KRONFELD ON GLIDING AND SOARING.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

THE WRIGHTS 41
The Wrights calculated that in five years of laborious
endeavour Lilienthal only spent five actual hours in the air,
but they were surprised that he attained such results with,
relatively, so little practice. Thereupon the brothers took
in hand the construction of a flying machine which was to
develop only a low degree of speed, as it was their intention
to fly it against a wind of its own velocity. In this way
they believed that they would be able, while hovering over
one spot, to remain in the air for long periods easily and
safely. To produce such a machine they found it necessary
to increase the area of their planes considerably, and they
therefore did not deem it feasible to steer by shifting the
centre of gravity as Lilienthal and Chanute had done. A
movable elevator was attached in front of the double deck
surfaces, while lateral balance was obtained by manipulating
the wing tips.
In the summer of 1900 they began practical experiments
at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina. They first sent up the
machine as a kite, in which fashion it could lift a man with
the aid of a stiff breeze. All sorts of experiments were
made, and it was clearly shown that a variable curvature of
the wing tips was far more effective than shifting the
centre of gravity by body movements.
Soon the eager experimenters were ready for gliding
trials. For this purpose they moved farther south where
higher sandhills were more suitable for such flights.
It was not easy. Unlike their predecessors, the Wrights
lay prone upon the surface of their machine. In order to
start they had to run and then jump on to the machine as it
rose ; when they landed, their legs had to take the shock.
The long flights for which they hoped were reduced to
periods of two minutes, but they were well satisfied when
they concluded their first trials, especially as they achieved
a more perfect control over the machine than they had
expected.
In the summer of 1901 they went again to their southern
camp of Kill Devil with a new plane. It was bigger than
the first, having a surface of three hundred and eight square
feet, being, in fact, the largest gliding plane that had been
built till then. The span of the great double decks was