Wright Brothers - Research Paper Example

? We are the Wright Brothers the first to sustain controlled flight, powered flight Introduction The 19th and 20 centuries witnessed sustained efforts to design and develop flight. Human beings were realizing the increasing need for flight to facilitate human transport in the air in a more convenient and faster way. While the efforts to design and develop flight can be traced to periods before the 19th century when humans were imitating birds in flight, it is 19th century and early periods of 20th century, which witnessed real and tangible efforts that culminated to controlled and powered flight (Helfand and Banerjee, 2011). Subsequent years have seen rapid advancement in the aviation industry with better and advanced flights being developed. These flights have advanced technological capabilities and comfort. They are more comfortable, fast, and come with more attractive designs. The quest to realize controlled and powered flight began in earnest in 1891 when Otto Lilienthal worked to design a glider that can fly (Dixon-Engel and Jackson, 2007). He was the first person to design a glider that would fly a person, as well as being able to fly relatively long distances. He studied aerodynamics and he wrote a book that was later used by the Wright Brothers in their designs. The year 1891also saw Samuel Langley building a plane model called aerodrome. Although his efforts to develop a powered flight failed, he made important contributions that would help in developing powered flight in the future particularly by Wright Brothers (Anderson, 2004). In 1894, Octave Chanute undertook the invention of airplanes after being inspired by Otto Lilienthal. He designed several aircraft; the Herring was a particular aircraft that he designed and was the most successful deign and was the basis for the design of Wright biplane (Howard, 1998). He also published a book in 1894 called “Progress in Flying Machines”. This book contained all the technical knowledge about aviation at that time. The Wright Brothers this book as the basis of their experiments. It is important to note that Chanute was in constant contact with the Wright Brothers and made regular comments on their technical progress. Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright were deliberate in their quest for flight as evidenced by the fact that they spent many years learning all the early flight developments (Dixon-Engel and Jackson, 2007). They also read all the literature published up to that time about flight. Because of the knowledge that they acquired by reading and learning about flight, they started to test the early theories with kites and balloons. They also spent considerable amounts of time in learning and testing the shapes of gliders and how gliders could be controlled. The year 1903 witnessed a breakthrough in design and development of flight (O'Hern and Mayo, 2006). Wright Brothers were the first to sustain controlled flight, powered flight. Wright Brothers are the two American brothers who are credited as the earliest successful aviation inventors and pioneers. They are credited with inventing and developing the first successful airplane in the world, as well as making the first sustained, controlled, and powered heavier-than-air human flight on 17 December 1903 (Howard, 1998). Historians agree that even though the Wright Brother were not the first in building and flying experimental aircraft, they were the first in inventing aircraft controls that made possible the fixed-wing powered flight. In particular, they achieved a major breakthrough that other inventors had not achieved; they invented a three-axis control that enable the pilot to effectively steer the aircraft and at the same time maintain the aircraft’s equilibrium (O'Hern and Mayo, 2006). The significance of this method became standard in aviation and remains standard mainly on all kinds of fixed-wing aircraft. While the experimenters of the time were emphasizing on developing powerful aircraft engines, the Wright Brothers were focusing on how to develop a reliable method of pilot control. They considered this focus critical in solving the flying problem that other experimenters had failed to solve (Helfand and Banerjee, 2011). The Wright Brothers were born in a family of seven children to a bishop father, Milton Wright and his wife Susan Koerner. Their inspiration on matters flight began in their early years. Their father who often travelled as a bishop brought them a toy helicopter in 1878. This toy was based on a French aeronautical invention of Alphonse Penaud (Anderson, 2004). It was made of bamboo, cork and paper with a rubber band for twirling its rotor. The two brothers played with it and eventually broke it, and then built their own. Following their successful invention, they pointed out that their experience with toy helicopter sparked their initial interest in flying. Other than the toy, they had developed a strong interest in flying by spending a great deal of their time to observe birds in flight (O'Hern and Mayo, 2006). They made the observation that birds were soaring into the wind and that the air that was flowing over the wing’s curved surface created lift. They also noticed that the birds were changing the shape of their wings while maneuvering and turning. After spending considerable time observing birds in flight, the two brothers believed that they could apply this technique in obtaining roll control by changing shape, or warping a particular portion of the wing (Dixon-Engel and Jackson, 2007). Regarding their education, the two brothers are understood to have attended high school but they never received diplomas. Wilbur was prevented from receiving his diploma after completing four years of high school study due to abrupt move to Dayton, Ohio from Richmond, Indiana (Helfand and Banerjee, 2011). Orville did not acquire diploma because he dropped out of high school after completing junior year in 1889 to establish a printing business, after designing and building his own printing press. Wilbur joined the printing business later on in 1889. They launched the “West Side News”, a weekly newspaper. Almost a year later in April 1890, the two brothers converted their weekly newspaper into