Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Jacks
From the Wright Brother's first brief controlled flights in ground effect (Dec 17, 1903)...
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Earlier, in fact. The addition of power to the Wright Flyer is an afterthought to the more important breakthroughs of three-axis flight control, which was where the important Wright patents placed the emphasis. These important glider test flights occurred during the summer and fall of 1903, and were the principal reason the Wrights worked largely in secret: they knew they were onto something the rest of the competitors had not yet realized.
But we still allude to Wright patents every time we climb into an airliner. When you see the ailerons wiggling up and down a fraction of an inch to impose ever-so-subtle roll moments according to the direction of the sophisti-ma-cated flight-control system, you're seeing 100-year-old technology at work.
When people go to the National Air and Space Museum and look at the Flyer enshrined in glory, I tend to look up at the smallish glider hanging from the ceiling, where the
real breakthrough occurred.