The Wright Flyer II was the second powered aircraft built by Wilbur and Orville Wright. During 1904 they used it to make a total of 105 flights, ultimately achieving flights lasting five minutes and also making full circles, which was accomplished by Wilbur for the first time on September 20.
The design of the Flyer II was very similar to the original 1903 Wright Flyer, but with a slightly more powerful engine and construction using white pine instead of the spruce they used in the 1903 machine and the gliders of 1900–1902. An important change was reducing the wing camber to 1-in-25 from the 1-in-20 used in 1903. The brothers thought that reducing the camber would reduce drag, though less lift was actually achieved. With these alterations Flyer II was heavier by some 200 pounds (91kg) than the 1903 machine.
Operational history
The Wrights tested the new aircraft at Huffman Prairie, a cow pasture outside of Dayton, Ohio, which is now part of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park and also part of the present-day Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The owner of the land, banker Torrance Huffman, allowed them to use the land rent-free, his only requirement being that they were to shepherd the livestock to safety before experimenting. The Wrights began erecting a shed to house their aircraft during April and by the end of May were ready to begin trials, and an announcement was made to the press that trials would begin on Monday, May 23.[1]
A crowd of around forty people, made up of family and friends and a dozen reporters, assembled on the Monday but rain kept the aircraft in its shed all morning, and when the rain cleared the wind had died away. There was little chance of a successful takeoff from the 100ft (30m) launching rail with no headwind. The Wrights decided to attempt a short flight to satisfy the press, but the motor did not develop its full power and the aircraft reached the end of the rail without taking off.[1]
Work on the engine and poor weather delayed further attempts until the Thursday afternoon, when despite ignition problems a takeoff was attempted, and a flight of around 25 feet (7.6m) was made, ending in a heavy landing which damaged the aircraft. The press reports were mixed, the Chicago Tribune ran its story under the headline "Test of flying machine is judged a success", while The New York Times headline was "Fall wrecks airship".
Repairs took two weeks, but the next flight attempt also ended in a crash, necessitating a further two weeks of repair work. On June 21 three flights without any breakages were achieved, but four days later the aircraft crashed again. These accidents were caused by the aircraft's pitch instability. Suspecting that this was caused by the centre of gravity being too far forward, they moved the engine and pilot position back, but this made matters worse. The machine would undulate unless the front elevator was depressed, but this created additional drag, and so they added 70lb (32kg) of iron bars as ballast under the elevators,[2] which were also enlarged. So modified, 24 flights were made in August, including two on August 22 of a quarter of a mile, the greatest distance that they could fly without having to make a turn.
Orville (left) and Wilbur Wright with the Wright Flyer II at Huffman Prairie May 1904
Because wind strength and direction were less reliable than at Kitty Hawk, the men sometimes had to laboriously re-lay the 160 feet (49m) of "Junction Railroad" launch rail to suit conditions. On 7 September the men began using a catapult to accelerate the aircraft to the speed necessary for takeoff. They used a falling weight of 800 pounds (360kg), later increased to 1,600 pounds (730kg), suspended from a 16ft (4.9m) high derrick, with a block and tackle to multiply the distance that the aircraft was pulled. Launched by the apparatus, Wilbur made his first turn in the air on September 15, and on September 20 he succeeded in flying a complete circle—the first ever by an airplane—covering 4,080ft (1,240m) in 1minute 16seconds.[3] This flight was witnessed by Amos Root, who wrote an account in the January 1, 1905 issue of Gleanings in Bee Culture, a trade magazine he published.[4]
On October 14 Orville made his first circular flight and the following day Octave Chanute arrived to view the Wright brother's progress. Unfortunately Orville, attempting another circular fight, was unable to straighten out and was forced to land the aircraft at high speed after only 30 seconds in the air, damaging the skids and propellers. A series of flights ending in damage to the aircraft followed, but the run of bad luck ended on November 9, when Wilbur flew four circuits of Huffman Prairie, staying in the air for five minutes and only landing because the engine was beginning to overheat. On December 1 Orville made a similar flight, and on December 9 they stopped flying for the year.