a daily, “The Evening Item” (O'Hern and Mayo, 2006). However, this daily only lasted for four months. In 1892, the Wright Brothers opened a bicycle sales and repair shop in order to capitalize on the national bicycle craze that had been spurred by the safety bicycle invention. The repair and sales shop was called the Wright Cycle Company. They then started to manufacture their own brand of bicycle in 1896. This venture helped them to fund and support their growing interest in designing and developing flight (Howard, 1998). The road towards becoming the first to sustain controlled, powered flight by the Wright Brothers was helped significantly by the works of Otto Lilienthal, Samuel Langley and Octave Chanute (Anderson, 2004). Upon coming across the works of this other inventors, the Wright Brothers paid close attention and started their mechanical aeronautical experimentation relating to the designs of these other inventors. They read the works of Langley and Lilienthal. Also, they corresponded with Chanute about some of their ideas. In the process, they were able to identify some of the hardest problems of flying aircraft (Helfand and Banerjee, 2011). They recognized that control of aircraft was the most critical in solving the problem relating to flying aircraft. They undertook several glider tests. After a successful glider test, the two brothers built and tested a glider that was full-size. They chose Kitty Hawk in North Carolina as their site for testing. Their choice of this site was informed by the understanding that Kitty Hawk had favorable hilly terrain, sand, and wind, and it was a remote location ideal for testing of full-size glider (O'Hern and Mayo, 2006). The Wright Brothers successfully tested their 50-pound biplane glider in 1900 at Kitty Hawk with its 17-foot wingspan, in both piloted and unmanned flights. This was the first piloted glider in the human history. The result of this successful testing was the basis upon which the Wright Brothers planned on how to refine the landing gear and controls, as well as build a larger glider (Dixon-Engel and Jackson, 2007). They achieved better results in 1901 when they flew the largest glider to have ever been flown at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina. This glider had a 22-foot wingspan, weighed about 100 pounds, and had skids for landing. Nonetheless, many problems happened: the wing-warping mechanism sometimes caused the airplane to spin beyond control; forward elevator was ineffective in controlling the glider’s pitch; the wings failed to have sufficient lifting power. Due to this disappointment, the Wright Brothers made a prediction that man might never fly in their lifetime (Howard, 1998). However, the brothers were not completely discouraged; despite the problems, they made their final attempts at flight by reviewing their test results. They also determined that they had used unreliable calculations. They made a decision of building a wind tunnel to test various wing shapes, as well as their effect on flight lift (Helfand and Banerjee, 2011). These results provided the Wright Brothers with a greater understanding of how a wing or airfoil works. In addition, they had a better understanding of how they could make a calculation of how well a specific wing design would fly, with greater accuracy. Based on greater understanding out of these results, the Wright Brothers planned to design a new glider that has a 32-foot wingspan, as well as a tail to aid in stabilizing it (O'Hern and Mayo, 2006). In the subsequent year of 1902, the Wright Brothers flew a number of numerous test glides using their newly-designed glider. They had established that a movable tail would aid in balancing the craft. Therefore, the Wright Brothers connected a movable tail to the wing-warping wires in order to coordinate turns (Dixon-Engel and Jackson, 2007). They planned to build a powered aircraft using glides in verifying their wind tunnel tests. The two brothers spent several other months to study how propellers work. This study helped them in designing a motor, as well as a new aircraft study that was enough to accommodate the vibrations and weight of the motor. The aircraft was weighing 700 pounds and it came to be known as the Flyer (O'Hern and Mayo, 2006). The success of building a Flyer inspired the Wright Brothers to work studiously towards fully realizing a controlled, powered flight. They had developed a better understanding of flight and more importantly, they had identified some of the main obstacles of towards successful flying. Through their various experimentations, they had found a way of dealing with the technical hitches (Anderson, 2004). The design and building of a Flyer marked an important part to the actual development of controlled and powered flight. In order to help in launching the Flyer, the Wright Brothers built a movable track. This downhill track would add the aircraft in gaining adequate airspeed to fly. They made two attempts of flying this machine, one of the attempts that led to a minor crash (Howard, 1998). After these two attempts, Orville Wright managed to take the Flyer on December 17, 1903, for a 12-second and sustained flight. This marked the first successful, piloted, power flight in history. Almost a year later, on 9 November1904, the first flight that lasted for over five minutes took place. Wilbur Wright successfully flew the Flyer II. However, in 1908, there was a scare when a passenger flight took a turn for the worse; there was the first fatal air crash which happened on September 17 of the same year. Orville Wright was piloting the ill-fated aircraft (Helfand and Banerjee, 2011). He survived the crash but his passenger did not. Since May 14, 1908, Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright had been allowing passengers to fly with them. The success of the Wright Brothers to sustain controlled flight, powered flight was hugely rewarded in 1909 when the United States Government purchased its first aircraft from the Wright Brothers. This plane was called the Wright Brothers biplane and was bought at $25,000 plus a bonus of $5,000 because it exceeded 40 miles per hour speed (Dixon-Engel and Jackson, 2007). The Wright Brothers achieved another success in the aviation