Happy Wright Brothers Day!

10:35 AM EST today will mark the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight. How many model airplanes can we have in the air all over the country at precisely that time?

Take a break from work, go outside and chuck a simple hand-launch glider. Or how about your best paper airplane design flying around the office.

Orville's first flight was only 12 seconds. Maybe after 100 years we can do a little better today.

Happy Wright Brothers Day!

Mike Gretz

Not me! Probably for the same reason the replica may not fly. It is really miserable and rainy here today (Norfok, VA) and Kitty hawk aint that far south of here. Bummer

>Not me! Probably for the same reason the replica may not
>fly. It is really miserable and rainy here today (Norfok,
>VA) and Kitty hawk aint that far south of here. Bummer
>
>Tom

Ya big wuss! I don't care if it's snowing and blowing 30mph here in Iowa - it's only 12 seconds!

Mike (let's do something fun) Gretz

PS Looks like the re-enactment at Kitty Hawk is having bad weather. Even more reason for us modelers to do our thing for Wilbur and Orville.

A timely post, Mike. I'm tied down here due to hand injury and a medical appointment, but perhaps I can get out to the Auto-Aviation Museum first.

I wonder whether any of the SSWF'ers here are out at Kitty Hawk. If so, I hope they'll let us know how things went and something about their own experiences and feelings there. For the rest, it would be interesting to hear what is happening in your own area. How about Ford Museum/Greenfield Village (where Wrights' home and cycle shop were moved and reconstructed by H. Ford) - anything happening there?

Flying or building, each of us is paying his/her personal homage to the Wrights and other aviation pioneers. just a bit more than a quarter hour to go.

SK

It's snowing out. And I'm in.

Did checkout CNN though. Currell

At exactly 7:35 this morning i went outsdie and raised my cup to the East and said "Thanks Orville, Thanks Wilber"

While it hardly seems a tragedy, the first (and only?) try of the day ended up with what looked like it might be rotation and almost instantly a very nice replica stuck in the mud.

Wilbur and Orville appear to have been a lot smarter than your average citizen thinks might have been the case. Not to mention being patient enough to wait for the wind to pick up.

They had just started rolling the film at 10:30, I emerged not 20 minutes ago at 2ish to come home, regroup, and head to the field for a short celebration flight with friends. I don't think I've sat that still for 3.5 hours before.

Anyhoo, flying a bit later today, then my daughters 'winter' vocal concert, and finally bed. What a day I'm in. Gotta go prep the Flightstreak or the Shoestring. The Strings my favorite, but a bit of George outta be at the field today too.

LAST EDITED ON Dec-18-03 AT 08:09 PM (CST)
 
Joe wrote:

"At exactly 7:35 this morning i went outside and raised my cup to the East and said "Thanks Orville, Thanks Wilber"

Humor..God's gift to us to keep us from making sausage out of each other daily."
========================
What is it that is said about great minds? At 6:35 AM I stepped out into the street, raised my cup to the East Southeast in tribute, then tossed my favorite Thermic 18 into a light snowfall. The air was very still and the flakes small and light, and I only got twenty-two seconds out of her. Then, I headed back into the warm confines of the house to savor my favorite Swedish coffee. Overall, it was a very pleasant and unnoticed experience.

I'll tell the grandkids that I expect them to do the same on 17 December 2153 and why they should pass on the idea to their kids for 17 December 2103. I wonder if, considering the rapid advance of technology, anyone will know or care about the Wright Brothers on the latter date.

Edit: Thanks for starting this thread, Mike! I never would have thought to report otherwise.

Hi Gang,
A couple weeks ago I realized that my band concert (I'm a HS band director) was on the anniversary of the Wright flight. Trying to put the two together I tried to find an arrangement of the Magnificent Men... theme or any other flight related song. Didn't work out. Then someone on the list said we should at least get out and fly today.

