The Wrights first flew a controlled heavier-than-aircraft over a century ago, on this date in 1903. On the hundredth anniversary, I wrote three articles that are still worth reading if you haven’t, or rereading if you have. They contain a lot of lessons for spaceflight development.
[Update a couple minutes later]
I notice that the TCS Daily link from the old Instapundit post is busted. Here‘s another one.
One technical comment: I submit that the Wrights’ key breakthrough was coordinated bank-to-turn. Nobody else was doing that, and it’s the key to efficiently turning an airplane by putting a component of the wing lift in the horizontal plane to turn the velocity vector. When Wilbur Wright went to Europe in 1908, he amazed the French with deft maneuvering, including figure-8s, that no European airplane (all of which lumbered around wings level in turns) could remotely come close to.
The big moral of the overall story of the Wrights is, IMHO, you gotta sweat the details. They wouldn’t accept the word of an authority unless they could replicate the results. They found numerous errors in prevailing aerodynamic theory and came up with their own more correct theories. They tested, redesigned, tested, redesigned, tested, and redesigned some more. They flew early and often, and incorporated those results into new designs. They were not afraid of failure, as they knew that we learn by making mistakes. They were true engineers, believing in what works, not what the prevailing intellectual fashion might be. They are true American heroes.
What you are suggesting is nonsense. There should be no federal bailout of any irresponsible kleptocracy, which is what California and New York have become.
Further, they keep telling me that the Civil War established that a state cannot secede from the union. Now you’re saying that a state can become an un-state. Then maybe they could become an un-territory. Then maybe they could become an independent republic and we no longer would have to bother with cities that decide they don’t want to be part of the 50 states.
“The big moral of the overall story of the Wrights is, IMHO, you gotta sweat the details. They wouldn’t accept the word of an authority unless they could replicate the results. They found numerous errors in prevailing aerodynamic theory and came up with their own more correct theories.”
Yep, Rand, sounds like a mantra for one of our projects, doesn’t it? 🙂
I’ve read several biographies of the Wright Brothers. They remain two of my heros. Having nothing more than a good high school education (IIRC, Wilbur didn’t graduate) but having first rate minds, they accomplished something that many learned men considered impossible. Consider:
1. Being bicyclists, they instinctly knew the importance of having complete control over their vehicle in all axes. It appears no one else realized this fundamental truth and many insisted that the most important characteristic
of a flying machine was excessive stability.
2. When they found reason to suspect that Otto Lilienthal’s airfoil data were incorrect, they built their own wind tunnel and came up with a better set of airfoils.
3. Once they perfected their 1902 glider and taught themselves to fly it, they built their own piston engine. Finding no solid information on propellor design, they developed the understanding to build propellors that were as efficient as the best modern ones (tested to 80% efficiency).
They did it with no outside funding over a period of a few years for a total cost of about $1200 in then year money. It was said that no one man could solve all of the problems with building a successful airplane and that was true. It took two remarkable men.
Being bicyclists, they instinctly knew the importance of having complete control over their vehicle in all axes. It appears no one else realized this fundamental truth and many insisted that the most important characteristic of a flying machine was excessive stability.
I’ve read that there were two competing views at the time: 1) the plane should be inherently unstable (like a bicycle) and it was the job of the pilot to control it; and 2) the plane should be inherently stable, but the pilot could make it climb, dive, or turn.
The British went the “inherently stable” route, and their planes were routinely shot out of the sky in the early days of World War I by German planes which were more nimble and maneuverable.
larry, and then they spent the rest of their life running around suing people for making and flying airplanes.
Actually, no, at least not for Orville. When they were awarded their patent, they did sue those (e.g. Glenn Curtiss) who violated their patent. That was their right as patent holders. Curtiss and the Smithsonian tried to undermine the Wright patent by modifying Langley’s Aerodrome and flying it, fraudulently claiming it was the first aircraft capable of flight.
Wilbur Wright died in 1912. Orville lived until 1948. He did not spend the rest of his life suing people. As cited here:
The suit finally ended with the advent of World War I when the aircraft manufacturers established the Manufacturers’ Aircraft Association to coordinate wartime aircraft manufacturing in the United States and formed a patent pool with the approval of the U.S. government. All patent litigation ceased automatically. Royalties were reduced to one percent and free exchange of inventions and ideas took place among all the airframe builders.
This arrangement was to have lasted only for the duration of the war, but in 1918, at the war’s end, the litigation was never renewed. By this time, Orville had sold his interest in the Wright Company to a group of New York financiers and had retired from the business.