PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - The Wright brothers just glided in 1903. They flew in 1908.
Old 3rd Jun 2014, 16:51
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simplex1
 
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Again about Gustav Whitehead and his miraculous engines

Presenting his 1901, No. 21 plane in an October 1901 German article, Whitehead wrote the 30 HP acetylene engine, that equipped the plane, weighed 2 pounds per horsepower. In comparison the 1903, 52 HP Manly–Balzer engine, that powered Langley's airplane, weighed 2.61 pounds/HP.
see: http://www.flyingmachines.org/Whiteh...O183CFGray.pdf and Manly?Balzer engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The motor for No. 21 was considerably lighter per HP than the Manly–Balzer engine which hold the record in weight per horsepower for many years.

There are also other more flagrant contradictions in the German article. Whitehead talks about three engines: 10, 20 and 30 HP. At one moment he claimed his 30 HP engine needed 60 pounds of fuel to run for 6 hours. In the end of the text he states that, during a test, his engine had run at full power with 10 pounds of fuel for the entire day. 10 pounds would have been enough just for 1 hour! and maxim 3 hours if he referred to the 10 HP engine.
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