There are in existence, however, two complete sets of drawings, both
of which purport to represent the 1903 flight engine. One set was made
in England for the Science Museum in the two years 1928 and 1939. The
1928 drawings were made on receipt of the engine, which was not
disassembled, but in 1939 the engine was removed from the airplane,
disassembled, the original 1928 drawings were corrected and added to,
and the whole was made into one very complete and usable set. The
other set was prepared in Dayton, Ohio, for Educational and Musical
Arts, Inc.,[6] and was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. This
latter set was started under the direction of Orville Wright, who died
shortly after the work had been commenced.
[Footnote 6: This is a charitable agency set up by the late Colonel
and Mrs. E. A. Deeds primarily for the purpose of building and
supporting the Deeds Carillon and the Carillon Park Museum in Dayton,
Ohio.]
The two sets of drawings, that is, the one of the Science Museum and
that made in Dayton for the Smithsonian Institution, cannot be
reconciled in the matter of details. Hardly any single dimension is
exactly the same and essentially every part differs in some respect.
Many of the forms of construction differ and even the firing order of
the two engines is not the same, so that in effect the drawings show
two different engines.
[Illustration: Figure 1.--First flight engine, 1903, valve side.
(Photo courtesy Science Museum, London.)]
The primary trouble is, of course, that the exact engine which flew in
1903 is no longer in existence, and since no original drawings of it
exist, there is considerable doubt about its details. The engine had
its crankcase broken in an accident to the airframe (this was caused
by a strong wind gust immediately following the last of the first
series of flights at Kitty Hawk), and when it was brought back to
Dayton it was for some inexplicable reason completely laid aside, even
though it presumably contained many usable parts. When the engine was
disassembled to obtain measurements for constructing the 1904 engines,
again apparently no drawings were made. In February 1906 Orville
Wright wrote that all the parts of the engine were still in existence
except the crankcase; but shortly after this the crankshaft and
flywheel were loaned for exhibition purposes and were never recovered.
In 1926 the engine was reassembled for an exhibition and in 1928 it
was again reassembled for shipment to England. The only parts of this
particular engine whose complete history is definitely known are the
crankshaft and flywheel, which were taken from the 1904-1905 flight
engine. This latter engine, now in the restored 1905 airplane in the
Carillon Park Museum in Dayton, does not contain a crankshaft, and in
its place incorporates a length of round bar stock.
[Illustration: Figure 2.--First flight engine, 1903, underside and
flywheel end. (Photo courtesy Science Museum, London.)]
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