Ingenious inventions of the Wright brothers. Wright brothers plane

The first flight on an airplane was carried out by two Wright brothers Orville and Wilbur in December 1903. The inventors were able to realize the old dream of mankind - to conquer the expanses of heaven and view the beauty of the Earth from a bird's eye view.

Of course, the first flight of the Wright brothers did not last too long, and the transport itself did not much resemble a modern airliner. But despite this, the brothers were able to raise a controlled aircraft into the sky and soar in it in the sky, like birds, by using the energy of the thermal air flow.

Before this event, a person was able to learn to raise only gliders that were not equipped with motors into the heavenly heights.

Inventors of the first flying machine

Why did the inventor brothers manage to lift a heavy type of transport into the sky, despite the fact that many scientists could not succeed in this endeavor? Several reasons contributed to the success:

The brothers always worked together, carefully discussing each step among themselves.
Before starting to build the plane of the Wright brothers, these scientists made the right decision - to learn how to soar in the sky.
Inventors before the construction of air transport received a lot of experience flying on an air glider, which also helped them in the design of the aircraft.

First of all, the brothers decided to learn how to soar in the heavenly space, and only after that they tried to lift heavy vehicles into the heavenly heights. But how could this be done? Scientists were able to find a way out of a difficult situation here. In order to "learn to fly," the brothers used gliders and kites that they assembled on their own.

Such a glider had sufficient dimensions to support the weight of a person. However, the first invention was unsuccessful for many reasons, so the brothers set about creating the second and third models. And only the latter was able to fully satisfy brilliant minds, as a result, the first plane of the Wright brothers rushed into the air in 1903, piloted by already experienced glider pilots. Designing several models of gliders, the brothers gained vast experience in this direction, which, of course, helped them achieve unprecedented success.

Important nuances

For the Wright brothers, it was primarily the control of the mechanism and the stability of the flight that were important. Perhaps that is why they sought to find effective ways to help control air transport, which they succeeded in full. In the course of numerous experiments, scientists have found an effective three-stage control method, which helped them achieve remarkable maneuverability and complete control of the aircraft.

Scientists reviewed a lot of information about the design of the wings of the old air vehicles, which could not be lifted into the sky, and decided to make some changes to the design. The brothers developed a unique form of a wind tunnel and passed over it over 100 experiences until they were able to find the ideal wing shape for the aircraft.

Wright brothers plane

How long was the first flight?

The first flight of the Wright brothers was incredibly short by today's standards - only 12 seconds. But on the same day, the researchers raised their invention into the sky two more times. The longest was the last flight, which lasted 55 seconds. During this time, the glider successfully flew a distance of 255 meters. Taking into account all the shortcomings, Wright was able to make numerous improvements to their ingenious design.

The brothers spent more than 5 years on improving the first model, and only in 1908 they presented an aircraft assembled by their own hands for Europe. Of course, the European public was shocked by what they saw, especially since, as it turned out, two ordinary people without special education could create such an invention.

How was the first plane flown?

The Wright brothers' first aircraft was named " Flyer-1”, and the main methods of controlling it, with minor improvements, are still used in world aviation today:

Cabrating - performing a transverse turn on the plane of the Wright brothers was carried out by changing the angle of the front rudder, which regulates the flight altitude. In modern airliners, the altitude control rudder is also used in aircraft, however, it is located in the tail section.
So that the first aircraft could carry out a longitudinal turn, a special mechanism was used. The pilot's legs were used to control it. With the help of a foot mechanism, the pilot could both bend and tilt the wings of the glider.
For the implementation of vertical rotation, the rear steering wheel was used.

Modern pilots performing the above maneuvers also need to control the speed, coordinate the tilt of the aircraft and the angle of flight. If these points are not taken into account, then the lifting force will be insufficient, since the wings of the airliner will lose the necessary streamlining. As a result, the plane will enter the so-called tailspin, and only a pilot with vast experience who will not lose his composure at a critical moment will be able to get out of this difficult situation.

One of the drawings by the Wright brothers

Use of the first airframe for military purposes

The plane of the Wright brothers could not but interest the military, who very quickly were able to appreciate the unique capabilities of the airplane. To create as many of these machines as possible, a huge factory was built. It was on these planes that the first bombs were dropped on the ground, and real battles took place in the airspace.

After the end of the war, airplanes were not forgotten, they turned into a convenient and fast mode of transport that delivered various cargoes to cities and countries. An airplane was often used to deliver mail and correspondence, especially to the most remote places and settlements.

Passenger traffic began in the mid-20s of the last century and was available only to wealthy people. A few years later, having received many improvements, the airplane was able to overcome a very long distance - to fly over the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

In contact with

American inventors, aircraft designers and pilots Wilber and Orville Wright entered the history of aviation as brothers who were the first to fly on an aircraft they built. They loved each other dearly and always worked together. As kids, they joined a kite club. Soon their snakes became the best. Enterprising young Americans have achieved such skill that they even began to sell their first "flying machines" - kites - to other guys. Child's play has grown into a passion for the idea of human flight in a controlled machine heavier than air.

December 17 is considered the birthday of aviation. It was on this day in 1903 that an airplane piloted by Orville Wright took off. The aircraft stayed in the air for 12 seconds and, having overcome 40 m, fell to the ground.