Harry Combs summarized the flights, "There were 105 flights made in 1904, almost all short flights, but the longest, on December 1, lasted for five minutes and eight seconds and covered a distance of 4515 meters, or about three miles. During this flight Orville circles Huffman Prairie two and a quarter times."[4]
On January 18, 1905, the brothers wrote to congressman Robert M. Nevin, "The series of aeronautical experiments upon which we have been engaged for the past five years has ended in the production of a flying-machine of the type fitted for practical use. The numerous flights in straight lines, in circles, and over S-shaped courses, in calms and in winds, have made it quite certain that flying has been brought to a point where it can be made of great practical use in various ways, one of which is that of scouting and carrying messages in time of war."[4]
The Wrights disassembled the airframe of the Flyer II during the winter of 1904–05. They salvaged the propeller chain drive, its mounts, and the engine. The tattered fabric, wing ribs, uprights and related wooden parts were burned (according to Orville) in the early months of 1905. The salvaged propeller parts and the engine went into the new airframe of the Wright Flyer III.
Propellers: Two 2-bladed Wright "Elliptical" props; port prop carved to counter-rotate to the left, starboard prop carved to rotate to the right
Performance
Maximum speed: 35mph (56km/h, 30kn)
Range: 5.0mi (8.0km, 4.3nmi)
Service ceiling: 20ft (6.0m)
Related Research Articles
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright, were American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of an engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903, four miles (6 km) south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, at what is now known as Kill Devil Hills. In 1904 the Wright brothers developed the Wright Flyer II, which made longer-duration flights including the first circle, followed in 1905 by the first truly practical fixed-wing aircraft, the Wright Flyer III.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1903:
Airplane inventors Wilbur and Orville Wright are famed for making the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flights on 17 December 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Lesser-known are other flights of theirs which played an important role at the dawn of aviation history. In 1909 Wilbur was invited by the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Committee to make paid exhibition flights to help mark 300 years of New York history, including Henry Hudson discovering Manhattan and Robert Fulton starting a successful commercial steamboat service on the Hudson River. The committee wanted the Wrights to demonstrate flights over the water around New York City. Orville was making flights for customers in Germany, so Wilbur, who had just finished training U.S. Army pilots, accepted the job.
Charles Edward Taylor was an American inventor, mechanic and machinist. He built the first aircraft engine used by the Wright brothers in the Wright Flyer, and was a vital contributor of mechanical skills in the building and maintaining of early Wright engines and airplanes.
Gustave Albin Whitehead was an aviation pioneer who emigrated from Germany to the United States where he designed and built gliders, flying machines, and engines between 1897 and 1915. Controversy surrounds published accounts and Whitehead's own claims that he flew a powered machine successfully several times in 1901 and 1902, predating the first flights by the Wright Brothers in 1903.
Thomas Etholen Selfridge was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army and the first person to die in an airplane crash. He was also the first active-duty member of the U.S. military to die in a crash while on duty. He was killed while seated as a passenger in a Wright Flyer, on a demonstration flight piloted by Orville Wright.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1908:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1905:
The Wright Flyer made the first sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft—an airplane—on December 17, 1903. Invented and flown by brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright, it marked the beginning of the pioneer era of aviation.
The 14-bis, also known as Oiseau de proie, was a pioneer era, canard-style biplane designed and built by Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont. In 1906, near Paris, the 14-bis made a manned powered flight that was the first to be publicly witnessed by a crowd and also filmed. It was also the first powered flight by a non-Wright Brothers airplane aside from short powered "hops" by Clément Ader and Traian Vuia.
The Wright Flyer III was the third powered aircraft by the Wright Brothers, built during the winter of 1904–05. Orville Wright made the first flight with it on June 23, 1905. The Wright Flyer III had an airframe of spruce construction with a wing camber of 1-in-20 as used in 1903, rather than the less effective 1-in-25 used in 1904. The new machine was equipped with the engine and other hardware from the scrapped Flyer II and, after major modifications, achieved much greater performance than Flyers I and II.
