Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T14:55:45.550Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The birth of flight control: An engineering analysis of the Wright brothers’ 1902 glider

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

G. D. Padfield  and
B. Lawrence
G. D. Padfield
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
B. Lawrence
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

In the autumn of 1902 the Wright brothers spent just over eight weeks at their test site in the Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, testing their third Glider design. During the trial period they implemented an inter-linked roll-yaw control system. Together with the forward canard surface, this gave them control over vertical and horizontal components of the flight path. They were also able to hone and perfect their piloting skills. In just two days in the final week, they made about 250 glides. The success of the trials instilled the confidence in the Wright brothers to proceed rapidly to the construction of a powered aircraft. Within a month of returning to Dayton, they were writing to engine manufacturers with their specification – an engine that would develop eight to nine brake horse power, weigh no more than 180lb and be free from vibration; they would not find a suitable powerplant and had to design and build their own. The invention of the powered aeroplane in 1903 somewhat overshadows the earlier critical flight control developments, but the birth of flight control in 1902 opened the way for aviation to flourish. With the aid of modern flight science techniques – wind-tunnel testing, computational flight dynamics and piloted simulation, this paper examines the technology of the Wrights' 1902 glider. The research forms a part of the Liverpool Wright Project, aiming to bring to life the Wright brothers' achievements in this centenary period. Wilbur and Orville Wright are recognised by many as the first aeronautical engineers and test pilots. In so many ways they set standards that today's engineers and organisations benefit from. Their work in the period 1901 to 1902 reflects their genius and the paper reviews this work in detail, examining the design, aerodynamic characteristics and flying qualities of the aircraft that first featured a practical three-axis control system.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 107 , Issue 1078 , December 2003 , pp. 697 - 718
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2003 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Mcfarland, M.W. (Ed), The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, including the Chanute-Wright Letters and other papers of Octave Chanute, 1953, McGraw Hill, New York.Google Scholar
2. Gibbs-Smith, C.H. The Aeroplane; An historical survey of its origins and development, 1960, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, London.Google Scholar
3. Jakab, P.L. Visions of a Flying Machine, The Wright Brothers and the Process of Invention, 1990, Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
4. Crouch, T.D. The Bishop’s Boys, A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 1989, W.W. Norton, New York.Google Scholar
5. Culick, F.E.C. What the Wright brothers did and did not understand about flight mechanics – in modern terms, AIAA-2001-3385, 37th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, July 2001 Salt Lake City, Utah.Google Scholar
6. Bryan, G.H. and Williams, W.E. The longitudinal stability of gliders, June 1903, Proc Royal Society of London.Google Scholar
7. Lilienthal, O. Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst. Berlin: R. Gaertners Verlagsbuchhandlung (Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation, American Aeronautical Archives, Markowski International Publishers, 2001).Google Scholar
8. Anderson, J.D. A History of Aerodynamics and its Impact on Flying Machines, 1998, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
9. Phillips, W.H., Flying qualities from early airplanes to the space shuttle, Dryden Lectureship in Research, AIAA 26th Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno Jan 1988, AIAA J Guidance and Control, July-August 1989, 12, (4).Google Scholar
10. Lawrence, B. and Padfield, G.D., A handling qualities analysis of the Wright brothers 1902 Glider, AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference, Austin, Texas, 11-14 August, 2003.Google Scholar
11. Mccormick, B.W. Aerodynamics, Aeronautics, and Flight Mechanics, 1995, 2nd ed, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1995.Google Scholar
12. Jex, H.R. and Culick, F.E.C., Flight control dynamics of the 1903 Wright Flyer, 1985, AIAA Paper, p 534–548.Google Scholar
13. Padfield, G. D and White, M.D., Flight simulation in academia; HELIFLIGHT in its first year of operation, Aeronaut J, October 2003, 107, (1076), (also in ‘The challenge of realistic rotorcraft simulation’, RAeS Conference, London, Nov 2001).Google Scholar
14. Kochersberger, K., Sandusky, R., Hyde, K., Ash, R., Britcher, C. and Landman, D., An evaluation of the Wright 1901 Glider using full scale wind tunnel data, AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting & Exhibit, 40th, Reno, NV, 2002.Google Scholar
15. Etkin, B. Dynamics of Atmospheric Flight, 1972, John Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar
16. Anon MIL-F-8785C, Military Specification Flying Qualities of Piloted Airplanes. U.S. Department of Defense, 1980.Google Scholar
17. Anon MIL-HDBK-1797, Flying Qualities of Piloted Aircraft, US Department of Defense, 1997.Google Scholar
18. Cooper, G. E., Harper, R.P., The use of pilot rating in the evaluation of aircraft handling qualities and pilot evaluation, NASA TN D-5153, April 1969 Google Scholar
19. Milne, R.D. and Padfield, G.D., The Strongly controlled aircraft, Aeronaut Q, May 1971, XXII, pp 146–168.Google Scholar
20. Culick, F.E.C. and Jex, H.R. Aerodynamics, stability and control of the 1903 Wright Flyer, The Wright Flyer, an engineering perspective, National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC, 1987.Google Scholar
21. Padfield, G.D. Helicopter Flight Dynamics, 1996, Blackwell Science, Oxford.Google Scholar
22. Lawrence, B. and Padfield, G.D., Flight testing simulations of the Wright 1902 Glider and 1903 Flyer, 34th Annual International Symposium of the SFTE, Portsmouth, Va, September 2003.Google Scholar
23. Wolko, H.S. (Ed) The Wright Flyer; an engineering perspective, 1987, Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar
24. Culick, F.E.C. Wright brothers: first aeronautical engineers and test pilots, Sept 2001, 45th Annual Symposium of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Los Angeles, California.Google Scholar
25. Culick, F.E.C., The origins of the first powered, man-carrying airplane, December 1979, Scientific American.Google Scholar