The French believe that the palm should be awarded to Clement Ader, whose aircraft in 1890 took off the ground by 20 cm. Gustav Whitehead, a German by birth, made the first flight in the United States. New Zealanders proudly remember Richard Pearse, who in March 1903 flew 135 m in a bamboo and canvas monoplane and crashed into a fence (which once again confirms how important the control system of an aircraft is).

Speaking in Chicago in September 1901 to members of the Western Society of Engineers, Wilber Wright declared that the most difficult thing to control an aircraft after it had taken off the ground. The pilot cannot immediately master the art of piloting, and he needs some time to learn how to fly. The Wright brothers carefully studied the experience of the German engineer Otto Lilienthal, the most experienced pilot of his time, who made thousands of flights on gliders of his own design. But they understood that the control systems of a motorized aircraft and a glider are different, and flight stability is achieved by changing the position of the wingtips.

Everything before December 17, 1903 is the prehistory of aviation, which began a thousand years before our era with the first Chinese kites. According to ancient chronicles, in 206 BC. these kites lifted Chinese scouts into the air. One and a half thousand years later, Marco Polo saw with his own eyes in the Celestial Empire that such flights were not fiction. In Europe, they basically didn’t go up, but jumped down, building wings for themselves. The first person to survive was Oliver, an English Benedictine monk, in 1010, who jumped from Malmesbury Abbey and landed 125 paces away, breaking his legs. Other "flights" ended more tragically. Leonardo da Vinci created drawings of an aircraft that we would call a hang glider. But the design remained on paper. And in 1783, the history of aeronautics, but not aviation, began with the hot air balloon of the Montgolfier brothers. Here the palm belongs to the Wright brothers.

Wilbur and Orville were born in 1867 and 1871, respectively, to a family of six children. One day, my father brought home a toy with wings that, with the help of a twisted elastic band, rose into the air. Orville recalled that she simply fascinated them with her brother.

Most of the time the family lived in Dayton, Ohio. When Wilbur was already finishing school, a misfortune happened to him: while playing hockey, he was hit in the mouth with a stick. The wound was not severe, but gave complications. As a result, the boy fell into a depression that lasted three years. There was no question of continuing education. By this time, Orville had graduated from high school, but he also refused to go to college. Together with his school friend, he began to print advertisements, postcards to order, and even published several short-lived newspapers. Orville talked Wilbur into the business.

The brothers were very friendly. Wilbur recalls that they “played together, worked together and eventually thought. We have always discussed our thoughts and ideas together, so everything that has been done in our lives has been the result of conversations, suggestions and discussions that we had among ourselves.” Both never married.

Working with printing presses, the brothers showed a fair amount of ingenuity, constantly inventing various devices from improvised materials. Once a visiting printer from Chicago, having familiarized himself with their machines, said: “They really work, but it’s completely incomprehensible how.”

Then came a new hobby - bicycles. By 1892 they had their own shop and workshop. The bicycle boom in the United States was in full swing: monsters with a huge, taller than human front wheel were replaced by the familiar bicycle with wheels of the same diameter - a safe car that began to be in huge demand.

The brothers successfully invented their own models, which they traded until 1907. According to historians, it was the bicycle business that was the turning point in the development of Wilbur and Orville as inventors of aeronautical machines. After all, there is something in common between a bicycle and an airplane - the need to maintain balance, control movement.

A new sharp turn in life happened when the book of the German inventor Otto Lilienthal "Air flight as the basis for aeronautics" fell into the hands of the brothers. Lilienthal designed gliders, on which he made more than 2 thousand flights, and began to design an aircraft with a 2.5 horsepower engine. If he had not died during the next flight in a glider in August 1896, perhaps the Wright brothers would not have taken priority in creating an aircraft.

After reading the book Lilienthal, which became their desk, Wilbur and Orville began to collect all the available literature on heavier-than-air vehicles and asked the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to send them links to all available English-language works on this topic. After studying them, they concluded: "The issue of maintaining balance has been an insurmountable obstacle in all serious attempts to solve the problem of human flight in the air." The answer to this question, in their opinion, was in the creation of a system for controlling the apparatus along three axes by means of cables, and a person must be able to constantly control the rotary, inclined and rotational movements of the apparatus parts.

With this conviction, they set about creating their first glider, on which they were to learn to fly. The brothers did not have an engineering education, but they understood that it was impossible to do without calculations, and they took up textbooks. Based on Lilienthal's work, they were able to calculate that if they wanted to lift a large glider into the air, they needed a head-on wind speed of about 30 kilometers per hour. The brothers asked the US Weather Bureau for a list of the windiest areas in the country. As expected, Chicago, which the Americans call the Windy City, turned out to be the most suitable. But they wanted to work away from onlookers and journalists.

