Brothers Wright - the first aviators

Perhaps, the brothers Wright were the ones familiarized with flight of birds, with laws of streamlining of bearing surfaces more profoundly than their predecessors. Having understood how the feathered creatures warp their split wings, the designers tested this principle by models of a glider. The ancient "flight vehicle" - a kite - became a great help for them. One-and-a-half-meter model of glider first took of exactly as a kite. Standing on the ground, the brothers pulled the trailing edges of wings with ropes.

After the first success with their models the Wrights decided the time for them to take off was right. They constructed a glider capable to maneuver, obeying the control surfaces. That was the point of their scheme, subsequently allowing creation of an airplane. In fall 1902 the Wrights made about one thousand successful flights above dunes of Atlantic coast, near a small town of Daytona. In any weather, even in strong wind, their glider with almost 10-meter wingspan started. Now it was necessary to install the engine with propeller and to try to transform an engineless kite into an independent flying machine.

No-one dared to create an engine of 8 h.p. weighing only80 kg. The brothers resolved this difficult for that time problem: a part of details was ordered externally, and the others were made in their workshop. As appeared, the motor developed even 16 h.p. The propellers were made in the same way: the Wrights calculated the shape and sizes of propellers by own technique.