First Flight

Although the 1902 flyer was the first truly-effective heavier-than-air craft, it didn't have a propulsion system, and so counts only as a glider, not as an airplane. The problem for the Wrights in 1903 was to develop a powered machine. They had to make one more breakthrough to be successful here: understand how propellers work. This was harder than it seems, as no one really understood that a propeller was nothing more than a wing that rotates on its axis, and lifts the plane forward. So, the Wrights turned to the ship-building literature and discovered that empirical principles were used, but there was no theory of propulsion.

They then reasoned out the basic mental model of the propeller as a moveable wing. This allowed them to test propeller shapes in their wind tunnel, discovering an efficient shape. For their 1903 plane, they needed all the efficiency they could get. To drive a propeller, you need a powerplant. The Wrights wanted a lightweight gasoline engine that would provide the necessary oomph. They tried to buy an engine, but no one was willing to build one to their specs. So, with the able assistance of Charles Taylor, they built their own. It was a state-of-the-art four-cylinder model. Taylor hand-tooled the crankshaft on the Wright shop lathe.

Its power-to-weight ratio was better than anything around. Even still, in the words of Charles Taylor 'It weren't much of an engine." There was no carburetor. The raw gas was just dumped into the cylinders. It was air-cooled, without even the benefit of fins. To control the engine speed, the spark could be advanced or retarded. It had the horsepower -- barely -- to drag the 1903 machine into the dense December ocean air. As the engine broke in the next year, it began to produce more horsepower, and better flights.

THE ORIGINAL WRIGHT BROTHERS AEROPLANE THE WORLD'S FIRST POWER-DRIVEN, HEAVIER-THAN-AIR MACHINE IN WHICH MAN MADE FREE, CONTROLLED, AND SUSTAINED FLIGHT INVENTED AND BUILT BY WILBUR AND ORVILLE WRIGHT FLOWN BY THEM AT KITTY HAWK, NORTH CAROLINA DECEMBER 17, 1903 BY ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH THE WRIGHT BROTHERS DISCOVERED THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN FLIGHT AS INVENTORS, BUILDERS, AND FLYERS THEY FURTHER DEVELOPED THE AEROPLANE, TAUGHT MAN TO FLY, AND OPENED THE ERA OF AVIATION.