When did the Wright brothers invent the airplane?

The story of the Wright brothers inventing the airplane:

The Wright brothers have a natural interest in machinery since childhood, and they like to take it apart to make fun of it since childhood. They are particularly interested in some old clocks and scales. However, Wilbur is four years older than Orville. Wilbur often associates with boys his own age. Orville has friends of his own. At home, the two brothers naturally play together.

1In June, 878, his family moved from Dayton, Ohio to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and lived on Adam Street in the city. At Christmas, the Wright brothers' father brought them a butterfly toy. Dad told them that this is a flying spiral that can fly very high in the air. "Birds can fly! How can it fly! " Wilbur was a little skeptical, and his father performed on the spot.

I saw him twist the rubber band on it first. As soon as he let go, it flew into the sky with a loud noise. Only then did the two brothers believe that man-made things can fly into the sky besides birds and butterflies. So, the two brothers took it apart and wanted to explore why it could fly to the sky.

From then on, in their young hearts, things that can fly high in the blue sky will be created in the future. This wish has been affecting them. Wilbur and Orville tried again and again to improve their home facilities and environment. First, the two brothers buried themselves in drawing drawings, and then looked around for materials to repair the house, taking on all the lathe workers who processed the house. Not only did they quickly build a comfortable front porch and decorate both sides of the corridor with flowers, but they also renovated the interior and changed the layout of the room.

His family moved from Richmond, Indiana to Ohio. Both the Wright brothers received a good education, but neither of them got a diploma. Orville University dropped out of school in the third year (1889) and started a printing business with the help of his brother. Welber is the editor of the weekly West Side News (which became the evening news a few months later), and Orville is the publisher.

At the beginning of 1890, they studied the articles in newspapers and magazines, as well as the plane concept map of Otto Lilienthal. Their interest in flying grows with age. "Simply put, we are lucky to live in such a family environment. At home, adults always enthusiastically encourage children to pursue knowledge and investigate all strange phenomena. In another family environment, our curiosity may have been killed long before bearing fruit. " After graduating from high school, the Wright brothers founded Dayton Weekly. Clever, they make newspapers prosperous, but what they miss so much is machinery.

1894, they pawned the newspaper to a news agency and opened Wright bicycle repair shop (later became Wright bicycle company). From then on, they began to engage in their dream careers.

1in may, 896, they paid attention to Samuel Langley's test flight of steam plane model at the Smithsonian institution, and Octave Chanute, an engineer in Chicago and an authority devoted to flight research, tested several aircraft models in the dunes and lakeside of Michigan.

1899 In May, Wilbur wrote a letter to Smithsonian College, asking for aviation information and books. Based on the sketches and inspiration of Sir George Gloria, Sanute, Lilienthal, Leonardo da Vinci and Langley, the Wright brothers started their mechanical aviation experiment. After the Wright brothers finished all the theoretical research, they began to practice. Their bicycle shop assistant charles taylor became an important member of the team, and the three of them made the first airplane engine together.

The Wright brothers not only tried to master the previous research results, but also paid great attention to learning directly from the living flying objects-birds. They often lie on their backs, carefully observe eagles flying in the air for hours, and study and think about the mechanism of their take-off, lifting and hovering. Many novel ideas put forward by them in those years have been applied in the aviation industry in the future.

On the basis of learning from predecessors, the Wright brothers began to develop airplanes. Unable to get other people's support, they used the money earned from the bicycle business to develop the plane. The cooperation between the two brothers is perfect. My younger brother Wilbur is diligent and practical, with the care and caution of an engineer; My younger brother Orville is full of the artist's imagination and dares to innovate constantly.

Two clever brains work closely together and complement each other, just as Wilbur said, "Orville and I live together, work together and think together, just like one person." The two brothers believe that whether the plane can fly smoothly depends on how to design and control the balance of various forces during the flight.

Wilbur wright demonstrated this problem with a piece of paper placed horizontally: if it is allowed to fall freely, we can imagine that it must fall smoothly in an ideal calm air, but there are few ideal conditions, and any airflow will make the paper flip and float. For an airplane, it is not difficult to reach the sky in a perfect air condition, but there is always wind in the sky, which makes the key to realize the flight of the airplane lie in how to adjust the force balance of the airplane in all directions, especially the relationship between the center of gravity of the airplane and the force point of lift.

