Kitty Hawk, Part III
Brian Trumbore
President/Editor, StocksandNews.com

I apologize that this has developed into a rather dysfunctional series on the Wright brothers, but the weather I ran into last week while visiting the Kitty Hawk, North Carolina area dictated that I change the schedule a bit.

In part I of our series I touched on other events taking place in 1903, the year in which Kitty Hawk was witness to the first flight, as well as the role of Samuel Langley in the controversy that soon surrounded the Wright brothers achievement. Part II went back and listed some of the more important dates in history as far as the search for human flight was concerned.

Of course I should have reversed I and II, but oh well?we continue.

I only touched briefly on the early years of Orville and Wilbur in part I and having now had the chance to do more research, I realize this warrants more discussion.

Wilbur (4/16/1867-5/30/1912) and Orville (8/19/1871- 1/30/1948) were the 3rd and 6th children born to Milton and Sara Wright. Milton founded a radical offshoot of the Church of Christ ("Old Constitution"), though it was actually tamer than it sounds. Having traveled a ton to spread the word, Milton and family eventually settled in Dayton, Ohio.

Wilbur and Orville were very curious kids growing up, yearning to learn more about the world around them, and they were also most appreciative of their upbringing. Orville once wrote:

"(We) were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate whatever aroused our curiosity." [Source: "First Flight: The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Airplane," Tom D. Crouch?*This is the primary source for this column.]

Sister Katharine added, "No family ever had a happier childhood than ours had."

Orville and Wilbur were exceedingly close. Wilbur:

"From the time we were little children, my brother Orville and myself lived together, played together, worked together and, in fact, thought together?Nearly everything that was done in our lives has been the result of conversations, suggestions and discussions between us."

But neither officially graduated from high school, though it also needs to be pointed out that in those days high school was far tougher than it is today. Wilbur did have plans to study at Yale, but he suffered a serious injury playing a form of ice hockey when the stick smashed into his mouth. For the next 3 years he was a semi-invalid and had to deal with depression. Meanwhile, Orville only finished 11th grade, after which he decided to set himself up as a printer in 1889 following the death of their mother.

At about the same time, though, the bicycle craze was sweeping Dayton and the brothers (Wilbur having finally recovered from his injury) decided to get into the business in 1892, opening up a shop where they not only repaired bicycles but designed their own models starting in 1895.

The Wright brothers began to draw parallels between riding a bike and flight. The key was control and they approached the invention of the airplane knowing two things: "The machine would have to be controllable and, like a child learning to ride a bike, they would have to teach themselves to fly it." [Crouch]

Others around the world were drawing the same conclusions at this time, linking the bicycle to aviation. In June 1896, the editor of the Binghamton (NY) Republic made this prescient comment concerning the invention of a heavier-than-air flying machine and the role of bicycle designers.

"The flying machine will not be in the same shape, or at all in the style of the numerous kinds of cycles, but the study to produce a light, swift machine is likely to lead to an evolution in which wings will play a conspicuous part." [Crouch]

Another fellow, James Howard Means, wrote, "To learn to wheel we must learn to balance. To learn to fly one must learn to balance." [Crouch]

Well, it just so happened that the manufacturing process for a bicycle was perfect for the Wright brothers and their quest to design an aircraft. The kinds of precision crafted metal pieces that they were making for the two-wheeler could be used for their flying machine. The two also realized that just as a bicycle rider learned to internalize the process of riding one, so man would eventually learn to master the motions required to control a plane.

One of the first inspirations for the brothers was the German experimenter Otto Lilienthal, who published perhaps the definitive book on aeronautics for his time back in 1889. Lilienthal completed 2,000 flights on 18 different gliders between 1890 and his death in a glider crash in 1896 and his demise had a profound effect on Wilbur and Orville. Wilbur explained:

"The brief notice of his death that appeared in the telegraphic news of that time aroused a passive interest which had existed from my childhood."

The brothers wrote the Smithsonian Institution in Washington for information on the printed works that existed on the topic of aeronautics and the Smithsonian's secretary, Samuel Langley, who was already working himself on the problem (see part I), was helpful in passing along recent material.

The Wrights were great at analyzing the problems of others and they concluded that the invention of the airplane required: "wings developing sufficient lift to support the weight of the machine and pilot; an engine powerful enough to propel the craft to flying speed; and a means of controlling the machine in the air." [Crouch]

The key, again, was the problem of control. Wilbur explained, "The?equilibrium had been the real stumbling block in all serious attempts to solve the (issue) of human flight, and that this problem of equilibrium in reality constituted the problem of flight itself." [Crouch]

Now before I continue I need to apologize because we're going to have to get technical here in closing part III of our story, but it's the only way to properly paint the picture. I also need to teach myself, so I'm dragging you along for the ride.

As author Tom Crouch describes, one evening in July 1899, Wilbur was working in the bicycle shop when he began fiddling with a long, slender, inner-tube box.

"When he held the ends of the box and twisted his hands gently in opposite directions, a helical (ed. spiral) twist moved back and forth across the box. If the horizontal faces of the box were the two wings of a biplane, and the vertical faces were the struts supporting and separating the wings, he reasoned, a twist in either direction would increase the angle of attack (the upward tilt of the wing relative to the airflow), and thus the lift, on one side and decrease it on the opposite side. The pilot of such an aircraft, provided with suitable controls, could balance the wings with ease, or bank for a turn. It was the technique that would come to be known as wing-warping - the precursor of ailerons on today's aircraft - and it was one of the Wrights' most brilliant and original contributions to aeronautics."

Wilbur then built a model out of bamboo to demonstrate the principals to Orville.

The three main issues in solving the problems of flight involved control, lift and propulsion; or 'pitch,' 'yaw,' and 'roll.'

Picture a little Cesna plane. The pitch is the 'elevator' in the rear, below the 'rudder' (which is responsible for yaw), and the roll is controlled by 'ailerons,' these being located on the wings (the flaps you see going up and down). [On the Wright brothers first plane, the elevator was out front and the pilot controlled the ailerons manually, while lying down on the wing.]

Just a further word on 'roll'; Orville and Wilbur had observed that a soaring turkey vulture "steadied itself or turned by twisting up a wingtip to roll its body, (so) the Wrights designed a wing- warping system for the Flyer. Moving the hip cradle warped the trailing edge of one wing up and the other down, rolling the aircraft to control it."

OK, now that I've confused some of you, and I haven't supplied you with a simple diagram to help describe the processes, we'll finish (I promise) our story next week with the final days in December 1903 and the first flights (they had four on December 17). This coming December, when the news is full of stories on this amazing feat that changed the world, you'll thank me for the head start.

Brian Trumbore