and Swiss ancestry.

In 1878 their father, who travelled often as a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, brought home a toy helicopter for his two younger sons. The device was based on an invention of French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Penaud.

Made of paper, bamboo and cork with a rubber band to twirl its rotor, it was about a foot long. Wilbur and Orville played with it until it broke, and then built their own. In later years, they pointed to their experience with the toy as the spark of their interest in flying.

Both brothers attended high school, but did not receive diplomas. The family’s abrupt move in 1884 from Richmond, Indiana to Dayton, Ohio, where the family had lived during the 1870s, prevented Wilbur from receiving his diploma after finishing four years of high school. The diploma was awarded posthumously to Wilbur on April 16, 1994, which would have been his 127th birthday.

In early 1886, Wilbur was struck in the face by a hockey stick while playing an ice-skating game with friends, resulting in the loss of his front teeth. He had been vigorous and athletic until then, and although his injuries did not appear especially severe, he became withdrawn. He had planned to attend Yale. Instead, he spent the next few years largely housebound.

During this time he cared for his mother, who was terminally ill with tuberculosis, read extensively in his father’s library and ably assisted his father during times of controversy within the Brethren Church, but also expressed unease over his own lack of ambition.

Orville dropped out of high school after his junior year to start a printing business in 1889, having designed and built his own printing press with Wilbur’s help.

Wilbur joined the print shop, and in March the brothers launched a weekly newspaper, the West Side News. Subsequent issues listed Orville as publisher and Wilbur as editor on the masthead.

In April 1890, they converted the paper to a daily, The Evening Item, but it lasted only four months. They then focused on commercial printing.

The brothers began their experimentation in flight in 1896 at their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. They selected the beach at Kitty Hawk as their proving ground because of the constant wind that added lift to their craft. In 1902, they came to the beach with their glider and made more than 700 successful flights.

They gained the mechanical skills essential for their success by working for years in their shop with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and other machinery.

Their work with bicycles in particular influenced their belief that an unstable vehicle like a flying machine could be controlled and balanced with practice.

Edward Roach, historian for the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park argues that they were excellent self-taught engineers who could run a small company, but they did not have the business skills or temperament to dominate the sudden growth in the aviation industry, after their achievement.

History was again made, when wooden and fabric material belonging to the Wright “Kitty Hawk” that made the history’s first powered, controlled flight on December 17, 1903 was carried to the surface of the moon. The wood was from the left propeller and the fabric from the upper left wing.

In a Command File, Neil A. Armstrong, under his own signature on January 26, 1970, has certified that “the wooden and fabric materials provided by the Air Force Museum were placed abroad Apollo 11 and carried to the surface of the moon by the lunar module “Eagle” on mankind’s first lunar landing, July 20, 1969″.

* Dr Sushil K Sharma is a former British Aerospace Aviation Meteorologist seconded to the Royal Saudi Air Force and presently is an associate professor of meteorology at the Fiji National University. Views expressed are his and not of this newspaper or his employer.

Array
(
    [post_type] => post
    [post_status] => publish
    [orderby] => date
    [order] => DESC
    [update_post_term_cache] => 
    [update_post_meta_cache] => 
    [cache_results] => 
    [category__in] => 1
    [posts_per_page] => 4
    [offset] => 0
    [no_found_rows] => 1
    [date_query] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [after] => Array
                        (
                            [year] => 2023
                            [month] => 12
                            [day] => 29
                        )

                    [inclusive] => 1
                )

        )

)

No Posts found for specific category