 John the OFM  | 14 Apr 2013 8:16 a.m. PST |
I am watching a fascinating documentary on the Military Channel about Wilbur and Orville.
It involves a group of early flight enthusiasts trying to duplicate the aeroplane that the Wright Brothers built.
One of the engineers made a telling remark. "Yeah, we could make it with stainless steel pistons and bronze bushings, but what would that prove?" It's fascinating, how little is preserved. The team tried to reverse engineer from photographs, letters from the brothers, etc.
I had to laugh that none of the photos of the early gliders or plane itself showed the actual surfaces they wanted. They got a lot of clues from pictures of wrecks, because they were upside down! Sketches were made for machinists, and when the parts were made, the sketches thrown away. Try that today with ISO and QS engineering standards! 
It was also amusing to hear that when they were about to give up, they were invited to an engineering conference. They were stunned to find out that they knew more from trial and error than the experts with degrees. They invented the wind tunnel! I was appalled to see the 81 year old Scott Crossfield, the X-15 pilot, piloting a glider, hitting the ground hard and bouncing right up. He seemed to be enjoying himself. This is a totally enjoyable documentary, and a model for the art form. |
| jpattern2 | 14 Apr 2013 8:44 a.m. PST |
Sounds like a good one.
If you ever get a chance to visit the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk, NC, do so. It will leave you in awe of what they accomplished. |
| John the OFM | 14 Apr 2013 8:45 a.m. PST |
It might be an old show. They were just interviewing Walter Cronkite. |
| zippyfusenet | 14 Apr 2013 9:35 a.m. PST |
Dayton Ohio was the Wright Bro's home town and base of operations. Dayton and the NPS maintain several Wright historical sites in Dayton: link The Wright sites are often over-looked by aviation buffs who visit Dayton to see the USAF Museum at nearby Wright-Patterson airfield. This past summer a friend and I visited one of the Dayton sites, Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center: link and we were very impressed. This little museum does a lot. I recommend it to all early aviation enthuiasts. |
| vtsaogames | 14 Apr 2013 1:08 p.m. PST |
It always got me that they were bicycle mechanics. The Flyer uses bicycle chains to drive the propellers. Yeah, love the Kitty Hawk museum. |
| Iowa Grognard | 14 Apr 2013 3:23 p.m. PST |
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 enfant perdus | 14 Apr 2013 6:59 p.m. PST |
I saw part of the show and it was really interesting. As the OFM says, they were very serious about being faithful to original materials and methods. They had some of the original fabric tested to determine twist and thread count so they could have exact replica material made! |
| wminsing | 15 Apr 2013 2:11 p.m. PST |
One of the related issues is that the Wrights were secretive (dare I saw paranoid) about their invention and not giving out too much information. Years after the Wrights flew there still plenty of failed attempts to build a working aircraft, as the Wrights didn't publish anything on the subject or show their aircraft unless it was to a potential buyer. It wasn't until 1910, IIRC, that the Wright Brothers actually flew in public, and that's only because others (Glenn Curtiss and the AEA) had already sussed out how to build a working aircraft all on their own…. So there wasn't a lot of documentation to be had since the Wright Brothers didn't really want to document anything! -Will |
The G Dog  | 15 Apr 2013 4:27 p.m. PST |
I was recently at the Wright exhibit at Carillon Park in Dayton. Paranoid is not too strong a word. While we tend to focus on their ability to innovate a working aircraft, the later years of the Wright Brothers were a trail of messy legal battles as they sued everyone to protect their copyright on their invention. The Wright's ended up alienating just about everyone in the aviation community both at home and abroad. Keeping those facts close to the vest, would help to protect their "IP" to use the modern parlance. More here: link |
| wminsing | 16 Apr 2013 7:36 a.m. PST |
Minor quibble, but it was actually a patent fight, not a copyright fight. But it did do a number on the US Aviation industry. Going from inventing the aircraft to being dead last in a decade is pretty sobering. -Will |
| jpattern2 | 16 Apr 2013 8:10 a.m. PST |
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| gweirda | 16 Apr 2013 8:48 a.m. PST |
jpattern2 – you mean like…
? ; ) |
| jpattern2 | 16 Apr 2013 1:47 p.m. PST |
Hah, nice!
After Wright merged with Curtiss, they produced some excellent airplanes . . . and also 1959's Curtiss-Wright Model 2500 Air Car ( link ):
I wonder what Orville and Wilbur would have said? |
| The G Dog | 16 Apr 2013 6:25 p.m. PST |
TWO 180 hp Lycoming engines? That's a hoot! What's the braking distance to a stop in that beast? |
| jpattern2 | 16 Apr 2013 8:20 p.m. PST |
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