davparlr
Senior Master Sergeant
Wright Brothers
I just finished reading an excellent book, the recently released "The Wright Brothers" by David McCullough, a Pulitzer Prize winning author. It is a highly recommended book by the NY Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and many others. For information, the book mostly uses letters written by various personalities and newspaper articles.
My interest in the Wright brothers started in 2003 during the centennial celebration of the first flight. Years earlier I was working on a very strange, very secret aircraft called Tacit Blue, (see pix). I was the responsible engineer for controls and displays, fuel measurement system, and air data computer. It was because of this last role that I was requested by a program aerodynamist to help map wind tunnel results in order to determine air data sensor locations, an interesting and educational (I was primarily involved in aviation electronics, now called avionics), and successful, effort. I came to be familiar with engineering analysis associated with wind tunnel testing. When I realized that the Wright brothers built their own wind tunnel, I became intrigued. When I found some of the test sheets the Wright brothers generated, I realize that they were doing the same type of testing and analysis in 1901-2 as we were doing in the late 1970s. (see reference) The results of their data was a realization that previous known airfoil data was incorrect and once identified, they were able to correct the flaw in their 1901 glider and make a very successful 1902 glider, which led to their 1903 Flyer. Some believe the 1902 glider was the true invention of the airplane, solving the three axis control, after that, adding an engine was no big deal. The two "bicycle repairmen" did not just invent the airplane, but actually engineered the invention using procedures we still use in designing aircraft today. A few things I learned from the book
1. While committed to applied science to solve engineering problems, they were also intuitive like coming upon the idea that connecting a movable vertical stabilizer to the wing warp mechanism could solve their adverse yaw problem, a concept well beyond any contemporary aircraft designer as they had not even encountered adverse yaw.
2. The wind tunnel was ingenious in that it did not generate data like CL, which would have been difficult, but rather tested one airfoil verses another, allowing a large amount of testing to be completed.
3. Contrary to my original opinion of a "garage built gizmo", the flyer, including its engine, especially the plane taken to Europe, seems to have been very reliable with little problems.
4. The Flyer flew many 100s of times with many passengers. Interestingly, the flight in which Selfridge became the first person to die in airplane crash was supposed to carry Theodore Roosevelt, who had to back out.
5. The Wright brothers were rock stars of the day and were almost universally acclaimed as solving the flight problem, even by just about all the leading aviation pioneers. They also met many famous people including the King of England and the King of Spain, who wanted to ride only his wife cancelled that idea
Other things of interest, their propeller design was well engineered and they are considered the inventor of the modern propeller. When tested using modern methods, it approached modern propeller efficiencies.
While it is no doubt others would have eventually solved the problem, there is also no doubt the Wright brothers were the ones with the knowledge, engineering talent, and determination to break in the door.
Read the book and follow the two brothers and their friends and family as they successfully made the invention that revolutionized the world.
Wright Notebooks | The Franklin Institute
I just finished reading an excellent book, the recently released "The Wright Brothers" by David McCullough, a Pulitzer Prize winning author. It is a highly recommended book by the NY Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and many others. For information, the book mostly uses letters written by various personalities and newspaper articles.
My interest in the Wright brothers started in 2003 during the centennial celebration of the first flight. Years earlier I was working on a very strange, very secret aircraft called Tacit Blue, (see pix). I was the responsible engineer for controls and displays, fuel measurement system, and air data computer. It was because of this last role that I was requested by a program aerodynamist to help map wind tunnel results in order to determine air data sensor locations, an interesting and educational (I was primarily involved in aviation electronics, now called avionics), and successful, effort. I came to be familiar with engineering analysis associated with wind tunnel testing. When I realized that the Wright brothers built their own wind tunnel, I became intrigued. When I found some of the test sheets the Wright brothers generated, I realize that they were doing the same type of testing and analysis in 1901-2 as we were doing in the late 1970s. (see reference) The results of their data was a realization that previous known airfoil data was incorrect and once identified, they were able to correct the flaw in their 1901 glider and make a very successful 1902 glider, which led to their 1903 Flyer. Some believe the 1902 glider was the true invention of the airplane, solving the three axis control, after that, adding an engine was no big deal. The two "bicycle repairmen" did not just invent the airplane, but actually engineered the invention using procedures we still use in designing aircraft today. A few things I learned from the book
1. While committed to applied science to solve engineering problems, they were also intuitive like coming upon the idea that connecting a movable vertical stabilizer to the wing warp mechanism could solve their adverse yaw problem, a concept well beyond any contemporary aircraft designer as they had not even encountered adverse yaw.
2. The wind tunnel was ingenious in that it did not generate data like CL, which would have been difficult, but rather tested one airfoil verses another, allowing a large amount of testing to be completed.
3. Contrary to my original opinion of a "garage built gizmo", the flyer, including its engine, especially the plane taken to Europe, seems to have been very reliable with little problems.
4. The Flyer flew many 100s of times with many passengers. Interestingly, the flight in which Selfridge became the first person to die in airplane crash was supposed to carry Theodore Roosevelt, who had to back out.
5. The Wright brothers were rock stars of the day and were almost universally acclaimed as solving the flight problem, even by just about all the leading aviation pioneers. They also met many famous people including the King of England and the King of Spain, who wanted to ride only his wife cancelled that idea
Other things of interest, their propeller design was well engineered and they are considered the inventor of the modern propeller. When tested using modern methods, it approached modern propeller efficiencies.
While it is no doubt others would have eventually solved the problem, there is also no doubt the Wright brothers were the ones with the knowledge, engineering talent, and determination to break in the door.
Read the book and follow the two brothers and their friends and family as they successfully made the invention that revolutionized the world.
Wright Notebooks | The Franklin Institute
