The Wright Brothers' glider tests
Inventing powered flight is not something you can just wing.
Alex Q. Arbuckle
October 1902
Before their groundbreaking powered flight over the dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on Dec. 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers conducted hundreds of test flights with unpowered gliders and kites. Though Orville and Wilbur are widely considered the fathers of powered flight, their true breakthrough was in developing a system of controls to safely balance and steer a flying machine, a paramount task following the deaths of fellow aviation pioneers Otto Lilienthal and Percy Pilcher in glider tests.Between 1900 and 1902, the brothers designed and flew a series of gliders to test methods of controlling three axes of aircraft movement: yaw, pitch and roll. The first two were handled with a vertical rudder and horizontal elevator, but the true innovation came in their solution for the third axis of control: roll. Wilbur had noticed that when birds turned in flight, they would twist their wings and lean into the turn. Mimicking this, the brothers used a system of cables to twist and warp the trailing edges of the flexible spruce and fabric wings, causing differences in lift between the two sides.By the end of October 1902, the brothers had completed nearly a thousand glides among the dunes of Kitty Hawk. They were convinced they had finally achieved complete control of the airplane’s movements — and they were ready to strap on an engine.
Our new machine is a very great improvement over anything… anyone has built. Everything is so much more satisfactory that we now believe that the flying problem is really nearing its solution. - Wilbur Wright, Oct. 2, 1902
Visit Premier Exhibitions at 417 5th Avenue to see the past become present again at "Retronaut's New York." This pop-up exhibition of extraordinary, digitally restored photographs captures New York City at the turn of the 20th century. It's only open until May 15, so be sure to get down there before it’s gone.