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he 1901 glider was larger, more sophisticated, and better
engineered than their first flying machine -- or so the Wright
brothers hoped. It had almost twice as much wing surface to increase
lift, a deeper camber, curved front skids, a raised elevator,
"belly" skids, a control system with more mechanical advantage to
make it more effective, and other improvements. Unfortunately, it
wasn't half the flying machine the Wright brothers hoped it would
be. It still did not produce enough lift to suit them. And the
wide wings and the deep camber made the controls less effective than
on the 1900 glider. The Wrights trussed the wings to reduce the
depth of the camber and some of the control effectiveness returned,
but it still was a poor performer by any aerodynamic
standard.
What was more frustrating is that the Wright
brothers put everything they knew into building this glider. In many
ways, it encompassed the sum total of nineteenth aeronautical
wisdom, and still it was not enough to produce a decent glider. The
Wrights had no idea what else they might do. The left Kitty Hawk
early, completely stymied. On the trip home, Wilbur remarked to
Orville that man might still fly, "but it won't be in our lifetimes,
not in a thousand years."
We built this replica f the 1901 Wright Glider to
celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1901gliding experiments.
These may not seem like much to celebrate as this is perhaps the
Wright brothers least successful flying machine. But true
scientific achievement is rarely built on success alone. Science is
a way to learn from both success and failure -- both play an
essential role in the advancement of knowledge. The 1901 Wright
Glider, as unsuccessful as it may have been, was an important step
in the invention of the airplane for the simple reason that it
helped the brothers define what it was that they didn't yet
know. |
Kiting the 1901 Wright Glider for the
PBS film, Kitty Hawk: A Journey of
Invention.
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Launching the 1901 Wright
Glider.
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The 1901 Wright Glider in
flight.
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Carrying the 1901 Wright Glider up the
sand dunes at Jockey's Ridge State Park in North
Carolina.
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The 1901 Glider replica as it appears looking at it
diagonally from the left and front. It is the most complex and the
worst flying of the three experimental gliders . |
The glider from the side – like the 1900 glider before
it, the rear spar is on top of the ribs instead of under them.
Again, the Wrights were thinking to keep the underside of the wing
smooth to generate maximum lift.
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The glider diagonally from the left rear. As in 1900, the
rear spar acts as a spoiler and reduces the lift. This may account
for some of the discrepancy between the lift they calculated and the
lift they actually measured.
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The glider straight on from the rear. The Wrights
continued to use the same rigging system they had the year before.
By tensioning just four wires on the airplane, they could tune all
the flying and landing wires.
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Another diagonal view – that's our "hangar" in the
background. Actually, it's a large tent that the rangers at Jockeys
Ridge State Park gave us permission to erect, and then kindly helped
us carry the poles and tarps back into the dunes. Many
thanks!
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The 1901 glider from the right side. The wide wings give
the glider a low "aspect ratio" – the wingspan divided by the chord
is just 3.1. After their wind tunnel tests, the Wrights would learn
that a low aspect ratio is inefficient. The 1902 glider would have
an aspect ratio of 6.4.
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The glider seen from the right front, at a diagonal. Note
that it has no tail. At this point, the Wrights still think they can
control a glider with elevator and wing warping only. When they try
to turn this glider in flight, they'll have their first brush with
"adverse yaw" – the glider will yaw in the opposite direction of the
roll.
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The glider from the front. All those wires – rigging and
trussing – create an enormous amount of drag in the air. That's
another reason this machine is such a poor flier.
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The 1901 glider seen from the bottom, held by David
Thompson, an Orville Wright look-alike. Compare this to a
photo taken a century earlier by clicking HERE.
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Another view of the bottom of the glider as it's being
kited. And yes, the sky really is that blue on a good day at Kitty
Hawk.
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A
view of the cockpit. You rest your belly on the
"belly bar" (spanning the highest point in the camber), grasp the
elevator control bar with your hands and place your feet against the
kickbar.
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This is what it looks like as you step
into the cockpit. To control the glider, you twist the elevator
control bar up to go down and down to go up. This kickbar is a
little better – kick right to roll right and left to
roll left.
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A close-up of the cockpit, showing the
skids and the extremely high arc of the wings. The ribs on either
side of the pilot remain at a 1:12 camber; they cannot be flattened
with the trussing.
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The Wrights raised the elevator off the sand on this model.
The 1900 glider elevator tends to dig into the sand when you
land.
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The kickbar controls the wing warping. The trailing end of
the bar slides against a metal strip under the rear spar. This keeps
the pivot from twisting up and forward as it does on the 1900
glider.
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Click on the photo to download a video
that allows you to "spin" the glider so you can see it from all
sides. You must have a "Quicktime" plug-in.
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In addition to the regular landing and flying wires, the
wings are trussed to reduce the camber from 1/12 to
1/20. The Wrights found the the deeper
camber created control problems.
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To correct the problem, they attached a third or "middle"
spar to the lower wing, just behind the peak of the camber. They
attached four short "truss posts" to the middle
spar.
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Then they ran wires from the front spar to the rear spar
over the tops of the posts. When they tightened these wires, the
posts pushed down on the middle spar and the spar depressed the
ribs, reducing the camber.
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Then
the Wrights ran cord from the tops of the posts to the top ribs.
When they tightened these cords, they pulled the ribs down,
flattening them to the same degree as the bottom
ribs.
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Before we left Dayton, we noticed a strange feature of the
elevator control design. The elevator will lock in a neutral
position if you attempt to turn the nose of the glider down. This
may explain one of the most frightening accidents Wilbur had when
flying this glider.
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The first time in the air in 1901, Wilbur could not
turn the nose of the glider down and the wind carried him higher and
higher until he stalled. To prevent this from happening to us, we
installed to short wooden "stops" to prevent the controls from
locking.
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The 1900, 1901, and 1903 Wright gliders
from the front.
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The gliders from the side.
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And from the rear. We made this line-up
to compare the gliders and see first-hand the evolution of the
Wright brothers' aeronautical science and engineering.
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