At first, the two brothers tried to make a full-scale glider. For four summers in a row, they went to North Carolina, and the destination was an isolated headland. The meteorological department suggested to them that the headland is a favorable driving range because of its strong wind. Soon after, they made the first unmanned biplane glider and put it into the sky like a kite. They also installed an elevator in front of the plane, which is a kind of swinging rudder and can be used to operate the vertical axis and the horizontal axis.

The image of the Wright brothers in the public has always been one, and they enjoy the fruits and honors of their own inventions. James tobin, a careful biographer, found that Wilbur's My Machine and My Plan, written in 1899- 1900, were both changed from the singular of the first person to the plural of "we" and "ours". He said, "It's hard to imagine how a smart and outstanding person like Orville succeeded, from a small shop in Ohio to a capitalist and an adviser to the president.

1900 One evening in June, wilbur wright was lying on the fragile glider skeleton, floating against the sea breeze. He succeeded. Although the flight was only a few seconds, only 1 meter high, the achievements of the Wright brothers surpassed those of Li Lindal who tried to control the flight by moving his body weight. In the second year, the two brothers made a glider after many improvements on the basis of the last one. This autumn, they came to the seaside of Kitty Hawk again. After an experiment, the flying altitude suddenly reached 180 meters.

From 1900 to 1903, they built three gliders and made more than 1000 gliding flights. They also made more than 200 different kinds of wings, made thousands of wind tunnel experiments, corrected some wrong flight data of Li Lindal, and designed the cross-sectional shape of wings with greater lift. During this period, their gliders glided more than 1000 meters many times. At that time, this was no small achievement.

After continuous research and improvement, the Wright brothers not only quickly mastered the aircraft manufacturing technology at that time, but also made major breakthroughs in many aspects. From the summer of 1903, the Wright brothers began to build this famous "Voyager I" biplane. Power flight needs an engine first, but there were no aircraft engines on the market at that time, and no company was willing to take the risk of manufacturing aircraft engines.

1903 12 17. This morning, the Kitty Hawk in North Carolina was still sleeping. The cold wind blows hard, and a strange guy with huge wings stops quietly on the empty beach. This is the first plane in human history-"Voyager One". The clearing was deserted, and only five people went to the scene to watch it. 10: 35, everything is ready. In order to be the first to board the plane for a test flight, the two brothers decided to flip a coin to decide who would board the plane first, and Orville, the younger brother, won.

Orville climbed onto the lower wing of Voyager One, crouched behind the joystick, and held the wooden joystick tightly in his hand, while Wilbur started the engine and pushed it to slide. Under the action of the engine, the plane vibrates violently at first. After a few seconds, it slowly slid down from the "magic mound" under the impetus of its own power. When the plane reached a certain speed, Wilbur released his hand and the plane flew off the ground like a bird. Although Voyager 1 flew very unevenly and even stumbled a little, it flew in the air for 12 seconds ***36.5 meters before landing on the beach. Then, they took turns flying three times.

On the last flight of the day, Wilbur flew 260 meters in 59 seconds with a wind speed of 30 kilometers. People's dream of manned sustained power flight in the air has finally succeeded! Unfortunately, a few minutes later, a sudden gust of wind overturned "Flying Man" 1, and the plane was seriously damaged, but it has completed its historical mission. Thus began the history of human powered aviation.

Extended information "Voyager I" is a biplane, and its two propulsion propellers are installed on both sides of the pilot's position and driven by a single engine chain. The control system adopts the duck layout with the elevator in front and the rudder behind, which is the greatest contribution of the Wright brothers to the aviation industry. Li Lindahl had to move his body and control the flight of the plane by changing the center of gravity, while the pilot of Voyager 1 achieved the same goal by curling the whole wing tip with a mechanical device.

The climb and dive of the aircraft depend on a pair of two-wing elevators installed at the front of the aircraft; A pair of rudders and wing curling mechanisms are interconnected and installed behind the driver. The main parts of modern aircraft turning and maneuvering can be found on this first aircraft, although it is so primitive.