Huffman Prairie, also known as Huffman Prairie Flying Field or Huffman Field is part of Ohio's Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park. The 84-acre (34-hectare) patch of rough pasture, near Fairborn, northeast of Dayton, is the place where the Wright brothers undertook the task of creating a dependable, fully controllable airplane and training themselves to be pilots. Many early aircraft records were set by the Wrights at the Huffman Prairie.
The Wright Model A was an early aircraft produced by the Wright Brothers in the United States beginning in 1906. It was a development of their Flyer III airplane of 1905. The Wrights built about seven Model As in their bicycle shop during the period 1906–1907, in which they did no flying. One of these was shipped to Le Havre in 1907 in order to demonstrate it to the French. The Model A had a 35-horsepower (26 kW) engine and seating for two with a new control arrangement. Otherwise, it was identical to the 1905 airplane. The Model A was the first aircraft that they offered for sale, and the first aircraft design to enter serial production anywhere in the world. Apart from the seven machines the Wrights built themselves in 1906–1907, they sold licences for production in Europe with the largest number of Model A's actually being produced in Germany by Flugmaschine Wright GmbH, which built about 60 examples.
The Langley Aerodrome was a pioneering but unsuccessful manned, tandem wing-configuration powered flying machine, designed at the close of the 19th century by Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Langley. The U.S. Army paid $50,000 for the project in 1898 after Langley's successful flights with small-scale unmanned models two years earlier.
The Wright brothers designed, built and flew a series of three manned gliders in 1900–1902 as they worked towards achieving powered flight. They also made preliminary tests with a kite in 1899. In 1911 Orville conducted tests with a much more sophisticated glider. Neither the kite nor any of the gliders were preserved, but replicas of all have been built.
The Wright Model E was the first in the series of Wright Flyers that used a single propeller The aircraft was also the test demonstrator for the first automatic pilot control.
The Short No.1 biplane was an early British aircraft built in 1909 by Short Brothers. Although it never flew, it was notable for being the first aircraft designed by Horace Short.
The Winds of Kitty Hawk is a 1978 American made-for-television biographical film directed by E. W. Swackhamer about the Wright brothers and their invention of the first successful powered heavier-than-air flying machine, the Wright Flyer. It's a tribute to the brothers and was broadcast on December 17, 1978, the 75th anniversary of their famous 1903 first aeroplane flight. It is one of several made-for-television films about historical people in aviation produced in the 1970s, including The Amazing Howard Hughes, Amelia Earhart, and The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case.
Several aviators have been claimed to be the first to fly a powered aeroplane. Much controversy surrounds these claims. It is generally accepted today that the Wright brothers were the first to achieve sustained and controlled powered manned flight, in 1903. It is popularly held in Brazil that their native citizen Alberto Santos-Dumont was the first successful aviator, discounting the Wright brothers' claim because their Flyer took off from a rail, and in later flights would sometimes employ a catapult. An editorial in the 2013 edition of Jane's All the World's Aircraft supported the claim of Gustave Whitehead. Claims by, or on behalf of, other pioneers such as Clément Ader have also been put forward from time to time.
1 2 3 Combs, Harry (1979). Kill Devil Hill: Discovering the Secret of the Wright Brothers. Englewood: TernStyle Press, Ltd. pp.236–242. ISBN0940053020.
Howard, Fred Wilbur and Orville: The Story of the Wright Brothers. London: Hale, 1988. ISBN0 7090 3244 7
Kelly, Fred C. (Ed) Miracle at Kitty Hawk: The Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Boston: Da Capo, 2002 ISBN0 306 812037
Wescott, Lynanne, Paul Degen, Wind and Sand: The Story of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk.Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York, 1983. Includes excerpts from diaries and correspondence pertaining to the Wright Brothers and their experiments.
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