Brothers Wilbur And Orville Wright example essay topic

Brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright made the greatest contribution to mass travel in the history of the world -- the airplane. Their historic flight on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, marked the first time that a powered craft had successfully flown. The craft had taken off from level ground without any assistance and managed to remain airborne and under control. Wilbur was born in Indiana and Orville was born in Ohio, but neither of them sought education beyond high school. Their father Samuel Wright had an ingenious mind and was constantly contriving household appliances and toys. A gift given to them by their father when they were children was a rubber-band-driven toy helicopter e of the Pen aud type had stirred their curiosity about the dynamics of flight.

(Contemporary) They showed an aptitude for mechanics and independent study from an early age. Their personalities were perfectly complementary: Orville was full of ideas with enthusiasm and an impetuous dreamer, while Wilbur was more steady in his habits, mature in his judgments and likely to see a project through. (Encyclopedia) In 1892 they opened the Wright Cycle Shop in Dayton, Ohio which was the perfect occupation for the brothers, involving one of the exciting mechanical devices of the time: the bicycle. Business was good and by 1896 they were making their own bicycles including the eighteen-dollar "Wright Special". Soon the Wright Cycle Company was making enough money during the year to see them comfortably through the slow winter months. (Encyclopedia) German engineer Otto Lilienthal had attracted the attention of the brothers as early as 1891.

Lilienthal was a leading aviation pioneer after having made numerous glider flights and having published tables showing lift on wings of different curvature. (Contemporary) After the death of this famous aeronautical engineer in 1896 they became interested in gliding experiments and started to learn all they could about flight. They hoped at first to discover where Lilienthal had gone wrong and later to try experiments of their own. They sometimes acted as scientists, the basic approach of the brothers was that of the engineer.

They had no formal training as either scientist or engineer, but they combined the instincts of both. (Encyclopedia) Orville and Wilbur immersed themselves in all of the most up-to-date literature on flying. They studied contemporary aeronautical research, including that of American engineer Octave Chanute, a pioneer of the biplane. Wilbur took charge of this part of the project even writing to the Smithsonian Institution for information.

At the time, Samuel Pier point Langley, a fellow aviation pioneer headed the Institution. (Contemporary) Something that struck Wilbur and Orville as they went about their research was there was very little actual data they could refer to, especially on flight control. During the spring of 1900 Wilbur wrote to Chanute in detail the work they were doing and asked the engineer for advice. It was the beginning of a long friendship among the three men. (Pulliam) They began with the problem of control in the air, for which they felt Lilienthal had lost his life. Orville led off with the idea that lateral balance could be maintained if the difference in air pressure on the right and left wings.

This could be adjusted by the pilot by pressing the tip sections of both wings at opposite angles to the wind. With the advice from the Weather Bureau, the brothers selected a narrow strip of sand termed Kill Devil Hill. It divided Albemarle Sound from the Atlantic near the little settlement of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in September of 1900 for their flight tests. (Pulliam) Following some experiments with a biplane kite they built several gliders each more sophisticated than its predecessor.

During this they discovered errors in the mathematical tables that Lilienthal had created to explain lift. To achieve the correct calculations they built their own wind tunnel with a homemade pressure-testing device to check the amount of lift in various wing configurations. Although English inventor Frank Wenham had invented the wind tunnel in 1870, the brothers were the first to realize its full potential. Orville made a comment of, "I believe we possessed more data on cambered surfaces a hundred times over that all of our predecessors put together". (American) Once back home the brothers hired a man, Charles Taylor, to run their bicycle shop so they could devote themselves completely to working on new and improved gliders. When they returned to Kitty Hawk in August of 1902 with their last glider the brothers had solved the basic problems of control.

They had given the glider narrower wings which curved much less than the previous ones and mounted a tail assembly on the back that acted as a rudder. Before returning to Dayton, Wilbur flew the glider 622 feet in just 26 seconds. By this time, Chanute was so impressed by the brothers achievements that he invited Wilbur to speak at a meeting for the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago. There, in a ten thousand-word paper, Wilbur made the startling claim that Lilienthal's lift tables were wrong. (American) Then the brothers immediately prepared for powered flight the following year before they return to Kitty Hawk.

They needed a gasoline engine to provide the power, but none in existence was light enough. Orville and Wilbur soon discovered that no manufacturer would undertake building an engine that would meet their specifications. The resourceful brothers designed and built their own. The engine had four horizontal cylinders that were of four-inch bore and four-inch stroke that developed 12-horsepower. (Pulliam) They also worked on a propeller for the craft, only to discover that little was known about how it worked. They soon realized that a propeller was nothing more that a wing moving in a circular course.

Between the two brothers they designed and built two blades that would be mounted at the rear of the plane so the craft would be undisturbed by propeller turbulence. They went back to Kitty Hawk on September of 1903 ready to try their new powered machine. When the engine was installed in the airframe, the entire machine weighed just 750 pounds and proved to be capable of traveling 31 miles per hour. Although they were ready storms, engine problems and the need to devise a takeoff system slowed progress.

The craft had no wheels so a catapult comprising of a monorail, a towline and a weight to give the initial momentum accomplished launching. (Wright) On December 14, 1903, the brothers were ready and Wilbur went on the first flight. Unaccustomed to the engines power he rose steeply, stalled, and then plowed into the sand slightly damaging the craft. Its course in the air was erratic, partly from lack of experience on the part of the operator and partly because the front elevator was overbalanced. On December 17, Orville went on his flight climbing about 10 feet and landing 12 seconds later some 120 feet beyond the takeoff point.

