Wright Brothers Life Is Full

¶ … Wright Brothers

Life is full of challenges and opportunities. While we enjoy the fruits of inventions, we rarely see what goes on during the invention process. Countless hurdles are overcome and many prototypes make their way to the garbage bin before success is achieved. The story of manned flight is no different. Public perception, proper construction, patent approval, and financial backing were major obstacles that threatened the first manned flying machine. Wilbur and Orville Wright faced numerous hurdles that seemed impossible but they did not let challenges or failure deter them. Their efforts allow us to enjoy one of the greatest inventions in the world and we can appreciate it fully when we understand the struggle behind the success. Although air travel is taken granted today, the early days of flight were a major struggle for the Wright brothers.

Public perception was one major hurdle that the Wright brothers faced. The brothers lacked public support because others in the same field had "extensive training" (Dempsey 27). Horatio Phillips, Otto Lilienthal and Octave Chanute were engineers and Samuel Langley was director of the Smithsonian Institution. However, at the end of the day, these men had failed to master the air of "manned flight" (27). More doubt stemmed partially from the Wright brothers' refusal to fly in front of the public. The brothers were extremely cautious of their invention. While they might have been excited to show it to the world, they were mindful of the fact that their ideas could be stolen. In 1904, they were still practicing flights in virtual secrecy in a cow pasture north of Dayton, Ohio. When they invited reporters to view their flight in May, they requested that no photographs be taken. Due to inclement weather and engine problems, they flight never occurred. A few days later, they flew - just barely - in the presence of a smattering of reporters. This incident created a disinterest in the Wright's efforts for over a year. Years later, after receiving some notoriety, the Wright brothers still refused to make flights for public viewing. The brothers had the privacy they sought but doubt about a flying machine was one thing - doubt about their ability to do it was another. Their delays in flying for the public almost cost them everything because they waited and while they waited, others were still attempting to fly. In was in 1908, when the brother finally signed a contract with the United States Army that they felt they could fly for the public. Perhaps one of the most critical problems the Wright brothers encountered while they were toying with the idea of flight was public perception. Even Wilbur believed that "no financial profit will secure to the inventor of the first flying machine" (Tobin 71). Stephen Goddard notes, "The brothers were too realistic to delude themselves into believing that they alone would lead the race that lay ahead - the competition to exploit the commercial and military possibilities of flight. First of all, they hadn't received the public acceptance that would be their red carpet when they sought contracts from national governments" (Goddard 147). The brothers had placed their press agent in a "difficult position" (150) because he was not at liberty to garner attention for the flying machine because it lacked a patent. Goddard notes that the press could not be faulted for their reluctance to neglect a story "that it was not given enough facts to write intelligently" (150). Unfortunately, that patent did not come until 1906 and it was increasingly difficult for the brothers to keep everything they did a secret. However, fate was on heir side. Despite doubt and distrust, the Wright brothers pressed on.

Another hurdle that the Wright brothers had to overcome was constructing a flying machine that would actually fly. Because no one would build this flying machine the way the brothers wanted it, they were forced to build it themselves. In 1901, the flying machines of the times did not work. In 1902, the new machines looked much different. Crouch notes, "to a modern eye, the 1900 and 1901 gliders seem bulky and cumbersome, with their stubby rectangular wings. The 1902 craft, lighter and more graceful look like an airplane" (Dream of Wings Crouch 235). The brothers had adjusted their earlier model with an addition of a "two-surfaced vertical rudder at the rear of the machine" (235), which was intended to fix the control problems that the brothers had with their earlier inventions. They deduced that the problem with earlier machines "stemmed from differential drag induced when the wing was warped" (235). James Tobin observes that the problems associated with a flying machine were "three-fold" (Tobin 74). Inventors must build "wings of sufficient lift" (74), to build an "engine of sufficient power" (74), and have the ability to "balance and steer the machine in flight" (74). The most problematic of these construction challenges was the latter. The problem of balance and steering could be achieved, Wilbur believed, but it would be a "terribly tricky balancing act" (74). Tobin notes that even the "best precedents" were gliders of Lilienthal (who died in an effort to perfect this machine) and Chanute (who gave up on trying). As a result, he had little to go on. In 1899, the first prototype of the Wright flying machine would "bear a rough resemblance to a box kite" (Dream of Wings Crouch 233). It was not until approximately four years later that the flying machine took on an entirely different shape. The problem of finding the correct way to construct wings for a plane required building a flying machine "large enough to carry a human being" as the human was needed to operate the controls. Wilbur Wright was the first inventor to actually consider having an operator that could "lean, or roll, into a much tighter and fully controlled turn - as with a bicycle" (Crouch 170). This aspect of flying was perhaps one of the most daunting because it required a precision that could not be faked or copied.

While the construction of a manned flying machine is critical, one must understand flight in order to work with it and, in turn, make it work. The Wright brothers knew what did not work and after trial and error, they knew why. Their greatest challenge was working around what they knew. Wing warping was the key that unlocked the mystery, which lead the men to become aware of a rudder. It was the design of the airfoil in which the Wrights "departed from tradition" (223). An "intuitive decision" (233) regarding the airfoil, the chord, and the peak of the arch that allowed them to "reduce the travel of the center of lifting pressure on the wing" (234). It would only be a matter of time before the brothers discovered the increased resistance from the arc airfoils as the "angle of incidence" (234). The Wright brothers had invented a plane that reduced the motion and angles and made controlling the craft much easier. The second prototype dared to carry a man in flight. Crouch maintains that the Wright brothers succeeded where others failed because they kept the design of the craft basically the same. Howard also asserts that what sets the Wright brothers apart from all others in the endeavor of flying machines was the "problem of control" (Howard 32). That was the "missing link" in aviation and in the summer of 1899, the solution to the problems facing flying were "bleak and promising" (32). It was the simple act of watching pigeons that allowed the brothers to see what it was that modern flying machines were lacking - which was lateral control. By watching the bird adjust their wing tips in flight, the Wright brothers honed in on the technique they needed to advance inventions of flying machines.