WRIGHT BROTHERS — BAKER 217 



POWERED FLIGHT IN 1903 



The year 1903 must have been an exceedingly busy one for the 

 Wright brothers. In March they applied for their first patent; on 

 June 18 Wilbur wrote a letter stating that their engine developed 

 15.6 horsepower at the "brake," thus indicating its early completion ; 

 and we know that by fall they were in North Carolina making final 

 assembly of the airplane. In addition to all this, they still found 

 considerable time that fall to practice flying in the previous year's 

 glider. 



The years work reached its culmination when four successful flights 

 were made on December 17 — the first, of 12 seconds duration, was 

 made by Orville and the last and longest, 59 seconds, was made by 

 Wilbur. Wilbur had first tried the machine 3 days earlier but, by 

 overcontrolling, damaged the structure on landing and thus yielded 

 the distinction of being the first man to fly a powered craft to his 

 brother. This is all the flying that was ever done on the 1903 airplane. 



From study of the design details of this machine (now on public 

 display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington) it is easy to 

 note the general characteristics that are similar to the 1902 glider. 

 The front elevators were doubled and actuated by a unique arrange- 

 ment of controls such that the surfaces not only deflected in the desired 

 direction but also changed in camber, that is, positive camber for 

 "nose-up" and negative camber for "nose-down." The wing-warp 

 system was retained but was refined by better routing of the control 

 wires and the use of bellcranks. The vertical rudders were made 

 multiple surfaces and interconnected with the wing warp as before. 

 Note that, as always, the warp wires served not only as controls but 

 also as structure rigging wires. 



For the first time, we see cloth covering used on both the top and 

 bottom surfaces of each wing. The wings were intentionally rigged 

 to a 10-inch droop measured at the tips. This was the equivalent of 

 a negative 2i/2° dihedral. 



The wing proportions yield on computation an equivalent mono- 

 plane aspect ratio of 3.82; and at 12 horsepower and their speed of 

 30 miles per hour, it appears that their L/D ratio for level flight was 

 approximately 5. 



The ship was taken off (without assist) from a 60- foot monorail. 

 Most of the craft's weight rested on a jettisonable cradle attached to 

 a ball-bearing hub from a shop wheel. A smaller wheel made from 

 a bicycle-wheel hub was permanently attached to the front skid. The 

 ship was restrained by a cable until released by the operator. A small 

 string from the release cable pulled the fuel valve to wide-open posi- 

 tion and then broke readily as the ship moved forward. 



