The Journey of Flight.pdf - Valkyrie Cadet

Langley’s last failure, two brothers succeeded. They had approached the problem from the opposite
direction (control first and then power) and succeeded with powered flight on the sand dunes of North
Carolina.
The The W WWright
W right Brothers
Brothers
A combination of factors helped Orville and Wilbur Wright achieve success in controlled, sustained
and powered flight. First, they had access to the knowledge about flight gained by the others before
them. The lessons learned by their predecessors contributed greatly to the success of the Wright
brothers.
Secondly, they lived at a time when the first practical power plant (the gasoline engine) had been
developed. Finally, they were patient in their approach to solving problems. They possessed a
combination of attitudes and skills that allowed them to bring the work of their predecessors together
and combine it into a successful product.
The Wright brothers develop controlled flight.
The Wright brothers’ approach to flight was to first develop an aircraft that would fly and could be
controlled in flight, and then to add a power plant. Their observations led them to believe that birds
maneuvered in flight chiefly by twisting their wings. Using this information, they built a large box kite
with four cords attached to the wingtips. They found by pulling these cords, and thus twisting (warping)
the wings, they could maneuver the kite from the ground.
Following these successful kite flights, the brothers realized that the next step must be to get into
the air themselves to further test their “wing-warping technique.” Before beginning their glider tests,
they requested information from the Weather Bureau for a site for conducting their tests. They needed
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