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| Sunday, 14 December 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Getting it Wright : The genius men and their flying machines The hundred-year anniversary of the invention of the airplane and the first flight by the Wright brothers on December 17, 1903 is celebrated this month through out the world and especially by the aviation community. To highlight this immortal event and recreate the atmosphere, drama and triumph an exact replica of the Flyer has been made to be flown at 10.35 a.m. from Kitty Hawk on December 17, 2003. Capt. Ken Hyde (64), retired American Airline pilot has been commissioned by the Experimental Aircraft Association of Oshkosh Wisconsin, USA to reconstruct the Wright plane for the anniversary flight. Diverse This project is funded by the Ford Motor Company and private donations. Ken Hyde worked with a diverse group of artisan, mechanics, and engineers from NASA and Aerospace to re-build this replica Flyer. To glean the secrets of the Wright Brothers, the team carried out exhaustive and detail research for many months. This replica Flyer is rebuilt to specifications, from original notes sketchy blue prints blurred photos, notes and diagrams scribbled by the brothers in small pocket size note books - and few rare surviving pieces from various Wright's airplanes. Even the fabric that covered the wings were specially made to originals by a manufacture from the original sample (from a large piece of the original fabric owned and preserved by Mary Anne Miller Hudec (68) - great-grand niece of the Wright brothers. To her it is holier than a shroud of Turin). This replica is a more accurate copy of the plane Orville flew in 1903, than the original Wright plane that is suspended above the lobby of Smithsonian's Air and Space museum in Washington DC. The Smithsonian plane is assembled partly from pieces of the 1903 plane after it crashed and partly from pieces cannibalised from other Wright machines. This plane has no flight quality. The replica is flight-tested in a NASA wind tunnel at Langley, Virginia. The pilot to fly this replica is trained on a special simulator. Wright brothers. Wilbur (1867-1912) and Orville (1871-1948) were the sons of Milton Wright a bishop of the United Brothren in Christ. Wibur was born in Indiana and Orville in Dayaton in Ohio. From early school days the brothers showed an aptitude for any thing mechanical; repairing farm equipment and god handy man around the house. Orville began a printing business with a home made press and found a weekly newspaper. In 1892 they opened a bicycle sale and repair shop in Dayaton, by 1893 they were manufacturing their special "Van Clever Bicycles among other things they also ran a "Fruit and Florist Shop." They were very close, and were confirmed bachelors. The Wright brothers early became interested in flying and began to study the subject seriously, they were inspired by the works and designs of men like Leonardo da Vinci, Otto Lilienthal the Montrolfier Brothers who were experimenting with kites and gliders both manned and unmanned which were really uncontrolled hops. Otto Lilienthal who crashed to death from an uncontrolled glider from 600 ft in 1806 captured the attention of the Wright brothers, and they decided finally and came to the conclusion that only a machine with directional control self-propelled would make their dream come true. Experiments They wrote to Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC and received information about efforts to fly by other experiments including Otto Lilienthal and S. P. Langly. In 1900-1901 they tried out their man-carrying gliders in the sand dunes at Kitty Hawk. Since these gliders did not fly to expectations they built a wind tunnel in which they tried out some 209 models of miniature wings of difference shape. From these they made a set of tables of air pressure on wing surfaces. Earlier experimenters have devised means for steering and balancing aircraft. But the Wright brothers were the first to develop an effective combination of the wing tip 'warping' for lateral balance together with a vertical rudder to correct yaw. The warping principle led to the development of Ailerons on modern aircrafts. They built a new glider and flew it at Kitty Hawk in August 1902, which was far better than anything previously tried. They made nearly a 1000 flights, surpassing all earlier records for glider flights with distances over 600 ft and durations of more than a minute in the air. This new glider performances by Wilber surpassed the brother's expectations and they decided therefore to end the test of man carrying gliders, concentrating on powered flights, since they have solved all the flying problems and honed all the control mechanism. They were also confident that they could fly a powered version of their glider plane. They selected Larch a strong but light wood to build a new airframe. The wing ribs were Ash and Spruce. The wings from tip to tip was 40 ft and was covered with Muslin (a fine strong cotton cloth) called "The pride of the West." |
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