Wirraway
18th Dec 2003, 22:20
Fri "The Australian"
The Wright stuff simply not enough
By James Bone at The Times
December 19, 2003
Despite a century of flying experience, mankind failed on Wednesday to duplicate the feat of the two brothers from Ohio who launched the great adventure of powered flight.
An attempt to mark the centenary of the Wright brothers' achievement by re-enacting their historic flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, ended in a flop when a replica of their rudimentary flying machine skidded into a puddle in the middle of a muddy field.
The nose of the wood-and-cloth aircraft lifted up as the twin propellers powered the plane down the wooden take-off rail, but it never got off the ground. When the track ended, the plane slumped on to one wing in a pool of water. Organisers, who spent three years building the plane, blamed low wind for the plane's failure to get airborne. As it began its take-off attempt, the headwind dropped to 6-7 knots - less than the 10 knots required.
The pilot, Kevin Kochersberger, an engineering professor, dropped his head as he climbed off the plane, but later laughed as it was hoisted on to the track.
The re-enactment of Orville Wright's pioneering 12-second, 120ft flight in Wright Flyer, with his brother Wilbur running alongside, was to have been the climax of a six-day festival attended by tens of thousands of people, including astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and John Glenn, and actor-cum-pilot John Travolta.
The celebration, with skydiving demonstrations, was a far cry from the scene at the original flight, which was witnessed by five residents and reported only in the local newspaper.
To demonstrate the value of the invention of flight, President Bush came to the site aboard Air Force One and a helicopter. Mr Bush hailed the Wright brothers - high-school dropouts who ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio - as a symbol of American ingenuity.
"The Wright brothers' invention belonged to the world, but the Wright brothers belonged to America," he said. "We take special pride in the discipline and persistence, optimism and imagination of people like them."
Just eight weeks before the Wright brothers' first flight, Mr Bush noted, a New York Times editorial cautioned that all attempts at manned flight were doomed because, "to build a flying machine would require the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians from 1 million to 10 million years."
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Fri "The Australian"
Wrong and a Wright way
By Jeremy Roberts
December 19, 2003
As replicas of the Wright brothers' first flyer crashed to ground this week in the US, an Adelaide couple say they have the answer to what the Americans have done wrong.
They have also built a replica which they are confident will be the first Wright Flyer to take to the sky successfully since the original in December 1903.
The American replicas have been seen this week to rise sharply after take-off and then crash to earth.
"I was quite horrified to see what we saw on the television," said John Delaney, a retired aircraft engineer of 30 years' experience.
After spending the past year building a Wright Flyer replica with help from his wife, Christine, Mr Delaney said he could see what the Americans had done wrong: "On the upper surface of the wing you see the fabric lift away from the wing structure ... it changes the lift and it happens very quickly."
While researching the original aircraft, Mr Delaney found a design note indicating that the wing fabric was laced to the ribs of the wing, allowing it to both slide across the wing and stay attached during take-off.
Mr Delaney piloted the replica up to a couple of centimetres above the ground this week as it was towed behind a vehicle.
Mr Delaney is waiting for cooler weather and a steady headwind to attempt his first unaided flight.
=========================================
The Wright stuff simply not enough
By James Bone at The Times
December 19, 2003
Despite a century of flying experience, mankind failed on Wednesday to duplicate the feat of the two brothers from Ohio who launched the great adventure of powered flight.
An attempt to mark the centenary of the Wright brothers' achievement by re-enacting their historic flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, ended in a flop when a replica of their rudimentary flying machine skidded into a puddle in the middle of a muddy field.
The nose of the wood-and-cloth aircraft lifted up as the twin propellers powered the plane down the wooden take-off rail, but it never got off the ground. When the track ended, the plane slumped on to one wing in a pool of water. Organisers, who spent three years building the plane, blamed low wind for the plane's failure to get airborne. As it began its take-off attempt, the headwind dropped to 6-7 knots - less than the 10 knots required.
The pilot, Kevin Kochersberger, an engineering professor, dropped his head as he climbed off the plane, but later laughed as it was hoisted on to the track.
The re-enactment of Orville Wright's pioneering 12-second, 120ft flight in Wright Flyer, with his brother Wilbur running alongside, was to have been the climax of a six-day festival attended by tens of thousands of people, including astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and John Glenn, and actor-cum-pilot John Travolta.
The celebration, with skydiving demonstrations, was a far cry from the scene at the original flight, which was witnessed by five residents and reported only in the local newspaper.
To demonstrate the value of the invention of flight, President Bush came to the site aboard Air Force One and a helicopter. Mr Bush hailed the Wright brothers - high-school dropouts who ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio - as a symbol of American ingenuity.
"The Wright brothers' invention belonged to the world, but the Wright brothers belonged to America," he said. "We take special pride in the discipline and persistence, optimism and imagination of people like them."
Just eight weeks before the Wright brothers' first flight, Mr Bush noted, a New York Times editorial cautioned that all attempts at manned flight were doomed because, "to build a flying machine would require the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians from 1 million to 10 million years."
==========================================
Fri "The Australian"
Wrong and a Wright way
By Jeremy Roberts
December 19, 2003
As replicas of the Wright brothers' first flyer crashed to ground this week in the US, an Adelaide couple say they have the answer to what the Americans have done wrong.
They have also built a replica which they are confident will be the first Wright Flyer to take to the sky successfully since the original in December 1903.
The American replicas have been seen this week to rise sharply after take-off and then crash to earth.
"I was quite horrified to see what we saw on the television," said John Delaney, a retired aircraft engineer of 30 years' experience.
After spending the past year building a Wright Flyer replica with help from his wife, Christine, Mr Delaney said he could see what the Americans had done wrong: "On the upper surface of the wing you see the fabric lift away from the wing structure ... it changes the lift and it happens very quickly."
While researching the original aircraft, Mr Delaney found a design note indicating that the wing fabric was laced to the ribs of the wing, allowing it to both slide across the wing and stay attached during take-off.
Mr Delaney piloted the replica up to a couple of centimetres above the ground this week as it was towed behind a vehicle.
Mr Delaney is waiting for cooler weather and a steady headwind to attempt his first unaided flight.
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