So the germ was planted! Tonight, at the band concert we paused in the program. To add to the drama, I explained to the audience that the original flight was 12 seconds and that today, in North Carolina, the attempt to repeat the event had failed. The plan was to make at least 12 seconds and establish a record in our Leuzinger High School auditorium. One of the young ladies in my band eagerly volunteered to be the "pilot" and launched a Delta Dart off the stage apron. 34 seconds later, she caught it, and we announced our "new" record to a very enthusiastic audience! Lots of fun, got my centennial flight in plus a good concert!
An added plus, several of the band kids wanted to know if they could build a Dart, too!

- Norm Furutani

Great observance and story. I ended up reminding several people and watching the CNN coverage. I especially liked the young lady who drove several hundred miles without a ticket and called off work while enroute to Kitty Hawk - "I just had to come!" Late last night, while sheeting my leading edges, I performed my own version of wing warping. I guess they'd understand, and following their example, I'll persevere. Nonetheless, a neat day.

SK

P.S. Staying home for my hand surgeon appointment wasn't all bad. After he removing some remnants from my "Fox bite", I was able to play my instrument for the first time in over a month; I won't have to be on the sidelines for my next concert.

My personal Wright Brothers commemoration yesterday couldn't have been better. As Old Sourdough so aptly put it; "Overall, it was a very pleasant and unnoticed experience." LOL

I'm sure in the broad scope of things, my efforts yesterday were very "unnoticed", but in my mind, especially since the "official" reenactment at Kitty Hawk was a bust, I like to think that I helped save the day and honored Wilbur and Orville in a small way.

At precisely 9:35am, my SIG Curtiss Jenny R/C electric park flyer took to the air in the shipping/receiving parking lot behind SIG. Mike Pratt, Scott Christensen, and Justin (Mr.Norvell) VanDee all did the same with their Jennys. It was a glorious moment! Lots of back slapping and congratulatory hand shakes all around. (Boy! Those electric airplanes really perform in 22° air!) I'm sure the SIG employees (non-modelers) peering out the windows thought we were nuts!

Then last night, I journeyed 60 miles north in one of those nice beautiful winter snows (big flakes, no wind) to fly indoor F/F (rubber and handlaunch glider) and C/L (electric) at a high school gym in Hudson, Iowa. This is where 20-30 guys meet every other wednesday night during the winter months to fly indoor. One of the guys even brought a rubber powered (yes a twin!) Wright Flyer last night. After a couple wobbly trim flights, got in a rafter brushing winner that way surpassed Wilbur and Orville's 12 seconds!

F/F, C/L, and R/C all in the same day. I'll always have fond memories of the Centenial of Flight.

"Ohh Wilbur" ... no wait, that was from "Mr. Ed".

>Then last night, I journeyed 60 miles north in one of those
>nice beautiful winter snows (big flakes, no wind) to fly
>indoor F/F (rubber and handlaunch glider) and C/L (electric)

Mike,

Tell us about the CL setups for flying in the gym...

Thanks for the lovely report.

Andy-

I'm flying a Speed 400 powered little delta wing airplane that I built in Feb.2001 for flying indoors at the UNI Dome, an annual event that is coming up soon again this year (http://showcase.netins.net/web/sig/unidome2004.html)

Here are the specs:
Span: 27”
Root Chord: 11.177”
Tip Chord: 6.686”
Wing Area: 241 sq.in.
Airfoil: NACA0015

Motor: 7.2v Speed 400
Prop: Cox 6-3 gray prop (direct drive)
Battery Pack: (battery pack fits inside root of right wing)
8 cell 500mah or 8 cells 600mah AE
Control Lines: .008” x 30’ braided steel
Weight w/o battery = 6 oz.
Weight w/ 600 pack = 11.25 oz.
Wing Loading with 8 cell 500mah nicad battery pack is 6.7 oz/sq.ft. (for comparison, a typical Cox .049 powered SIG SKYRAY has a 7.2oz/sq.ft. wing loading)

Flies fast. Airplane does inverted, inside and outside loops easily. Need to try larger diameter low pitch props, and/or gear reduction. The selection of suitable props was pretty sparse when I built the airplane in 2001, but it is getting better now.

