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Replica Flyer Foiled By Weather

Posted by timothy on from the first-one-took-a-few-tries-too dept.

An anonymous reader submits: "A replica of the Wright Brothers' 1903 flyer failed to fly yesterday afternoon at a demonstration in Chicago. Organizers blamed the measly 5 MPH winds. Kitty Hawk had 25 MPH back on December 17, 1903. IIRC, isn't Chicago the 'Windy City?'" Here's an earlier story about the various groups attempting to re-enact the Wright brothers' pioneer flight.

3 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. Windy by youaredan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually... Chicago is called the windy city because of the politians, not the wind. It's a "hot air" sort of wind :) But it is usually 'blustery' as well...

    --
    -Digital Extremist // digitale
    1. Re:Windy by mrtrumbe · · Score: 5, Informative
      Ahh, but that might not be right either. Here's the full explanation from straightdope.com:

      ANOTHER BITE FROM THE APPLE

      Back to Barry Popik. Having gotten Big Apple squared away, Barry turned his attention to Chicago's nickname, the Windy City. The average mope believes Chicago was so dubbed because it's windy, meteorologically speaking. The more sophisticated set (including, till recently, your columnist) thinks the term originated in a comment by Charles Dana, editor of the New York Sun in the 1890s. Annoyed by the vocal (and ultimately successful) efforts of Chicago civic leaders to land the world's fair celebrating Columbus's discovery of America, Dana urged his readers to ignore "the nonsensical claims of that windy city"--windy meaning excessively talkative.
      But that may not be the true explanation either. Scouring the magazines and newspapers of the day, Popik found that the nickname commonly used for Chicago switched from the Garden City to the Windy City in 1886, several years before Dana's comment. The earliest citation was from the Louisville Courier-Journal in early January, 1886, when it was used in reference to the wind off Lake Michigan. In other words, the average mope was right all along! However, when Popik attempted to notify former Chicagoan but soon-to-be New Yorker Hillary Rodham Clinton of his findings, she blew him off with a form letter--and this from a woman facing a campaign for the Senate. Come on, Hill, quit worrying about the Puerto Ricans and pay attention here. You want to lose the etymologist vote?

      Full article here. There's also info on the origins of the "Big Apple." Neat.

      Taft

  2. Re:Why the Wrights needed the 25mph wind. by KFury · · Score: 5, Informative

    Interestingly, several modern aircraft don't even rely on the airfoil principles pioneered by the Wright Brothers.

    The F-4 Phantom's wings don't even have an airfoil shape. To compensate, they have huge engines mounted with a different angle of attack than the wings, so the wings act as lifting bodies because they're tilted up, as opposed to any help from Bernoulli.

    Like several other modern fighters, F-4 proves that you can put enough power behind a brick and it will fly.

    So the Wright Brothers needed 25mph headwinds. Is that any less an airplane than an F-4?

    --

    Kevin Fox