Orville thus became the first man in history to complete a controlled machine powered and to sustained an airplane flight from level terrain. The brothers flew three more times that day, with Wilbur covering 852 feet in a 59-second flight. With in the next two years the brothers built improved models of their aircraft. By 1905 they were staying aloft for as long as 38 minutes and covering a distance of 24 miles. (Walsh) Orville and Wilbur informed the world of their achievement on January 5, 1904, but had not received popular encouragement.

Their father even laughed at them and their friends thought them near lunacy. In the brothers view they had solved the problem of mechanical flight, invented the airplane, taught others to fly and ushered in a new age. For this Orville and Wilbur the believed they were entitled first, credit for their achievement and second, the material rewards that might arise from it. On October 5, 1905 at Huffman Field, Dayton during a circular flight of twenty-four miles they solved the problem of equilibrium in turning. They now abandoned other business to devote all their energies to the construction of a practicable machine and business negotiations. Not protected by patents the brothers withheld details of their powered machine so as not to simulate rivals, but on May 22, 1906, they received Patent No. 821,393 for a flying machine.

(Dictionary) Believing that it was their duty to let the U.S. Government have the first chance to buy the rights to their invention, Orville and Wilbur approached the War Department. Army officials could not bring themselves to believe in the existence of a flying machine and so they refused to make any deals with the brothers. Annoyed by this less than enthusiastic response and worried that someone else might try to steal their ideas, Wilbur and Orville decided not to fly again until someone offered them a fair price for their invention. Consequently they remained on the ground from October 1905 until May 1908, working on several new engines and airplanes. In earlier proposals the brothers had offered to give all their inventions to the world for the sum of $100,000.00, but the indifference they had encountered in the meantime led them to withdraw this offer.

(Dictionary) At the very end of the year 1907, after an interview between Wilbur and the chief signal officer, General James Allen, bids were requested and specifications were issued for a "gas less flying machine" to carry two men weighing 350 pounds, with sufficient fuel for 125 miles. The bids were for an airplane that would meet government requirements, 22 bids were received, three were accepted, but only the Wrights finished their contract. In September 1908, Orville successfully demonstrated their contract airplane. Although the government accepted it the event was marred by a crash a week later in which Orville was injured and a passenger was killed. (Pulliam) On September 17, while Orville was flying at a height of about seventy-five feet a blade of the right-hand propeller struck and loosened a stay wire of the rear rudder. Instantly the wire coiled around the blade which made the machine difficult to manage and plunged to the earth.

(Encyclopedia) Orville suffered a fracture of the thigh and two ribs and his passenger, Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge, died within three hours of a fractured skull. In June 1909 Orville reappeared at Fort Myer fully recovered accompanied with Wilbur and his two mechanics to complete the official tests with no evidence of nervousness. It wasn't until 1909 that the brothers at last gained widespread recognition in their own country for their achievements. In June, after Wilbur's return from Europe, Dayton staged a two-day celebration in their honor that featured a parade and a party. Both brothers were presented with gold medals from the City of Dayton, the State of Ohio, and the U.S. Congress. (American) With the brothers recognition and now prospering the adoption of their wing-warping techniques by competitors led them to issue legal action against many manufactures.

In the United States their chief rival was, Glenn H. Curtiss, who like many other manufactures had adopted the European-invented aileron in preference to the full warped wing for lateral control. (American) Orville and Wilbur protested that any wing-warping device owed ultimate credit to them. The bitter lawsuits did not endear them to the world's aviation community and this absorbed much of their energies. Wilbur died in Dayton on May 30, 1912 of typhoid fever. Unfortunately it left Orville in a state of desolate isolation. Orville continued to test every improvement to his planes, even though whenever a plane vibrated in flight he suffered pains stemming from his 1908 injuries.

(Encyclopedia) Since his interest was in research and not in busy he sold out his interest in the company late in 1915 and gave his final flying lesson. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 ended the fighting over patents which had overwhelmed the U.S. aviation industry. The Federal Government forced the Wright Company to work with its bitter rival, Glenn Curtis, of Herring-Curtiss and a partnership turned out well for all involved. They eventually merged to become Curtiss-Wright. (American) Then the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics insisted that the Wright Aeronautical Corporation produce an airplane using the radial air-cooled engine.

Although Orville was initially reluctant to do so as a result of his own research into water-cooled, in-line engines, he complied with the order. The result named the Whirlwind, quickly set an international standard for airplane design and also proved to be quite commercially successful. (Pulliam) Orville served as a Major in the Army Air Service primarily as technological adviser at Dayton. He gave up flying in 1918 and spent the rest of his life devising aeronautical equipment, mechanical toys, and other ingenious gadgets.

He also lent his expertise as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. (Contemporary) In 1940, the newly created Civil Aeronautics Authority issued Honorary Pilot Certificate number one to Orville. Four years later he took the pilot's controls for one last time when he flew a fast new airplane developed by Lockheed known as the C-69 Constellation. (Contemporary) He died on January 30, 1948 of a heart attack.

Neither brother had ever married or had a family, as they were devoted to aviation, as Wilbur Wright said: "From the time we were children my brother Orville and myself lived together, played together, worked together and in fact, thought together". Both brothers had left behind a legacy that reached to the skies and beyond. In spite of all the controversies and disappointments, when Orville died Wilbur and himself were almost universally recognized and revered as the inventors of the airplane. The brothers were hailed as the first to unlock the secrets of flight through their determination, experimentation and inventiveness. The historical timing was right. Technology and science were merging in all aspects of the rapidly industrializing Western world, enabling the Wrights to apply existing knowledge in the creation of the first airplane.

The drift of the European powers toward world war brought the brothers the contracts they needed to continue their work with formal companies at home and in Europe. Throughout the period of their experimentation both Orville and Wilbur published accounts of their work and expositions of their theories. One such publication is, "How We Made the First Flight", written by Orville Wright alone after the death of his brother, Wilbur. The brothers are buried with their father, mother, and sister in Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio.