Aeronautics -- United States -- Biography; Wright, Orville, 1871-1948; Wright, Wilbur, 1867-1912
If their machine was capable, as they had demonstrated, of flying by
its own power for 852 feet against a 20-mile wind, there was no reason
why it shouldn’t go many times that far. But if the machine was to be
practical, many improvements would be necessary, and they would need
more experience in flying. Much practice would be required, and that
would mean more expense in proportion to income, for they would have
less time for building and repairing bicycles. But they decided to
devote to aviation whatever amount of time seemed necessary. A number
of bicycles at their shop were in various stages of completion. But
no new ones were started after the Wrights’ return from Kitty Hawk,
though some of those on hand were completed and sold. The brothers now
began to turn over to Charlie Taylor, their chief mechanic, most of the
routine work of the shop.
In January, 1904, the brothers began building a new plane. It was
similar to the one flown at Kitty Hawk, but there were a number of
changes, including more sturdy construction throughout. The weight
exceeded that of the original plane by about eighty pounds. (In flight,
the weight, including the pilot, and 70 pounds of iron bars carried
on the framework under the front elevator, was 900 pounds.[5]) The
wing camber was changed from 1-20 to 1-25--that is, the curvature was
decreased; and the ribs were tapered from front to rear spar instead
of being of uniform depth, as in the earlier model. An entirely new
engine went into the 1904 machine. In fact, the Wrights started to
build three new engines. One of these had four cylinders of 4⅛-inch
bore; another, four cylinders of only 4-inch bore, as the one used at
Kitty Hawk; and the third was a V-type, of eight cylinders. The 4⅛-inch
bore was the one installed in the 1904 plane and gave a satisfactory
amount of power--but not so much as the Wrights later developed in
the other four-cylinder motor of only four-inch bore. That motor they
kept in their shop and used for a kind of guinea pig, trying various
improvements and refinements until it produced as much power as they
had expected from the V-type motor of eight cylinders and twice as much
as the original motor used at Kitty Hawk. They then gave up the idea of
completing the V-type motor.
Another change in the 1904 machine was using white pine instead of
spruce for the front and rear spars in the wings. Spruce was not
available in Dayton at that time, and tests the Wrights made at their
shop, in the manner usually employed for ascertaining the strength of
woods, indicated that the two woods were about equally strong. (But
in actual use, when stresses came suddenly, as in landing, the white
pine spars snapped “like taffy under a hammer blow,” though spruce had
always withstood such shocks. The brothers rebuilt the wings, with all
spars of spruce.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account