The first flight of the Wright brothers: the beginning of aviation history

Why do not people fly like birds? This question reflects the man's long-held dream of heaven, about flying. To implement it, people made wings and tried to fly, flapping them. Most often, such experiments ended in the death of brave souls. Let's remember only the ancient legend of Icarus ...

The question of flights was also of great interest to the brilliant artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci, who studied the structure of birds, their wings. He tried to establish the features of their flight. He even compiled drawings of an aircraft - the prototype of a modern helicopter.

From the history of conquest of the sky

First, the man managed to climb to the clouds in a hot air balloon. This happened on November 21, 1783. The balloon balloon, invented by the Montgolfier brothers, raised two people to a height of about 1 km, and almost half an hour later they landed safely at a distance of 9 km.

In 1853, D. Cayley built the first simple glider, which managed to lift a man into the air. Since then, the designs of gliders have been constantly improving. At the same time, the range and duration of flights increased. It was a great achievement, because the glider is heavier than air. But the dream of a free, independent from the will of the winds, a man-operated flight has not yet been realized.

This was achieved only by the Wright brothers (1903), creating their first aircraft. Their victory was determined by many factors, including personal qualities.

The Wright Brothers: Biography

The brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright were born in the United States in a clergyman's family. The values of the Protestant church, which placed at the head of any success hard work, were vaccinated to them from childhood. It was working capacity that helped them achieve their goal and build the world's first aircraft with an engine. Soon after this followed the starry moment - the first flight of the Wright brothers. But they did not have not only higher education, they could not even finish high school because of life circumstances. Wilbur was injured and could not enter Yale University. He had to work in the publishing business of Orville. Then the first invention of the Wright Brothers appeared - the printing press of its own design.

In 1892, the brothers opened a bicycle trade store, in a short time created a repair shop, and later established their release. But they devoted all their free time to flights. In the end, it was the proceeds from the sale of bicycles and gave them the means for numerous experiments to create the first aircraft.

Preparation of the first flight: ingenious techniques

The brothers took a very serious interest in the idea of aeronautics. They studied all the literature available at that time about flights, and experimented a lot. We built several gliders and flew on them, achieving excellent results. In order to increase the lifting power of the wing, endless experiments were carried out in the wind tunnel itself. Various configurations of the wing and propeller blades were tested.

As a result, they have clarified the formula for determining the lift.

And, finally, an easier 12-horsepower gasoline engine for the airplane was also produced by the Wright brothers themselves. As with this, again, do not remember the great Leonardo, ahead of his time!

The first plane of the Wright brothers

For four years, since the beginning of experiments with kites and gliders, the brothers have matured for the construction of a controlled aircraft. The first airplane of the Wright brothers was called "Flyer". The skeleton of the plane was made of spruce, the propeller was also cut out of wood. At a weight of 283 kg the wingspan of the apparatus was 12 m.

Taking into account the engine weighing 77 kg and surpassing in efficiency the analogues available at that time, the first plane cost its creators less than 1000 dollars!

The first flight of the Wright brothers

The test of a fundamentally new aircraft was scheduled for December 1903. Both brothers naturally wanted to be the first. They decided this problem very simply - they threw a coin. Be the first pilot in the world fell Wilbur. But he was not lucky. The airplane could not make a flight, because it fell right after take-off and was damaged.

The next attempt was made by Orville. On December 17, at a headwind of 43 km / h, he managed to lift the aircraft into the air at a height of approximately 3 m and hold for 12 seconds. The distance in flight was 36.5 m.

On this day, the brothers took turns in 4 flights. The last of them, when the airplane piloted Wilbur, lasted almost a minute. And the distance was more than 250 m.

Strangely enough, the first flight of the Wright brothers did not attract public attention, although five people witnessed it.

Was there a flight?

The day after the flight, only a few newspapers had small reports about him, sinning inaccuracies and passing unnoticed. And in Dayton, the home town of the first aviators, this sensational in fact event in general went unnoticed.

But it is more difficult to explain that no one paid attention to the fact that on the airplane "Flyer II" during the next year, 105 flights were already committed! The third "Flyer", on which the brothers also flew in the vicinity of Dayton, again was not worth the attention of the broad masses.

Moreover, in 1906 one of the newspapers published an article entitled "Flyer or a liar?", Which raised doubts about the achievements of the Wright brothers.

This was the last straw that led to the decision to demonstrate to the whole world the possibility of guided flights on an apparatus that is heavier than air. And in 1908 the airplane of the Wright brothers was transported across the Atlantic Ocean. They arranged demonstration flights: Wilbur - in Paris, and Orville - in the US.

The brothers even organized measures to sell their invention, which turned out to be quite successful. In addition to the glory of the pioneers of aeronautics, they also received material satisfaction. The first flight of the Wright brothers in public was so convincing that the US government signed a contract with them, according to which an article on the supply of aircraft for military needs was included in the country's budget for 1909. The production of several dozens of airplanes was envisaged.

The first plane crash

Unfortunately, the first public demonstrations of flights on the plane were marked by the first catastrophe in the history of aviation .

This happened in September 1908. Orville Wright on the "Flyer III", on which the additional seat was installed, rose in the air from the military base of Fort Mayer. As a result of the failure of the right engine, the aircraft left in a peak, it could not be leveled. The passenger - Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge - died as a result of a trauma to the skull, obtained by striking the ground. Orville himself got rid of broken hips and ribs.

Despite this, the contract with the military was concluded. And to honor the Wright brothers it should be noted that this is the only serious accident that has happened to them in all the years.

However, in 1909, during a test flight in the suburbs of Paris in a catastrophe, the French pilot Lefebvre, a pupil of the Wright brothers, perishes. This was the reason why Russia, which was already ready to sign a contract for the supply of aircraft, refused them.

Development of aviation

Like many major discoveries of mankind, aircraft were first used for military purposes. For the first time, aviation was used in the form of aerial reconnaissance in the First World War. In the course of it it became clear that airplanes turned into a formidable force if they had weapons and bombs on them.

The first air ram was also produced during the First World War by Russian pilot Pyotr Nesterov.

After the war, airplanes began to be used to transport urgent cargo, primarily mail. Subsequently, passenger planes appeared. The end of World War II and a more peaceful environment in the world led to the emergence of flights for travelers.

In the end, the improvement of air transport deprived many sea and railway lines of work. The main advantage of aviation was speed, especially with the advent of supersonic aircraft.

Orville Wright, who died at the age of 77 in 1948, was able to see how aviation is widely used in the world. Wilbur Wright also became a victim of typhus in 1912.

The first plane of the Wright brothers now occupies an honorable place in the National Museum of Aviation and Astronautics. He is better known not as "Flyer I", but as "Kitty Hawk" - by the name of the place where he first ascended the air and thereby opened the era of conquest of the air ocean.