Sixth on the Weather Bureau's list was Kitty Hawk. In those days, it was a godforsaken fishing village on one of the islands that stretched along the coast of North Carolina in a narrow chain of almost 290 kilometers. Today, this chain of Outer Banks is a favorite vacation spot for Americans who come to sunbathe on ocean beaches. And about 250 years ago, when the settlement of the islands began, they were notorious. Near Kitty Hawk, for example, there is the village of Nags Head - Nag's Head. According to legend, pirates settled there, who robbed ships that came to the shores of America. At night, in bad weather, the pirates put lanterns around the neck of the horses and let them along the coast. The sailors mistook the lights for lighthouses and sent their ships directly to the coastal rocks. The rest is a matter of technique. It may be legend, but the Wright brothers' museum shop in Kill Devil Hills, and throughout North Carolina, still sell maps of the Outer Banks coastline showing hundreds of shipwrecks.

Kill Devil Hills is located between Kitty Hawk and Nags Head, and the name of the place in translation means Kill the Devil Hills. There are high sand dunes, reaching 30 meters. Since 1900, Wilbur and Orville have been constantly running between Dayton and Kill Devil Hills, building and testing aircraft in their bicycle shop.

First, they launch the glider like a tethered kite, and once again they are convinced that the problem of automatic stability has not been completely solved by Shaniut, there is still work to be done.

Wilbur and Orville Wright start building gliders of their own design. They are building a biplane glider with a wingspan of 12 meters, and Professor Shanyut is invited to test it, who willingly responded and helped them with his experience and knowledge.

The brothers began by gliding over the hills. "It was the only way to study the equilibrium conditions," they say.

The glider of the Wright brothers differed significantly from the gliders of Lilienthal and Chanute. They used horizontal depth rudders, placed forward of the wing on special rods, and behind the poles arranged vertical plates that acted as rudders. To maintain lateral balance, the Wright brothers first used the method of warping the trailing edge at the ends of the wings. With the help of levers and special rods at one end of the wing, the edge deviated, at the request of the pilot, either up or down, while at the other end of the wing, the bend occurred in the opposite direction. This helped to correct rolls.

Naturally, the hanging position of the pilot, as it was on the gliders of Lilienthal and Chanute, was no longer suitable here, and the Wright brothers were located, lying on the lower wing. Leaning on their elbows, they could move the control levers. But in connection with this, a new question arose: how to scatter and land? The inventors adapted light skids from below under the wing, on which the glider landed, like on skis. And the takeoff was even easier: the pilot lay down in his seat, took control levers, and two assistants lifted the glider by the ends of the wings, ran with it against the wind and, feeling how the lifting force balances the force of gravity, strongly pushed the glider down the hill.

During September and October 1902, Wilbur and Orville Wright made about a thousand flights with their glider. The length of some of them reached two hundred meters.

Thanks to the improved control, the pilots were now not afraid of even very strong winds.

“Having received accurate data for our calculations,” they write, “and having achieved an equilibrium sufficiently stable both in wind and in a calm atmosphere, we found it possible to start building an apparatus with a motor.”

The experience of building gliders was the best fit for Wilbur and Orville Wright when working on the first aircraft. In fact, it was the same biplane glider, only slightly larger and more durable. And a gasoline engine with a capacity of 12 horsepower and weighing about 100 kilograms was installed on the lower wing. Nearby was a cradle for the pilot with rudders. The motor developed 1400 revolutions per minute and, with the help of chain drives, rotated two pushing propellers with a diameter of 2.6 meters, located symmetrically behind the wings.

Both the gasoline engine and the propellers were made by the brothers themselves. The motor, however, was still far from perfect and rather heavy, but still better than a steam engine with its enormous weight and meager power. A lot of work had to be done on the propellers. The Wright brothers did many experiments until they finally found the right sizes for them. They made very important conclusions, which aircraft designers still use today, namely, that for each aircraft and engine, the propeller must be calculated separately.

With the same thoughtfulness and thoroughness, the Wright brothers built every detail, every node of the structure. Finally everything was ready.

The morning of December 17, 1903 was overcast and cold. A gusty wind from the ocean whistled dejectedly through the crevices of the plank shed where Wilbur and Orville were finishing the final preparations for their winged machine. Having had a quick bite, the brothers threw open the wide doors of the barn. Far away, beyond the sandy spit of the beach, the surf roared restlessly, the wind whirled the sand. The first desire was to close the doors and warm up by the brazier, because the wind was exasperating with might and main. However, the brothers wanted to quickly test their creation, and the cheerful merry fellow Orville, looking at the eldest, Wilbur, read consent in his eyes. Then he pulled the cord, and a small flag was raised on a high pole over the barn. It was a prearranged signal.

In the distance, on a sand dune where a small rescue station was located, they waved in response, and the brothers, without waiting for the helpers to arrive, pulled their airplane out of the barn.

Five people came up from the rescue station and volunteered to help. Young sailors and old sea wolves, bored by winter idleness, examined the winged wonder with curiosity, holding it tighter in gusts of wind.

Next to the shed was a wooden tower, from which Wilbur and Orville laid a wooden rail, about forty meters long, strictly against the wind. The assistants did not immediately realize what it was for. But then the brothers hoisted onto the rail a two-wheeled cart on bicycle hubs, on which the airplane was installed. Then Wilbur and his assistants lifted a rather heavy load suspended on a block to the top of the tower, and then from it, again through blocks, he led a rope to the cart. The most ingenious of the sailors realized that all this device resembled a catapult and was necessary for take-off: after all, the plane had no wheels, and for landing, as on previous gliders, only wooden skids were adapted from below.

