ANCIENT FLYING HISTORY The Wrights’ First Biplane

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6844, 25 February 1929, Page 4

ANCIENT FLYING HISTORY The Wrights’ First Biplane

' F you go to the Smith-

sonian Institution in Washington you will see many strange types of aircraft ar' 1 some modern ones, too; but you will not see there the first man-carry-ing airplane to fly under its own power. To see the plane which the Wright brothers made and first flew at Kitty Hawk 25 years ago to-mor-row, you will have to go to London, to the Science Museum of South Kensington, to which this most famous of all airplanes has been lent. Strangely enough, in the Smithsonian you will find a machine called the Langley Airdrome, a label affixed to it reading:— “Langley Airdrome—The original Langley flying machine of 1903 restored. In the opinion of many competent to judge, this was the first heavier-than-air craft in the history of the world, capable of free, sustained flight under its own power, carrying a man. This aircraft slightly antedated the machine designed and built by Wilbur and Orville Wright, which, on December 17, 1903, was the first in

the history of the world to accomplish sustained, free flight under its own power, carrying £ man.”

Behind this label lies a story no less dramatic in its own way than the story of the first flight Samuel Pierpont Langley, the inventor of the Langley Airdrome, was the first man to conduct scientific investigations into the principles of physics governing the science of aerodynamics. He has been described as a "reticent, self-effacing, lonely thinker, given to nocturnal wanderings through the streets of Washington.” He staked liis reputation as an astrophysicist and as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution on the solution of the problems of flying, and he died a disappointed and embittered man —“the butt of a nation’s ridicule."

Nevertheless, he had made positive contributions to our knowledge of aerodynamics and some of his discoveries still stand good, but many of them do not, and it is to Wilbur and Orville Wright that we must look for the principles of correct aerofoil design and control. Basically, these still hold good, although many refinements of detail have improved upon the plane surfaces and control mechanism which the two brothers employed in their first historic airplane.

Langley knew nothing of the effect of cambered aerofoil surfaces; the Wrights discovered them through intensive experimentation in a windtunneL Now we all know that twothirds of the lift is exercised by suction on the top of the plane surface; without camber, sustained flight in heavier-than-air craft is not practically possible. They discovered, too, that

in order to prevent sile-slipping, some sort of control over the wing surfaces was necessary. Professor Langley knew very little of this. The Wrights solved the problem by introducing what was called torsional control —the warping of the wing-tips in order to increase or decrease the angle of incidence at which the wing plane meets the wind stream, thereby exerting a greater or lesser air pressure on the wings. Later, the same effect was obtained by the introduction of the aileron. Now we all know that practical flight would not be possible without lateral control of an aircraft. These were the great contributions of the Wrights to the science of aerodynamics, and they owe nothing to anybody for their success.

It was on September 7,''1903, that Langley first tested his airdrome. It was mounted on top of a houseboat on tracks. It had two sets of wings with flat surfaces, one in front of the other, each with pronounced dihedral. In relation to its size, it had adequate keel surface to p»event it from slipping easily out of the line of flight. It was, in short, of the type of model

with which Professor Langley had successfully experimented. But on this occasion it ran along the tracks and, instead of leaping into the air, leaped into the Potomac. Subsequent examination showed that a guy-post supporting the front set of wings had broken, thereby making flight impossible.

Repairs were made and a 1 second test attempted on December 8, 1903. As in the first attempt the machine dived into the Potomac, this time tail first. It was then alleged that the machine had not been properly launched, but further experiments were cut short by the triumphant flivht of the Wrights at Kitty Hawk and the death in 1906 of Langley, who was convinced that he had the secret of successful mechanical flight well within his grasp. One look at the Langley machine will convince most of us that even if it were capable of flight back in 1903, it was not a practical flying machine. Examine the Wright biplane and it will be found, the necessary exceptions being made, that it is aerodynamically more efficient than are some of the planes which fly to day- That is saying a great deal. The Wright airplane was a biplane, the two wings being connected by struts and wires about five feet apart. The aspect ratio was about six to one, that is, the span was six times greater than the chord or width. The operator had' to lie on his face on the lower plane beside the engine, from which point he controlled the machine. Out in front were long booms holding the horizontal rudders, which are now called elevators, and in between them were two moon-shaped fins. Behind, two spars ran back to support the vertical rudder.

The mechanism required to operate the warping of the wing tips also operated the -udder, both being necessary to a turn and to avoid side-slipping. The wings were thin with a cambered upper surface. The machine was very strongly built and as supported on the ground by skids instead of the now familiar under-carriage on wheels. The engine, built by themselves, gave considerably more than the eight horsepower expected and this enabled the inventors to add some 150 pounds of weight in strengthening the wings and other parts. The motor drove two airscrews, also designed by the brothers, on an indirect drive. This is the father of the modern airplane and the machine in which the Wrights made their dramatic first flight.