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Re-Building the Wright Flyer
Isaac-Lew writes: "Several teams are trying to build a working replica of the first Wright Brothers' airplane." As the article says, "The catch is: Each team wants its plane to fly more or less as the Wrights' did." The only problem with that is that as Orville Wright put it, their plane was "exceedingly erratic," so the recreators have made some slight concessions to safety.
The part about discouraging workshop photographs in order to not leak info to the competition is weird. What modern high tech processes are there to protect, if you're trying to do something the same way it was done 100 years ago? I'd have thought most of the interest in a project like this was in being as open and historically accurate as possible.
Living near Dayton, OH, we're always hearing about stuff like this. I just helped rebuild this site about the Wright Brothers Flyer and go to Wright State University. Also, I hear Stickman uses one on occasion.
I've noticed some posts along the line of "Safety first, authenticity later".
I couldn't disagree more. If you're not going to try to duplicate the entire effort, including the not insubstantial risks involved with the dawn of any new era, what is the point? You might as well build an "Almost Scale" RC model and fly it around. It would serve exactly the same purpose with no risk. I'm not saying that all possible safety precautions shouldn't be taken (external to the airplane itself), but build it to origional spec, then decide to fly it or not.
I guess my point here is that I make the concious decision to get on my old BMW motorcycle every morning. I know it's dangerous, but it's also exciting and a throwback to a time, not so long ago, that we took risks in the name of advancement and the simple thrill of being alive. Recreating the Wright Flyer to modern standards is just a symptom of our overly cautious, airbag equipped, warning label on the coffie times.
Of course this will be modded down, my target audiance sits in a cube all day and considers a walk in the park an outing.
The main trouble is - they flew it backwards. If they turned it around a flew it the other way, then they wouldn't have all the instability problems you get with carard configuration aircraft... IMHO.
:)
I wonder whether turning it round counts as a "consession to safety"....
Nick...
They're trying to build a version to fly at Kitty Hawk for the centennial celebration of the original flight, December 17th 1903.
Not to belabour the point - but why?
Sure, it was an important achievement, but what's the point? And why have more than one team? Bragging rights are all that seems to be on the line here. So, in the race to build the first, best replica, a number of teams are devoting a lot of time and resources to a project that will add nothing to the body of human knowledge and experience - regardless of the outcome.
So I will ask the obvious question again. Why? There is nothing wrong with marking the occasion, but this is way OTT.
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
wasn't it the first POWERED flight?
//rdj
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
Because many aeronautical engineers have looked at Flyer-1 and they aren't really sure how it can fly at all. By building one and attempting to get it airborne, this question an be answered.
In 1960, some U of Washington students built a replica of the 1902 Wright glider. There's a picture hanging on the wall in the Aeronautics/Aerospace building of the group of guys that did it. They're all standing next to their glider on a grassy hill. It's pretty cool.
To those of you asking why anyone would spend their time building a replica of an old airplane or glider, I say this: Designing aircraft is not all engineering and science. There's an art to it and a few people truly find joy in it.
That's Mr. Eradicator to you.
trance-port
As an aside, bear in mind that Scrapheap Challenge (the original UK name and format for Junkyard Wars) has already seen teams build and fly:
Yes, that's right. If you haven't seen it, some poor mad fool got in a canard nosed "glider" that had been bodged up in day, and reached about 20mph and 15 feet before releasing the tow line. The "glider" went in a direction that could charitably be described as "not quite a plummet". He walked away. Then did it again, only faster. And again, reaching about 30mph. This is pretty much comparable with the speeds and energies in the Wright brother's creation.
The remote plane was an interesting one. It actually flew, in a very nearly controlled fashion. OK, it was built with modern scrap, but it was scrap, and it was built in a day.
I'm kind of wondering why the people building the replica airplanes feel the need to have human pilots in them. Remote control or even an expert system might do nicely if safety is a concern.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
The reason the Wright brothers are given the credit for the first real heavier than air aircraft is because their design principles turned out to be scalable - they were able to take the Flyer and turn it into an airplane capable of sustained, controllable flight. None of the other designs were capable of being turned into something that was really usable for more than a flight of a few seconds.