The brothers stopped near the plane. Wilbur's pocket watch showed ten thirty in the morning. Everyone wanted to fly first. Reasonable and calm, Wilbur took out a coin and briefly asked:
- Heads or tails?
- Eagle! Orville exclaimed impatiently.

The coin soared into the air and fell back into his palm. Eagle!

Thirty-two-year-old Orville jumped up like a boy and habitually climbed onto the plane. Wilbur helped start the engine, and while it warmed up, Orville lay down beside the roaring engine in the pilot's cradle and adjusted himself once more to the controls.

The elder Wilbur moved to the edge of the wing, held it in a horizontal position, feeling how, with an increase in engine speed, the trembling from the car was transmitted to him.

Finally, Orville raised his hand in the pilot's seat - the signal "Ready to fly." Then the older brother pressed the brake lever. The load on the tower broke from the stopper, the blocks creaked. The airplane, together with the trolley, started off and, picking up speed, rushed forward along the rail. Wilbur, after running a few steps, released his wing and froze in place. The sailors, too, followed the takeoff with intense attention, and suddenly saw how the airplane broke away from the cart and soared into the air. He flew uncertainly, like a barely fledged chick that fell out of the nest, then soaring three or four meters up, then descending to the very ground. But he flew!

And from the consciousness of this miracle, one of the young sailors could not stand it and shouted: "Hurray!"

But then the airplane pecked with its nose and sank down on its runners on the sand. Wilbur clicked the stopwatch and glanced at the dial. The flight lasted twelve seconds. Only twelve seconds!

“... True, it’s not very long,” the Wright brothers wrote, “if we compare it with the flight of birds, but this was the first time in world history when a machine carrying a person rose into the air by its own power, in free flight it passed a known horizontal distance , without reducing its speed in the least, and finally descended to the ground without damage.

And although the "known distance" was only thirty-odd meters, it was from him that the victorious path of flying vehicles heavier than air began.

Now it was Wilbur's turn. He flew a little longer and a little further. The brothers seemed to compete with each other. In the third flight, Orville already felt the effectiveness of control.

“When I flew about the same distance as Wilbur, a strong gust of wind struck from the left side, which raised the left wing and threw the car sharply to the right. I immediately turned the handle to land the car, and then started working with the tail rudder. when the left wing touched the ground first, proving that the lateral control on this machine is much more effective than on previous ones.

In the fourth flight, Wilbur was in the air for 59 seconds and flew a distance of about three hundred meters.

The Wright brothers measured this distance in steps and were satisfied. The workers of the rescue station, who witnessed this historic event, rejoiced along with the brothers. They helped drag the car back to the start. And while Orville and Wilbur shared their impressions, a strong gust of wind suddenly came up from the ocean. He picked up the airplane, circled it above the ground and threw it on the sand. All attempts to keep the car were in vain.

From the airplane in an instant there was only a pile of debris. The sky seemed to take revenge on people for the fact that they dared to invade its limits.

But the Wright brothers were stubborn. Having dragged the wreckage of the car into the barn, they immediately began to discuss the project of a new, more advanced airplane.

Wilbur and Orville decided to leave Kill Devil Hills and return to Dayton. A pasture ten miles from their home was chosen to continue the work. By that time they became famous all over the world. People came to see the tests, paid a lot of money to find out from neighboring farmers when the next flight would take place. And the brothers were seriously afraid that competitors would be able to copy their model before their creation was patented. It was decided to stop flying until better times. In October 1905, the plane was driven into a hangar, and for two and a half years the Wright brothers did not fly.

All this time they were negotiating with the US War Department and even a number of European governments, trying to find a client to conclude a contract to build a commercial aircraft. Again, they took to the air only in 1908. Demonstration flights were carried out in France and Germany, and only later it was possible to agree on demonstrating the capabilities of the aircraft to American military officials. The signal corps of the US Army set a condition: a contract for the production and sale of aircraft will be signed if the device can stay in the air for about an hour, and there must be a passenger on board. The first flight ended in disaster: the plane crashed on a field in Fort Myer, Virginia. Orville was injured and his passenger was killed. And only a year later, Orville returned to Fort Myer to demonstrate the capabilities of the new model, which exceeded all expectations. The contract was signed, and the brothers created the Wright Company Corporation. Its headquarters were in New York, and the plant was in Dayton.

From 1910 to 1915, the Wright Company built 12 different types of aircraft. Orville estimated that their plant produced approximately 100 cars. However, at first things were not going well, so I had to look for other ways to make money. The brothers organized a flying school for everyone, and also began to train French and American military pilots. In parallel, they decided to create a group of pilots who were supposed to perform demonstration flights. Wilbur and Orville hoped that selling tickets to spectacles that could be held all over the country would bring good profits. However, this business lasted only two years: it had to be abandoned when two of the group's six pilots died in accidents.

From the moment the company was founded, the brothers began to face intense competition, including from European aircraft manufacturers. Wilbur and Orville filed numerous lawsuits against American and foreign designers and pilots, who, in their opinion, violated their copyrights, protected by a number of patents. Now the time has come for the brethren to take up international law, in which they have not been very successful. So, in Germany, the courts decided not in favor of the Wrights. In France, the case dragged on until 1917, when the brothers' patents expired.

