Wright brothers documentary

[danny_galaga]

Was watching a dvd last night I'd been meaning to watch since I first picked it up in Kittyhawk in 2003 😲

 

Anyway, look at who plays the voices of Wilbur and Orville 😲

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Edited November 3, 2022 by danny_galaga

[Student Pilot]

Did it tell of the lengths they went to to nobble anybody else who had the audacity to try and fly a powered aircraft? Taking others information (Including Hargreaves pioneering work) and experience and patenting it as their own. 

[danny_galaga]

22 minutes ago, Student Pilot said:

Did it tell of the lengths they went to to nobble anybody else who had the audacity to try and fly a powered aircraft? Taking others information (Including Hargreaves pioneering work) and experience and patenting it as their own. 

Yada yada yada. Heard it all before. It's true they tried to sue anyone who infringed on their patents for 3 axis control. Probably should have concentrated on continually inventing new things, like Apple does. But so what? That's what the law is for, and they used it. There's no denying their genius. Very resolute guys 

[Carbon Canary]

Of course a 'flyable' Wright Flyer which has indeed flown, is housed at Narromine.  Worth a look if you haven't already seen it.  There is another Wright Flyer replica in the Technik Museum in Speyer, Germany....which coincidentally has a large space exhibit, including Buzz Aldrin's space suit and the CO2 absorption canisters from Apollo 13.  Anyhow, it's also worth a look.

 

Of course we should also remember Ehrich Weiss who supposedly achieved the first 'controlled flight' in Australia in his machine at Diggers Rest in Victoria in March, 1910.

Better known as Harry Houdini - a great showman.

 

Gotta give credit to all these guys - they pushed the boundaries and achieved breakthroughs.

[Student Pilot]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pearse

Seems there were folk all over the world with similar ideas

 

[danny_galaga]

1 hour ago, Student Pilot said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pearse

Seems there were folk all over the world with similar ideas

 

What you are describing is Zeitgeist. And even so, someone did it first. Wilbur and Orville. If someone else did it first, but didn't document it, then the question is much the same as 'If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, did it make s sound?'.

 

It's easy for people to say in retrospect 'oh, I did that first' without any real proof. But logically when you look at how much work the Wright's put into the puzzle, and seemingly everyone else did it seemingly on the spur of the moment it just becomes more likely that really the Wright's were first. Even just one aspect- the Wright's discovered that the formula s for wing camber were wrong- resulted in them spending pretty much a whole year building a wind tunnel (which they may have invented too, but I don't think they patented ) and getting the right shapes. And yet for everyone else, all that came 'ex nihilo'. Not to mention things like developing an efficient propeller.

 

No, the compete package rests at the Wright's feet  anything else is just hearsay

Edited November 3, 2022 by danny_galaga

[danny_galaga]

Meh, missed the twenty second editing window on this forum. I meant to mention that the camber formulas were supplied by Octave Chanute, which were wrong.

[John.]

The one at Naromine never flew....taxi only.

 

 

[Student Pilot]

1 hour ago, John. said:

The one at Naromine never flew....taxi only.

 

 

I'm sure I've seen a pic of that with Col pay at the controls off the ground?

[Student Pilot]

Here tis.

[John.]

Well that (never flew just taxied) was what I was told by the management of the Naromine museum when I was there....

[John.]

Anyhow.....Gustav Whitehead beat them to it.  😁

Edited November 4, 2022 by John.

[Carbon Canary]

Col Pay flying the Wright Flyer at Narromine.

 

 

[440032]

"Hey! Down in front Ginga!"

 

Edited November 5, 2022 by 440032

[440032]

First manned flight 17 DEC 1903.

18 DEC 1903 newly formed FAA prosecutes Wright Brothers for flying without a licence.

[Student Pilot]

FAA/CASA edict "We're not happy till you're not happy"

[Bruce Tuncks]

It was an idea whose time had come, but I liked how the wright bros were better engineers than prof langley. They did experiments and learned from them....  a good example is the propeller. It is easy in principle to imagine a gadget to measure power in and thrust out, but it was the wrights who actually did it...

It was interesting though how the patents business actually held america back. It was not only the wright bros who patented everything they could.

 

[tillmanr]

I was at Narromine when Keith Englemann, an very experienced test pilot flew the replica and it frightened him. 
He flew along the strip, had the aircraft manually turned around and flew a some way back down the strip. That was enough for him.

[onetrack]

I guess the upside is that at the speed the Wright Flyer is attaining, a crash wouldn't result in serious injury or be fatal. Dozens and dozens of early fliers walked away from their crashes, which were generally at, or below, RA-Aus stall speeds.

The timber and fabric designs also crushed like a shock-absorbing structure, thus reducing the levels of deceleration in any crash.

[Bruce Tuncks]

But who would want to rely on the crumple thing? And would you not feel bad about wrecking the plane?

BUT, those early guys knew nothing about handling etc. I can imagine they would be awful to fly.

[Bruce Tuncks]

It was the wright bros who found out that you needed to learn how to fly...  that was not obvious.

[onetrack]

Possibly the worst part would be, "the learn-as-you-go" process involved in finding out the dreadful handling qualities and quirks, of a completely new aircraft design.

 

Edited November 6, 2022 by onetrack

[tillmanr]

The replica is steered by wing warping. The pilot is prone and head first from memory.  Not for me at any price.

[facthunter]

I think the original is too. The pitch control forward was  sensitive and when you bank they can just slip to the side as there's no keel surface whatever. Everything else just turned on rudder. When the Wright Bros eventually went to Paris  and flew figure 8's every one was Impressed and the flyer was then built under Licence in France. By then It had a more conventional engine with more power.    Nev

[danny_galaga]

When I was in Kittyhawk in 2003 they had a simulator set up. Like the Wright Flyer. So you lay prone. We all thought this would be easy but most of us crashed pretty quickly. You know who did the best? Kids, with no preconceived notions of how to fly a plane. That thing does not fly like anything we are used to.