Isn't it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so we could discover them!
From Orville Wright
If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance.
No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris.
The airplane stays up because it doesn't have the time to fall.
When the motor was completed and tested, we found that it would develop 16 horse power for a few seconds, but that the power rapidly dropped till, at the end of a minute, it was only 12 horse power.
A sudden dart when a little over a hundred feet from the end of the track, or a little over 120 feet from the point at which it rose into the air, ended the flight.
In just six weeks from the time the design was started, we had the motor on the block testing its power.
No data on air propellers was available, but we had always understood that it was not a difficult matter to secure an efficiency of 50% with marine propellers.
We were then satisfied that, with proper lubrication and better adjustments, a little more power could be expected. The completion of the motor according to drawing was, therefore, proceeded with at once.
When the machine had been fastened with a wire to the track, so that it could not start until released by the operator, and the motor had been run to make sure that it was in condition, we tossed a coin to decide who should have the first trial. Wilbur won.
3 perspectives
2 perspectives
1 perspectives