All this undermined Wilbur's health. He contracted typhus and died in 1912 at the age of 45. Orville, on the contrary, lived longer than all of his immediate family. True, he retired from business already in 1915, and died in 1948.

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The most "flying" day in the history of aviation is December 17, 1903, when the American mechanics, the Wright brothers, successfully lifted into the air, and most importantly, landed on the ground, an aircraft with an internal combustion engine. The first manned flight - a new aerial era has begun!

Airplane Flyer ("Flyer"), in the presence of witnesses, flew to Kitty Hawk, (North Carolina), under the control of Orville Wright (Orville Wright). The great-grandfather of today's aircraft was in the air for 12 seconds and flew only 39 meters! 4 more flights - and a new record: "Brother-2" Wilbur Wright has been soaring for almost a minute, having overcome 279 m at a height of up to 14 m. Alas, the main hero of the occasion - the airplane - became a victim of a heavy wind, which turned over and fairly patted the lung " toy." But engine parts got a second life in the next model of the fiery engine.

In the first gliders and airplanes, the pilots did not sit: the aviator controlled the machine from a prone position, and sometimes he also “danced” - the wing was skewed by the movement of the hips. However, there was also a “dashboard”: as many as two handles, one controlled the elevator, the other turned the engine on and off. The “first planes” were filled with kerosene, and the “air horse” pulled the car into the air with all its 12 horsepower. Other technical characteristics of the "Flyer" are as follows: takeoff weight - 340 kg, wing area - 47.4 m 2, span - 12.3 m, aircraft length - 6.4 m.

"Informer" and a wonderful photo on the day.

It's funny that the first information about the flight became known to the general public thanks to people far from the media world. The telegraph operator who transmitted the telegram to the father of the air-brothers was the source of the leak of information, and - inaccurate. Thanks to him, local newspapers printed not very reliable reports. We also say “thank you” to a non-professional for the photo: a specially invited ordinary person from the locals, John T. Daniels, took the first and only picture in his life. Successful or not? The brothers were tormented by uncertainty for several weeks until the plate was developed. The frame is awesome!

In the famous picture of John T. Daniels - the "first plane" Flyer-1

About the benefits of toys.

The first flying machine in the life of the Wright brothers was made of paper, bamboo and a cork with a rubber band that turned the motor. The wingspan of 30 cm was a toy, but the flight of thought was already unchildish then. As the aviators assured, it was this gift from their father, the bishop of the evangelical church, who returned from a business trip with a toy in 1878, that determined their future. The model, based on the invention of the Frenchman, aviation pioneer Alphonse Penno, could not withstand the overload and soon broke down - I had to build ... a new one!

The Wright brothers earned their first capital while still being boys: they joined the club of kite lovers, and it was their "flyers" that flew faster, higher, more beautiful. Why not a product? Comrades willingly bought the first "aircraft"! The kites came in handy later, when work was underway on the aircraft, and it was no longer child's play, but serious tests and verification of calculations.

Press pump - pedal!

The research of the Wright brothers, unlike the research of other aviators, was not funded by the government.

And if it were not for newspapers and bicycles, who knows if that first flight would have taken place? The brothers designed and built their own printing press, published the newspapers Westside News and Evening Events, and then decided to ... reinvent the wheel. Or rather, to develop new models of two-wheeled vehicles and sell them. Starting with a repair shop, the brothers moved into their own production and trade mark of the Wright Cycle Company in 1896. Models priced between $30 and $100 - let's go! Well, the money acquired by overwork, the Wrights literally let go to the wind! That is, for the construction of gliders and aircraft. “Bicycle” experience and personnel of “bike building” also served the aircraft industry: Charlie Taylor, a mechanic who repaired bikes and motors in their store, always created a light aluminum motor according to rough sketches of the brothers in 1.5 months: hitherto the motors were too heavy and the planes they were simply not brought up.

The Wright Brothers Bicycle Workshop

Experimental bike: it's a pipe!

In the experiments on the creation of an aircraft by the Wright brothers, the "third useful" was again a bicycle: one more wheel on the steering wheel, simple mounts - a test bench for wing models was ready. Well, how does air resist? More precisely? Only ... the pipe will show. Aerodynamic. The primitive design from the Wright brothers, where the air was blown by fans, with “weights” to hold the wings in the tunnel (again, the bicycle went into action - or rather, its spokes) served faithfully for the whole of 1901 to inspire the future car. 200 models of wings of various shapes and profiles, of which 38 are promising. And there is only one winner!

Head, head! The main thing is a new method, "wing warping"! How else to stand against the wind and not roll over? The Wright brothers drew inspiration from the flight of birds and their own experiences as cyclists. Do you want to keep your balance? Lean in! And move the feathers: the trailing edge warp device at the ends of the wings improved the stability of the car in flight. "Wing warp" (roll), together with other key design elements - "nose elevator" (pitch) and "tail rudder" (yaw), made up the legendary "three axis of rotation" of the aircraft. Brilliant, Wright! And let's take a look at the propellers - two pieces, spinning in opposite directions, the blades are curved for more lift ... Incredible! And yet it is not clear how this thing flies. By the way, the principle of three axes of rotation is still relevant, whether it's "maize", "Cessna" or "Boeing" with "Airbus"!

