Eight Hundred Feet The Machine example essay topic

... to Kitty Hawk to begin construction and begin testing of the worlds first flying machine. Just as the building was being completed, the parts and material for the machines arrived simultaneously with one of the worst storms that had visited Kitty Hawk in years. The storm came on suddenly, blowing 30 to 40 miles an hour. It increased during the night, and the next day was blowing over seventy-five miles an hour.

In order to save the tar-paper roof, we decided it would be necessary to get out in this wind and nail down more securely certain parts that were especially exposed. When Orville ascended the ladder and reached the edge of the roof, the wind caught under his large coat, blew it up around his head and bound his arms till he was perfectly helpless. Wilbur came to his assistance and held down his coat while he tried to drive the nails. But the wind was so strong he could not guide the hammer and succeeded in striking his fingers as often as the nails. The next three weeks were spent in setting the motor-machine together. On days with more favourable winds they gained additional experience in handling a flyer by gliding with the 1902 machine, which they had found in pretty fair condition in the old building, where they had left it the year before.

Mr. Chanute and Dr. Spratt, who had been guests in the camp in 1901 and 1902, spent some time with the brothers, but neither one was able to remain to see the test of the motor-machine, on account of the delays caused by trouble which developed in the propeller shafts. The Wright brothers made history with the first manned flight on December 17, 1903. At 10: 35 a.m. Orville Wright took off into a 27 mph wind and the distance he covered was 120 feet in 12 seconds.

Wilbur stood there and witnessed the whole thing. The earth now began to become smaller. The course of the flight up and down was exceedingly erratic, partly due to the irregularity of the air, and partly to lack of experience in handling this machine. The control of the front rudder was difficult on account of its being balanced too near the center. This gave it a tendency to turn itself when started so that it turned too far on one side and then too far on the other. As a result the machine would rise suddenly to about ten feet, and then as suddenly dart for the ground.

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. As the velocity of the wind was over 35 feet per second and the speed of the machine over the ground against this wind ten feet per second, the speed of the machine relative to the air was over 45 feet per second, and the length of the flight was equivalent to a flight of 540 feet made in calm air. This flight lasted only 12 seconds, but it was nevertheless the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full f light, had sailed forward without reduction of speed and had finally landed at a point as high as that from which it started. At twenty minutes after eleven Wilbur started on the second flight. The course of this flight was much like that of the first, very much up and down. The speed over the ground was somewhat faster than that of the first flight, due to the lesser wind.

The duration of the flight was less than a second longer than the first, but the distance covered was about seventy-five feet greater. Twenty minutes later the third flight started. This one was steadier than the first one an hour before. Orville was proceeding along pretty well when a sudden gust from the right lifted the machine up twelve to fifteen feet and turned it up sideways in an alarming manner.

It began a lively sliding off to the left. He then warped the wings to try to recover the lateral balance and at the same time pointed the machine down to reach the ground as quickly as possible. The lateral control was more effective than he imagined and before he reached the ground the right wing was lower than the left and struck first. The time of this flight was fifteen seconds and the distance over the ground a little over 200 feet. Wilbur started the fourth and last flight at just 12 o'clock. The first few hundred feet were up and down, as before, but by the time three hundred feet had been covered, the machine was under much better control.

The course of the next four or five hundred feet had but little mishaps. However, when out about eight hundred feet the machine began pitching again, and, in one of the its darts downward, struck the ground. The distance over the ground was measured and found to be 852 feet; the time of the flight 59 seconds. The frame supporting the front rudder was badly broken, but the main part of the machine was not injured at all. They estimated that the machine could be put in condition for flight again in a day or two.

And so it began, the beginning of a new era in travel. The flight of this new machine would change the lives of people throughout history. Without airplanes how would World War II have ended up. Without airplanes, it would still be a very long journey across the ocean in a boat. Without airplanes how could someone go see their grandparents who live thousands of miles away.

Airplanes changed the geography of this world making it much easier to travel long distances and not to mention much quicker. Airplanes today can carry hundreds of people to where ever they want to go at descent fairs. Flight changed history and geography forever and we can compliment two men for that, Wilbur and Orville Wright, "The Wright Brothers". The Wright brothers is a name that everyone knows. People know what the brothers did and how it affected them in years to come.

If you ask anyone who the Wright brothers are that anyone will know. This is how the Wright brothers are such an important part of history and geography. A journey that would have lasted two weeks before there were airplanes, now only takes a few hours by plane. 1995-2000 Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village ~ web's International CD-ROM Encyclopedia '99, 1998-99 Multimedia 2000, and Webster's Publishing, Seattle, Washington web.