I am presently using a small micro switch to shut off the motor. You can almost see the pushrod and micro switch on the left side of the profile fuselage in the photo below. It works off the pushrod and is triggered by a quick application of full down elevator. It works fine, except that it often goes off prematurely during outside loops.

Lightness is EVERYTHING for indoor electric flying. I need to come up with a better way to shut the motor off that weighs practically nothing. I recall seeing clever ways of mechanically triggering fuel shutoffs on control line airplanes in past years. Trouble is, I didn't pay enough attention to them at the time I saw them to remember how they worked. Didn't some of the Russian and eastern European pilots shut off their airplanes with a quick sharp jerk on the handle?

Mike G.

[photo not recovered: DeltaSP400.jpg]

>Andy-
>
>I'm flying a Speed 400 powered little delta wing airplane
>that I built in Feb.2001 for flying indoors at the UNI Dome,
>an annual event that is coming up soon again this year
>(http://showcase.netins.net/web/sig/unidome2004.html)

Mike,

SWEET!! Thanks so much for the posting!

Happy HO,

Didn't some of the Russian and eastern
>European pilots shut off their airplanes with a quick sharp
>jerk on the handle?

Mike,

Sounds like the "twanger" concept. This was used in early circle tow hooks for Nordic A2 Glider (FAI class F1A). The idea was to pluck the towline and propagate a traveling transverse pulse along the line to the hook. The arrival of the pulse would unlatch the hook. I suppose you could pluck one line...

Actually, the "jerk" method you describe *might* work as follows (I'm speculating): Suppose the bell crank mount can slide parallel to the wing's long axis, and is constrained by a spring (a *stiff* spring). In normal flight the spring is stretched some nominal amount, and the bell crank mount is in some equalibrium position, but has additional travel available. Tug hard on the lines and you briefly shift the bell crank mount toward the outboard wing tip, which in turns moves a push rod which pulls off the fuel line. In the electric case, you hit the micro switch. Obviously the switch has to shut the motor off and the motor has to stay off when the bell crank moves back to it's nominal position. A drop out relay comes to mind.

Anyway, my handle always has a "jerk" attached...

Way to go Norm! Beautiful!
Mike G

Actually, It was a BEAUTIFUL day here in the Rockies. Clear, about 34 degrees out of the wind, which wasn't much. A local University had built a replica of the Wright 1905 Flyer, using a Harley-Davidson cycle engine, and modern materials. It weighed a bit more than the original, but it FLEW beautifully! The wind chill on that thing must have been brutal! The pilot lifted it off , flew the time/distance of the Wright's first flight, did a touch and go, then circled the airport. Maybe I can post some of my pixes. Why was I there? Um, yes---Well, we insure the University for liability, and naturally I presumed that as long as I was in the area anyhow, I should check out the security and safety arrangements, which proved to be more than adequate.(Rough job, but SOMEONE'S got to do it!)It's hard to explain the feelings when you can see something like that parked next to the homebuilts, and the commercial aircraft based at the airport. I would like to have had the Flyer, 2 or 3 of the RVs, the Bonanza, and the King Air do a fly by in formation, for the photo op, but.... Altogether a MARVELOUS day, not understood by many who are not true airplane nuts.

We got out flying and it was beautiful. Little to no wind, so little in fact I was flying one of those Cox helicopters that you never get to see again, full tanks, and the most I walked was about 50 yards. Had it come down right next to me one flight. Put a dozen or so flights in on it then flew some CL.

I watched Utah State University?? flyer on the Discovery Channel. Loved the use of rolled carbon fiber spars, Harley engine, foam ribs, etc. I got a kick out of the figure eight the pilot did and when asked why, he said it was to avoid hitting a building. They also had two other flyers attempting the flight as well as the one at Kitty Hawk. Not much different from some ultra lights I've seen!!