From a bicycle to ... an airplane! The first flight simulator.

The brothers were very close - true friends and associates. In their honest intentions, they went even further than the well-known song thesis: "First of all, first of all - planes, but girls ... and girls - then." Neither of them ever married, and Wilber (feminists, close your ears and go on a diet!) once said that he probably "couldn't feed a wife and a flying car at the same time." Another vital detail: the brothers promised their father never to fly together - this was the only security measure at that time, which was exactly half effective. However, none of them died while flying the plane: Wilber died of typhus at the age of 45, and Orville outlived his brother by 36 years.

Pirate land - the hills are what you need!

The Wright brothers chose the place of the first "airfield" according to ... weather forecasts. Wilber studied weather data from the National Weather Service, and wrote them a letter asking for a "unsettled" harbour. The winds are stronger, the slopes are steeper, the place is wild and deserted, preferably three days in the forest so that the reporters do not get there. Here it is - the aviator's dream, "valley number six" - the serial number of the area that the brothers chose from the response list of meteorologists. In 1900, having arrived in the Kitty Hawk Valley, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur were delighted with her, and were not afraid of the "notoriety" of the place. According to legend, pirates lured ships there by putting lanterns around their necks. The sailors thought that these were lighthouses, and sent the ships to the coastal rocks. The brothers rejoiced even more when they scouted out a place for a test site: Kill Devil Hills, in translation - “The Hills That Killed the Devil”, apparently due to its height. Sand dunes about 30 meters high - well, just a complete fly away!

The new era of aeronautics and the New Year have something in common: these are Christmas trees! Strong and light wood was a common material for the construction of aircraft - both gliders and the Flyer-1 equipped with an engine. The propellers were then also made of wood: “fir-trees-sticks” came in handy for the blades. By the way, the propeller diameter was 2.6 m, so - from the screw! It won't be blown away by the wind.

Business is not in flight!

The Wright brothers, having improved the machines, for several years refused public demonstration flights and did not even put a photo of their “Flier” in the newspapers, following the well-known principle: in the morning - money, in the evening - chairs ... and airplanes. National governments were interested but doubtful, especially the US military, which spent $50,000 on the Langley aircraft - and it kept falling and falling, along with the fighting spirit of the warriors. But in 1908, having signed contracts not only with them, but also with a French company, the Wright brothers began finishing work and preparing for the air show. "Give a passenger!" the military said. And the brothers did, at the same time conquering Europe with their demonstration flight along complex trajectories near the French city of Le Mans. Glory has come! And it took hold a year later when a plane flown by Wilber flew around the Statue of Liberty at New York City's Hudson River 300th Anniversary and made a 33-minute flight up and down the river along Manhattan. Witnesses - about a million residents of New York.

In Soviet encyclopedias, the honor of the first flight on an airplane with a motor was attributed to ... a difficult Russian sailor, inventor, Rear Admiral A.F. Mozhaisky. He built an “aeronautical projectile” (you can’t swim away from marine terms!) In 1882, he already had an official patent in his hands. Alas, the bird did not soar, but it would have drowned in the water: the engine is too heavy! And with the design, not everything is clear.

The Japanese god of... aviation?

The dispute about superiority in the conquest of the air does not subside, and, for example, the Brazilians also have their own “Father of Aviation” (Alberto Santos-Dumont is the most famous character), and, less known, the Japanese. 10 years before the Wright brothers, the son of a samurai, amateur engineer Chuhachi Ninomiya developed his "monoplane", also with the first chassis in history, which would appear in Europe and America already in the 1930s! He asked the military departments to support him financially - there was no money to build the Cuirass. And when the amount was collected and Nanomiya was waiting for the delivery of the ordered motor, it became known about the flight of the Wright brothers. The inventor acted very Japanese and almost samurai: he destroyed the plane, burned the blueprints, and became a priest. But from the military to Ninomiya received a letter of apology.

Ilya Muromets - 16 raises!

The first truly passenger aircraft in the history of aviation was nevertheless from our steppes: "Ilya Muromets" designed by Igor Sikorsky (who also invented the helicopter) was simply the prototype of today's private airliners: a comfortable cabin, a restaurant, sleeping rooms, bathroom, heating, electricity ... Well, just Muromets - VIP! He first took off on December 10, 1913, and a year later he already took on board 16 passengers. And soon he set a distance record by making a circular flight "Petersburg - Kyiv - Petersburg" with only one intermediate landing. Ah yes Muromets, oh yes the plane!

Personal effects and personal aircraft of the first aviators can be seen at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, an open-air museum at the site of the legendary flight, in the Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' flight, it was expanded, and at the celebration, the Sir Chairman was the famous aviation enthusiast and owner of a luxurious aircraft, John Travolta (by the way, he is also an actor). Also present were US President Jonge Bush, lunar astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and test pilot Charles Yeager.

It all started with 12 seconds of flight at a height of three meters, and today a person can fly for many hours at an altitude of about 10,000 meters, overcoming huge distances. So, the cruising speed of the popular passenger jet liner Airbus A-320 is 910 km per hour, the average flight range is 4600 km, and if there is also an additional fuel tank, then all 5500! "Dear passengers, please fasten your seat belts" ... But that's a completely different story.

