The first manned flight by plane

• The first human flight in an airplane

Wright Brothers - two Americans, who invented and built the world's first aircraft capable of flight. December 17, 1903 there was the first manned flight by plane - the first controlled flight of a man on the machine heavier than air to the engine.

Recall how it was.

Like many geniuses, the Wright brothers were the stars in formation. So, they attended high school, but did not receive a diploma of its completion. In 1892, the brothers opened a repair shop and bike shop, and then began production of bicycles under its own brand in 1896. Earned money in your company they have used to finance their aviation experiments.

Left - Orville Wright, right - Wilbur Wright. They were 34 and 38 years in 1905, respectively.

In 1896, there were three important events in world aviation. In May, Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley made a successful launch of an unmanned airplane with a steam engine. In the summer an engineer from Chicago and the famous aviator, Octave Chanute hired a few young people who have experienced various types of gliders over the sand dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan. In August Otto Lilienthal was killed in the crash of his glider. These events are very impressed with the brothers

Shop in shop Wright brothers' bicycle, 1897.

In spite of the tragic fate of Otto Lilienthal, the Wright brothers took his strategy: experiments with gliding flight, in which the tested flight control system, prior to the first flight with the engine. At the beginning of their experiments they determined management as unsolved third part of the "flight of the problem." They believed that the already accumulated sufficient knowledge and experience to solve the other two problems - and lift motors. And this they differed sharply from more experienced the contemporary aviators who built powerful engines, attached them to airframes equipped with proven would the controls and tried to get off the ground without pre-flight tests. Crashed glider, October 10, 1900.

Based on the observations, one of the brothers, Wilbur concluded that birds changed the angle of his wings endings, to make your body turn to the right or to the left. The brothers decided this would also be a good way for a flying machine for turning - to create "roll" or "tilt" into the turn, just as do the birds - and just as cyclists brothers were familiar with such experience .

Dan Tait (left) and Wilbur Wright (right) with a glider, September 19, 1902.

At the heart of the project of the first full-size glider Wright brothers were the work of their predecessors: a biplane glider-Chanute-Herring, who made a successful flight in 1896 near Chicago; data on opening and closing force, published Lilienthal. Stands between the wings of the glider were surrounded by ropes in their own modifications.

Experiments are underway. North Carolina, October 10, 1902.

In 1902, the Wright brothers made a huge step forward and made basic wind tunnel tests on 200 wings of different shapes and profiles, accompanied by a deep testing 38 of them.

The first flights of the Wright brothers glider in 1902 committed both unmanned kite. Working with the wind tunnel has been very helpful: lift airframe corresponded to the estimated. New glider also has a new feature: the hard vertical rudder, which was to eliminate a number of earlier problems.

With the help of a new method of control for the first time Wright achieved true control of your machine, it happened October 8, 1902 and became the most important invention in the history of aviation. In September and October they made between 700 and 1 000 flights, the longest of which lasted 26 seconds, and its range was 190 meters. Hundreds of well-controlled flight after installation convinced the brothers begin to build a flying machine heavier than air to the engine. Wilbur makes a turn moving the wheel of 24 October 1902.

In 1903, the Wright brothers built engine equipped Flyer-1 (pictured below), which will serve as a conventional material for the Wright machines construction material - spruce, strong and light wood. They also designed and manufactured wooden propellers, as well as a gasoline engine, manufactured in their bike shop.

Wilbur Wright at the helm of the damaged Flyer 1 after an unsuccessful flight December 14, 1903.

Modern wind tunnel tests of propellers in 1903, the sample indicated that they had an efficiency of over 75% in terms of the first flight, and in fact have a maximum efficiency of 82%. This is a very great achievement, considering that modern wooden propellers have a maximum efficiency of 85%.

The first flight made Orville, he flew 36.5 meters in 12 seconds, the flight was recorded on the famous photograph (below). The following two filter were about 52 and 60 meters long committed Wilbur and Orville respectively. Their height was about 3 meters above ground level.

The first manned flight in an airplane. This is the first flight of Flyer-1 December 17, 1903, piloted by Orville, Wilbur - on the ground. Photo by John T. Daniels from the rescue station Kill Devil Hills, Orville use the camera on a tripod.

The biggest fundamental achievement of the Wright Brothers were the opening of a 3-plane axes of rotation, which allowed pilots to manage aircraft and maintain balance during flight. This method has become a major, and as such remains to the present time for all aircraft types. In 1904 the Wright brothers built the Flyer-II (pictured) and built the airfield at Huffman Prairie, pasture cows, 13 km northeast of Dayton in Ohio.

In 1905, the brothers built a new "Flyer-III", in which significant improvements have been made, which greatly improved the stability and control, preparing the base for a series of six "long flight" lasting from 17 to 38 minutes and range from 20 to 39 1 km, 4 km route around the Huffman Prairie from 26 September to 5 October. Wilbur made the last and longest flight, a range of 39, 4 km in 38 minutes and 3 seconds, ending with a safe landing after it ran out of fuel.

Flight of the September 29, 1905.

The Wright brothers, of course, to take measures to ensure that attention to them in flights was minimal. Fearing that competitors will use their ideas. They wrote to the US government, and then the UK, France and Germany with a proposal to sell a flying car, but refused to demonstration flights, insisting on pre-contract signing. They do not even want to show photos of their Flyer.

The Wright Brothers did not commit flights in 1906 and 1907, carrying out negotiations with the US and European governments in this period. After the final signing of the contract with the French company, and the US Army, they returned in May 1908 with the Flyers in 1905, which have been remodeled space for the pilot and passenger, and began to prepare for an important contract for their demonstration flights. Contractual aircraft should have been capable of carrying passengers. Plane crash during a failed demonstration flight for representatives of the US Army, September 17, 1908. A few minutes after take-off at a height of about 30 m, propeller split depriving control plane.

Deeply shaken by the accident, Wilbur decided to spend even more spectacular demonstration flights; in the following days and weeks he set new records for altitude and duration.

In July 1909 Orville using Wilber completed demonstration flights for the US Army, to fulfill the requirements to make a double plane, able to fly with a passenger for an hour with an average speed of 40 miles per hour (64 km / h) and make a safe landing. They sold military aircraft for 30 000 dollars.

Close-up of the Wright brothers' airplane passenger seat and a place for the pilot, 1911.

The peak of fame was the flight Wilber in early October, when the festivities in honor of trohsotletiya opening of the Hudson River in New York, he flew around the Statue of Liberty and made a 33-minute flight up and down the river along Manhattan in view of about one million residents of New NY. These flights brought great fame Wright brothers in America.

During demonstration flights in the south of France, where Wilbur made many more demonstration flights, passengers which were officers, journalists and statesmen, and February 15, 1909, and his sister Katherine (left).

demonstration flight for the US Army in 1909.

The two brothers were bachelors. Wilbur once quipped that "would not be able to feed his wife and at the same time flying machine." The history of the Wright brothers made into a movie several times. In addition, the brothers appeared in some films as secondary characters, there are documentaries, animated and educational films about aviators, their inventions and flights. Despite the fact that the Wright brothers were the first who built and made an experimental flight on an airplane, they were the first who could manage such flight in the air, which made possible the further development of aircraft construction.