It was just about dark here at that time, but I did fly a couple of hours earlier. From what I hear, the re-enactment was closer to Langley than Wright. Maybe Gustave was laughing somewhere...

>It was just about dark here at that time, but I did fly a
>couple of hours earlier. From what I hear, the re-enactment
>was closer to Langley than Wright. Maybe Gustave was
>laughing somewhere...

They got it to fly previously. But it looked like to me to be a very iffy proposition at best, and they appeared to go on very marginal conditions.

Gustave may have been laughing - but his efforts led exactly nowhere.

It's my understanding that the reenactors had several successful flights, and at least one not so successful flight, during the past 3-4 weeks. The difference between those successful test flights and yesterday's flop was the luxury of being able to pick your time to fly. Being able to stage a succesful reenactment flight at a prescribed time on Dec. 17th was an iffy proposition from the beginning.

For whatever reason (and I've never heard it adaquetely explained), the Wright Brothers limited their takeoff run to a 60ft. long wood rail. They understood that they would need a pretty good headwind to lift off in that distance. Yesterday, the reenacters didn't have enough wind. It's not that their replica won't fly. Under the (W)right conditions, it does fly!

One thing that I did enjoy watching in the video of yesterday's failed attempt was just how SLOW the machine moves. Reading that it had a 30mph airspeed (minus whatever headwind) is one thing - seeing it in live action is another. Man that was slow! Just think if they'd had a 20mph headwind like the Wrights did one that day 100 years ago. No wonder Wilbur had no problem trotting alongside the flyer all the way to the end of the rail. When I gazed at that famous picture in my history books years ago as a kid, I thought Wilbur must have been some sort of track star.

One source lists these figures for the Wright Brothers first flight on Dec. 17, 1903:
Wind: 22mph (gusting to 25)
Airspeed: 30mph
Ground Speed: 8mph

I wonder how long a takeoff run the 1903 Wright Flyer would have actually needed in calm air to get up to takeoff speed?

For the record, there was zero coverage of the event here in the UK and I had to search the web to find out what happened. BBC World Service (radio) had a brief account with no details.

>For the record, there was zero coverage of the event here in
>the UK and I had to search the web to find out what
>happened. BBC World Service (radio) had a brief account with
>no details.

It was on Discovery channel here. They showed the flights the re-enactors made in practice - let's say the flight envelope is rather narrow. The Wrights really knew how to fly on the edge.

From start to finish, it was an amazing effort. It's not like they had a lot to go on.

LAST EDITED ON Dec-19-03 AT 08:18 AM (CST)
 
Hi Dave!

BBC Radio 4 have a whole host of programs on it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/flight.shtml

Vaguely connected was a rerun of the 'Scrapheap Mega Challenge' from earlier in the year where teams from France/UK/US had to produce planes from scrap and fly them - the UK won!!!!

One program on Jan 1st (C5).

Tony

LAST EDITED ON Dec-19-03 AT 09:56 AM (CST)
 
Hi Tony,
Did you notice that on 'Scrapheap Challenge' the American pusher had the prop on baclwards?

The media was there so they had to go but in a steady rain with a heavy wet airplane, they didn't stand a chance. Maybe calling it off would have been better than failing.

Reading over media coverage ranging from decent stuff to downright garbage got me to thinking about the great information posted on another Forum by Al Bowers, now Chief of Aerodynamics at NASA Dryden and an astute aviation historian. The silly misinformation that seems to pop up periodically, is frustrating, especially considering how easy it is to obtain valid information.

So, in a belated recognition of the Wrights' actual accomplishments - and because I'd intended to do so for some time - , I did a 2000-2003 search of that site and compiled 20 pages in Microsoft Word 2000 of pertinent posts by Al and a supporting cast including Don Stackhouse (DJ Aerotech), Bill Kuhlman, Bob Stork, Russ Lee, and (sorry!) myself. Amid answers to common questions is interesting information that may not be in readily available literature. There is some fact-supported or refuted opinion.