On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright succeeded in launching a man into the air in a powered aircraft. Two years later, the inventors improved their project by demonstrating an aircraft in operation.

The fundamental achievement of the Wrights was the discovery of three axes of rotation of the aircraft. Roll, pitch and yaw allowed pilots to effectively control the aircraft by controlling its balance in the sky. The three-axis method has become the main one, and to this day the best control for any type of aircraft has not yet been invented. The aviation pioneers combined collected less data than Orville and Wilbur did with their wind tunnel experiments.

Orville Wright was born on August 19, 1871 in Dayton, Ohio (Dayton, Ohio); Wilbur Wright - April 16, 1867 in Millville, Indiana (Millville, Indiana). They were two of seven children of Evangelical Bishop Milton Wright of English and Dutch ancestry and Susan Catherine Koerner of German-Swiss blood. Both brothers never married.

In 1878, their father bought the children a toy helicopter based on a device invented by the Frenchman Alphonse Pénaud. The toy made of paper and bamboo was about 30 cm long. Its motor rotated due to the rubber band on the cork. Orville and Wilbur did not part with their father's gift until they broke it. However, they quickly managed to build something similar. Later they

admitted that they caught fire with interest in flying precisely thanks to this toy.

The Wright brothers went to school but never graduated. During the winter of 1885-1886, Wilbur was playing a puck with friends when he accidentally hit a stick in the face and lost his front teeth. After the incident, the athletic and active young man withdrew into himself so much that he did not even apply to Yale. Wilbur hardly left the house for several years, taking care of his mother, who was terminally ill with tuberculosis. He read many books in his father's library and also helped resolve internal conflicts in his father's church.

Orville dropped out in favor of the publishing business. With the help of Wilbur, he designed a printing press. Involved in a new business, Wilbur cheered up, came out of depression and became an editor in 1889. But already in 1892, the enterprising Wright brothers, on the wave of a bicycle boom, decided to open a workshop and a shop, and four years later they themselves began to produce bicycles under their own brand. The proceeds went to fund their aeronautical experiments. After reading several works by George Cayley, Otto Lilienthal, Leonardo da Vinci and others, the Wright brothers were unstoppable.

Based on his observations, Wilbur concluded that birds change the angle of their wingtips in flight. This allowed the birds to turn their bodies left and right. Then the Wrights decided to use "skew to

snout ", and several autumn days of 1900 launched their glider above the ground at a fairly low distance. Most of the launches did not have a pilot, but Wilbur still dared to take part in free flights, which, in the end, then made more than a dozen. The first tests passed successfully.

In subsequent years, Orville and Wilbur, based on calculations of lift for wings of various shapes, continued aviation experiments, including a glider launched in 1902 with a redesigned wind tunnel and other changes. Ultimately, the Wright brothers achieved control of the aircraft along three axes. The inclination of the aircraft was set by roll, pitch and yaw. On March 23, 1903, the brothers applied for a patent for their invention. In the same year, they equipped the Flyer-1 engine.

A year later, Flyer-2 was ready, which did not live up to their expectations. In 1905, after the relative success of the Flyer-3, the Wrights went on hiatus, not flying in 1906-1907. Signing a contract with the US Army, Orville and Wilbur finalized the 1905 Flyer. On May 14, 1908, Wilbur experienced the worst crash of his life, after which he stopped flying. The Wright Company, formed by the brothers, officially began selling patents on November 22, 1909. The first commercial flight of the company took place on November 7, 1910.

Wilbur died of typhoid fever on May 30, 1912, at the age of 45. After his death, Orville sold the company in 1915. He died on January 30, 1948 after a myocardial infarction, at the age of 77.

In 1904, the Wright brothers built the Flyer 2 and equipped an airfield on a pasture 13 km northeast of Dayton, which bank president Torrance Huffman provided them with no rent. They invited reporters to the flight attempt on the condition that they would not take photographs. Engine failures and light winds made it impossible to lift the aircraft into the air. A few days later, the Wrights were able to make only a very short flight in the presence of a much smaller number of reporters. There is speculation that the Wrights deliberately sabotaged these flights so that journalists would lose interest in them. It is not known if this is true, but after their unsuccessful demonstration flights, local newspapers ignored the aviators for about a year and a half. In October 1905, the plane was driven into a hangar, and for two and a half years the Wright brothers did not fly. The Wright brothers were pleased to be freed from the attention of reporters. The absence of journalists also reduced the chances of their competitors to learn their methods. After powered flying at Kitty Hawk, the Wrights made the decision to start winding down the bicycle business so they could devote themselves to building and marketing a serviceable aircraft.
The third plane of the Wright brothers was the most successful. Beginning in 1905, the Wright brothers negotiated with the US War Department and even a number of European governments, trying to find a client to win a contract to build a commercial aircraft. The US military took the report of the bike shop owners with great disbelief. The War Department had just spent a huge amount of money - $50,000 - on a manned aircraft designed by Professor Langley. An attempt to surface takeoff from a barge using a catapult led to the fact that the plane simply fell apart. The pilot almost died. Are two bicycle mechanics smarter than one professor?! With even greater apprehension, reports of the Wright brothers' plane were treated in Europe. French newspapers considered this information a bluff, and the Wright brothers were not called “flyers” - “flyers”, but the consonant English word “liars”, that is, “liars”. After two years of unsuccessful attempts to draw attention to their aircraft, Wilber and Orville Wright realized that only a public demonstration could fix the situation. Wilber went with the plane to France, and Orville began to prepare another apparatus for flights in Virginia. The Wright brothers received a patent for their invention on May 22, 1906.
On August 8, 1908, with a large crowd of interested but skeptical public, Wilber flew near Paris. The Europeans were shocked. The pilot demonstrated excellent controllability of the aircraft in circling and figure-of-eight flights. Skeptics were confounded and apologized. The next day, the Wright brothers woke up famous.