industry in 1911 when their plane, Wrights’ Vin Fiz became the first plane to cross the United States. It took 84 days and stopped 70 times before it eventually landed. It crash-landed numerous times that little of the original materials that built it was still left on the plane when it finally landed in California (O'Hern and Mayo, 2006). This name was derived from a grape soda that was manufactured by the Armor Packing Company. In the following year, the Wright Brothers ventured in designing the first Armed Airplane. The first aircraft armed with machine gun was flown in 1912 at a College Park airport in Maryland. This airport had been in existence since 1909 when the Wright Brothers took their government-purchased aircraft to teach the army officers how to fly (Helfand and Banerjee, 2011). The United States army established an Aviation Section of the Signal Corps on July 18, 1914. Its flying units consisted of airplanes that were made by the Wright Brothers and some made by Glenn Curtiss, the Wrights Brothers’ chief competitor. In the same year, the United States’ Court had made a decision in favor of the Wright Brothers in a patent suit they had filed against Glenn Curtiss (Dixon-Engel and Jackson, 2007). The main issues in the Patent suit concerned lateral aircraft control; the Wright Brothers had maintained that they held patents for this. Even though the invention by Curtiss, ailerons was quite different from the wing-warping mechanism developed by the Wrights Brother, the Court made a decision that patent law unauthorized the use of lateral controls by others (Howard, 1998). So, what was the life of the two brothers after achieving incredible results in the aviation industry and becoming the first to sustain controlled and powered flight? Most historians like to ponder about this question as they evaluate how particular individuals shaped the history of the world. Both Wright Brothers never married (Anderson, 2004). A sentiment by Wilbur Wright that he could not have time for both a wife and an airplane is what has been assumed to be the reason they never married; they were too busy working on airplane and perhaps did not have time for family. The fame of the two brothers grew and the orders for aircraft were pouring in. They established flight schools and airplane factories on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, this move made it easy for others to copy and attempt on designing and building aircrafts (Howard, 1998). As a result, the Wright Brothers were drugged into energy-draining, time-consuming patent wars in America and Europe. A patent battle between them and Glenn Curtiss was the most bitter. Outside the courtroom, the Wright Brothers were facing a seemingly unfriendly world. The aircraft business was dangerous and uncertain. The pilots started to die in aircraft accidents and the Wrights were increasingly becoming stressed. Their legal troubles distracted them from invention and innovation. This affected their business as their aircraft became less desirable flying machine in subsequent years (O'Hern and Mayo, 2006). The Wright Brothers were increasingly becoming worn out from business and legal problems. In 1912, Wilbur Wright contracted typhoid, an illness that he eventually succumbed to. Orville Wright succeeded to the Wright Company presidency upon the death of Wilbur. Even though Orville shared distaste for business, he did not have the executive skills of his brother (Helfand and Banerjee, 2011). In 1915, Orville sold the Wright Company and he contracted out as a consultant on various engineering problems. Also, he took up numerous projects that captured his imagination. Orville did much of aeronautical work and helped in developing a guided missile and racing airplane. Additionally, he worked on toy designs, manufacture, aerodynamic automobile designs, and a cipher machine to encode communications (Howard, 1998). He capitalized on his fame as the co-inventor of airplane. He was on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics original board, and he served longer than any other board member did since then. He also helped in overseeing the Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics. This effort helped the United States to recapture the technological lead in the aviation industry in the late 19220s. In addition, he tirelessly worked in helping unknown inventors and innovators in bringing their ideas to market. Orville Wright died on 30th January; the death was caused by a second heart attack (Dixon-Engel and Jackson, 2007). Conclusion The above discussion clearly indicates that indeed the Wright Brothers were the first to sustain controlled flight, powered flight. Even though there were prior experimentations and efforts to build aircraft, such did not yield much success. However, these efforts were instrumental in helping the Wright Brothers to have a better understanding of how to design and build controlled and powered flight. As has been noted, it took a great deal of efforts, patience and creativity for Wright Brothers to achieve this incredible feat. Their background, passion and upbringing played a significant role in enabling them to become successful in aviation industry. Like many other inventors, the Wright Brothers were not without their share of challenges and obstacles. They failed severally in their efforts to become design and develop controlled and powered flight. In addition, upon successful invention, they faced patent and business challenges. Nonetheless, the Wright Brothers have a special place in the world’s history, particularly in the field of aviation where they were first to sustain controlled and powered flight. References Anderson, D. (2004). Inventing Flight: The Wright Brothers and Their Predecessors. Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins University Press. Dixon-Engel, T., & Jackson, M. (2007). The Wright brothers: First in flight. New York: Sterling. Helfand, L., & Banerjee, S. (2011). The Wright brothers. New Delhi: Kalyani Navyug Media. Howard, F. (1998). Wilbur and Orville: A Biography of the Wright Brothers. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc. O'Hern, K., & Mayo, G. (2006). The Wright brothers. Milwaukee, WI: World Almanac Library. Read More