If anyone's interested in this material, I can send it as an e-mail attachment, or perhaps in the body of a L-O-N-G e-mail. e-mail me if interested.

SK

Serge,
Email me the word document file.
Mike Gretz
[email protected]

LAST EDITED ON Dec-21-03 AT 03:07 PM (CST)
 
I sent Mike the file and remembered as I reviewed it that Smythsonian Aeronautical Curator Russ Lee's contribution was the Library of Congress' Wright Papers site URL:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wrighthtml/

Just click on "Browse by Series" to gain access to their entire collection.

For ANYONE who wants to know what went into and came out of the Wright's flight experiments, this material will dispel most common myths. With this resource, there is really no excuse for the idiocy posted or published by some detractors. This is a magnificent and fascinating on-line resource, one of the best sites on the entire internet. It may well contain the most extensive record of any aviation pioneers at the birth of the airplane.

Here are the contents:

1) Diaries and Notebooks 1900-19 Undated (31 sets)

2) Family Papers (1881-1944 (75 sets)

3) General Correspondence 1899-1952 Undated (270 sets)

4) Subject File 1889-1949 (20 sets, incl. Business Journals and Ledgers, Chanute's Kitty Hawk photos, Foreign Business, Early Flight Information Requests)

5) Scrapbooks 1902-1914 (5 books)

6) Octave Chanute Papers 1902-1910 (14 items; longest is 127 pp.)

7) Glass Negatives from Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright (303 photographs as printed from original glass negatives, all labeled)

I'd like to point out that these are photo images of the actual documents, many in the Wrights' own hand writing. Here, for instance, you can find Wilbur's own computed data concerning development of the aircraft propeller itself, a great invention of the Wrights that not only signifies the first ever modern propellor for aircraft, but one which in recent wind tunnel measurements tested out as over 80% efficient, a truly modern figure.

If you have any doubt about the depth of thought and thoroughness of research that went into this development neglected by ALL other pioneers of that time, then have a look at Wilbur Wright's notebook from 1902-1905. Click here (hope the lengthy link works):

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mwright&fileName=01/01006/mwright01006.db&recNum=0&itemLink=D?wright:6:./temp/~ammem_QRRc::

As you peruse each page, click on "Higher Quality Image" and then move your cursor to the image and magnify it. You will find most of it quite legible. Purusing the entire notebook, you will find, among many entries, the following:

1) Propeller Trigonometry, curvatiure and camber, station airfoils.
2) Thrust computations and test data from 12/15/02 and 3/6/03
3) Hand drawn graphs
4) Chemical composition and weight of fuel and air
5) Computed % Efficiency, drag at different speeds (choice 44 ft/s = 30 mph)
6) Power consumption computations based on drag of aircraft parts
7) Analysis of Crow flight, including flapping frequency, speed, weight, diameter, wing area, chord, span

Edit: If you peruse Wilbur's earliest notebook, you will find observations of birds in flight, with application to their rejection of dihedral for a specified amount of anhedral at projected flight speeds. You will also see discussions of vertical c.g. vs. drag center and some rejected Lillienthal data (crossed out) with discussions of how gliding performance failed to match computed values, the reason that they determined their own vakues and increased the size of their gliders. I believe it is also this notebook that records wind tunnel data for illustrated airfoils. I'll let you check it out to see whether I remembered correctly. As I said: fascinating.

Anyone with ANY interest in Aviation should spend some time on this truly magnificent site.

SK

My Centennial flight was in a Grumman Yankee that I took up when I got to work just for the moment of Centenniality! I had to fly a Cessna 1-filthy-2 later, too.
As far as the attempted flight by the replica went, although teh conditons probably precluded flying very far, teh pilot certainly blew any chance he had by overrotating and killing what little airspeed he had. If he'd kept the nose down a little more, he may have been able to stay in ground effect for awhile.
Bare
http://www.cotrollineplans.com

Barry Baxter