Orville Wright's demonstration flights in America began on September 3, 1908 in Virginia. The signal corps of the US Army set a condition: a contract for the production and sale of aircraft will be signed if the device can stay in the air for about an hour, and there must be a passenger on board. On September 17, Orville took on board US Army Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge (although the creator of the motor, Charlie Taylor, really wanted him to be a passenger). At an altitude of 30 m, the propeller of the aircraft broke, and the apparatus crashed to the ground. Charlie was the first to run to the scene of the tragedy and pulled Orville and his passenger out of the wreckage of the plane. Thomas Selfridge died, becoming the first victim of a plane crash. The injured Orville was taken to the hospital, and the shocked Charlie sobbed like a child and calmed down only when the doctor assured him that Orville's life was out of danger. Orville was seriously injured, he broke his left leg and four ribs. Wilber and Orville's sister, Katherine, a schoolteacher, traveled from Dayton to Washington and stayed with Orville for many weeks while he was in the hospital.

After his recovery, Orville Wright and his sister Katherine joined Wilber and they went on tour together in southern France and Italy. Wilber made numerous demonstration flights and took on board journalists, politicians, cameramen as passengers. The performances of the Wright brothers were attended by the kings of Spain, England and Italy. It was a triumph of talented designers.
Returning to America, the Wright brothers and their sister were invited to the White House. US President William Howard Taft presented them with awards. In the summer of 1909, Orville finished demonstrating the machine to the military, and they bought the plane for $30,000, a huge amount of money at the time. In early October, in front of a million New Yorkers, Wilber made a half-hour flight over Manhattan, flying around the Statue of Liberty. It was simply impossible to become more famous.

The Wright Brothers Company was incorporated on November 22, 1909. The brothers sold their patents to the company for $100,000, and also received one-third of the shares in a one-million-dollar share issue and a 10 percent patent payment for each aircraft sold. With Wilber in the presidency and Orville as vice president, the company laid down an aircraft factory in Dayton and an airfield for testing and pilot training on the Huffman Prairie; The company's headquarters were in New York.
In the middle of 1910, the Wright brothers made changes to the model of their aircraft, moving the horizontal elevator to the rear and installing wheels. By this time, it became obvious that the tail elevator would make the aircraft easier to control, especially since the speed of the aircraft was increasing more and more. This aircraft was named "Model-B".
From 1910 to 1915, the Wright Company built 12 different types of aircraft. Orville estimated that their plant produced approximately 100 cars. However, at first things were not going well, so I had to look for other ways to make money. The brothers organized a flying school for everyone, and also began to train French and American military pilots. Between 1910 and 1916 115 pilots were trained in the flying school of the Wright Brothers Company. Several trainees became famous, including Henry Arnold, the future general, commander of the US Air Force in World War II, who led the US Air Force when it was created; Calbraith Perry Rogers, who made the first coast-to-coast flight in 1911

In parallel, they decided to create a group of pilots who were supposed to perform demonstration flights. Wilber and Orville hoped that selling tickets to spectacles that could be held all over the country would bring good profits. However, this business lasted only two years: it had to be abandoned when two of the six pilots of the group died in accidents.
From the moment the company was founded, the brothers began to face intense competition, including from European aircraft manufacturers. Wilbur and Orville filed numerous lawsuits against American and foreign designers and pilots, who, in their opinion, violated their copyrights, protected by a number of patents. Now the time has come for the brethren to take up international law, in which they have not been very successful. So, in Germany, the courts decided not in favor of the Wrights. In France, the case dragged on until 1917, when the brothers' patents expired.
In the United States, the brothers began patent disputes with their main competitor, Glenn Curtiss, who produced 10 thousand aircraft during the First World War. In 1917, the government voluntarily bought out the patents from the disputants, transferring them to the general disposal of the Aircraft Manufacturers Association. Ironically, in 1929, the company founded by the Wright brothers merged with the airline of their main competitor, Curtiss, to form the Curtiss-Write Corporation, which still exists today.
The Wright brothers remained single. Wilber once remarked that he "couldn't feed a wife and a flying machine at the same time." During a trip to Boston in April 1912, he contracted typhoid fever and died at the age of 45 on May 30, 1912.
Orville sold the Wright Brothers Company in 1915. He made his last flight as a pilot in 1918. He later became an aviation official, serving on various official boards and committees, serving on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).