Wright Glider
Encyclopedia : W : WR : WRI : Wright Glider
1899 Kite
The first was an 1899 kite, with a wingspan of mere 5 feet (1.5 meters). This kite, although much too small to carry a pilot, tested the concept of wing-warping that would prove essential to the brothers' solving the problem of controlled flight.1900 Glider
The first free-flight glider was based on data from Otto Lilienthal's tables. On the Wrights' first expedition to Kitty Hawk, they tested the glider between October 5 and 18, 1900. They found the craft unforgiving in piloted flight, and they abandoned it at the site of its last landing. It was carried off in a July, 1901 gale and never seen again.1901 Glider
The 1901 Wright Glider was the second of the Wright Brothers experimental gliders. It was similar to the 1900 Wright Glider, but with larger wings. It first flew on July 27 1901, and was retired on August 17 the same year. During this short time, between 50 and 100 free flights were made, in addition to tethered flights, where the glider was held down like a kite.
It was found that there were problems with the wing ribs, which collapsed under too much weight, and distorted the aerofoil shapes of the wings. After the testing concluded, it was stored at Kitty Hawk. It was destroyed by high winds the next year, but some parts were removed, and used in the 1902 Wright Glider.
After the flying season, the glider was stored at Kitty Hawk. The next year, it was picked up by wind and severely damaged. The uprights were salvaged for the 1902 Glider, but the rest was abandoned.
1902 Glider
The 1902 Wright Glider was the third free-flight glider built by Orville and Wilbur Wright and tested at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This was the first of the brothers' gliders to incorporate yaw control, and its design led directly to the 1903 Wright Flyer.
The brothers designed the 1902 glider during the winter of 1901-1902 at their home in Dayton, Ohio. They designed the wing based on data from extensive airfoil tests conducted on a homemade wind tunnel. They built many of the components of the glider in Dayton, but they completed assembly at their Kitty Hawk camp in September of 1902. They began testing on September 19. Over the next five weeks, they made between 700 and 1000 glide flights (as estimated by the brothers, who did not keep detailed records of these tests). The longest of these was 622.5 ft (189.7 m) in 26 seconds.
In 1903, when the brothers returned to Kitty Hawk to test their powered machine, they brought the 1902 glider out of storage and flew it again to hone their piloting skills before the powered Flyer was ready. The glider went back into storage at the camp when the brothers returned home for Christmas. When they next visited Kitty Hawk in 1908 to test their improved Flyer III, the storage shed had collapsed and the glider inside was wrecked.
Replicas
A number of replicas of the 1902 Glider have been built, starting with two 1934 replicas by the U.S. Army Air Corps, built with the cooperation of Orville Wright. One of these survives in the visitors' center at Kitty Hawk; the other was destroyed in an accident.In 1980, Wright enthusiast Rick Young built a working replica of the 1902 Glider. It has appeared in numerous films and television documentaries, including a 1986 IMAX On the Wing.
Specifications
References
- Crouch, Tom, "The Thrill of Invention." Air&Space/Smithsonian, April/May 1998, pp. 22-30. [Read the article online.]
- Includes excerpts from diaries and correspondence pertaining to the Wright Brothers and their experiments.
External links
- [1902 Wright Glider at nasm.si.edu]
- ["The Thrill of Invention"], a 1998 article in Air&Space/Smithsonian on efforts to build operable replicas of the Wright gliders.
- [Photographs of the 1902 Wright Glider]
- [Building a replica 1902 Wright Glider]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.