Wright Flyer Replica Flight Testing
 

A dedicated group of enthusiasts is in the final throes of completing a Wright Flyer Replica which is due to be launched at Narromine NSW OZ on 1 October in the presence of Buzz Aldrin.

Pilot will be Col Pay who has had recent experience in his Mustang and Kitttyhawk. He should notice a big difference in performance!!

Can anyone advise the desired CG position and its reference point?

Advise on possible ways to improve upon the Wright Flyer's basic flying qualities would also be of great interest from the point of view of an attending TP.

No personal knowledge, but...

- http://66.102.193.156/papers/1953.zip (you might need to be an SETP member to access that page), is a paper on HQ assessment of a replica flyer circa 2003.

- Also there was some discussion on the subject during the 2003 SETP Oral history sessions in LA, if you have access to a set of the DVDs for that. (If you don't, they're worth the money.)

- A couple of years ago I went to a lecture on "handling qualities through the ages" by Roger "Dodge" Bailey, who is CTP at the Cranfield College of Aeronautics. One of the things he'd covered was simulation of the flight mechanics of the Wright Flyer by Cranfield. If you get in touch with him via http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/soe/aboutus/contact.htm he's usually pretty helpful, and has a real passion and knowledge about the HQ of early flying machines.

G

Prof. Gareth Padfield's Handling Qualities group at Liverpool University have done some fascinating work on the original (and later) Wright Flyers. :D

Milt

You need to get your hands on a copy of "The Wright Flyer, an engineering perspective" by the National Air and Space Museum published by the Smithsonian Institution Press 1987.

It has a paper in it "Aerodynamics, Stability and Control of the 1903 Wright Flyer" by Culick & Jex

It looks bleak viz:

"For our wind tunnel data we estimate that the neutral point of the 1903 Wright Flyer was about 10% of chord aft of the leading edge. The centre of gravity was 30% aft of the leading edge, so the airplane was severely unstable...." -20% static margin " for current aircraft with automatic control the greatest negative static margin which is acceptable is about -5%"

If you would like to see the whole paper pm me and I'll scan it and squirt it to you.

Cheers

W

I read an article in "Kitplanes" a few years ago by a test pilot involved with a US group that built a replica. They added a small horizontal stabilizer between the rudders to make pitch control manageable. While no longer a true replica, it still looked authentic unless your name was Orville or Wilbur.