invention3

Lienhard
How Invention Begins ch. 3

Flight had a long prehistory before the Wright Brothers, but inventors who don't successfully market a product don't usually get credit

Flight had been a dream for a long time
the legend of Icarus is best know, but occurs in other cultures
in the Arab world Ibn Firnas launched himself from a tower in a glider (glided down from the tower) in 875 AD and lived to tell the tale
Ibn Firnas
a monk named Eilmer in England made a similar flight just after 1000 AD
should gliders (that soar like a bird) count? video, records
early designs for airplanes were usually by direct analogy to birds and therefore with flapping wings (Leonardo).

The first successful products were balloons

Montgolfier brothers used both hot air and hydrogen
Balloons came into use in the late 18th century and saw significant use in the Civil War and for sport, so there was some familiarity with the atmosphere as an environment.

Early flight theory and experiments

Sir George Cayley laid out much of the necessary theory for flight in the early 1800s
the Reverend Burrell Cannon felt called by God in 1900 to build an Ezekiel wheel flying machine
Frederick Marriott built a steam powered dirigible in 1869
his nephew John Montgomery made some key inventions in wing shape for gliders in 1883
Octave Chanute promoted flight
By the end of the 1800s gliders had been flown successfully and a number of people were working on powered gliders.

So what was left for the Wright Brothers to do?

Samuel Pierpont Langley was expected to succeed

Langley, head of the Smithsonian Institution, built an unmanned, steam powered airplane that flew 3/4 mile in 1896
In 1890 he received a $50,000 grant from the War Department to build a heavier-than-air craft that would carry a person--they were interested in its military use.
he saw the engine as the key problem and didn't solve other problems
His approach was to "urge a system of rigid planes through the air at great velocity"--in other words like running a knife through butter. He visualized air as a series of identical elastic cubes. There wasn't yet scientific theory to predict how a shape would work in flight, this was his attempt to get around that.

He tested one design in 1903 before the Wright brothers, but couldn't get off the ground. But he owned the Washington establishment--nobody paid any attention to the Wright Brothers.

the Wright brothers emphasized the fluid nature of air, and sought a plane that was flexible and adjustible, not rigid.
Now mind you, they were not scientists, but they were bicycle-makers and racers who read the professional literature, studied the problems of aviation with great care and corresponded with other aeronautical researchers such as Octave Chanute. The Wright brothers even built their own wind tunnel--6 feet long and 16 inches square--to study the relationship of various wing shapes and lift and also propellers.
Some of the other researchers were professional engineers and scientists, but the Wrights could do just as good empirical research

they used the scientific method
they used existing scientific knowledge, but this wasn't good enough to actually predict flight characteristics
they didn't publish scientific results, they were just trying to solve problems

they developed a system to turn the plane with a rudder linked to a system to warping the entire wing so that the plane would bank in flight, tested it extensively in gliders.
They built their own gasoline engine, because they could not find a suitable one on the market, and a much more efficient propeller.
They successfully flew a powered airplane Dec. 17, 1903 (for more on the Wright Brothers and their process of invention--and lots of pictures and quick-time movies--see To Fly is Everything , Centennial of Flight Celebration Information, and to listen to a story about their forgotten sister go to: The forgotten Wright and click listen)

Flight was initially used more for entertainment than for practical purposes--video

Notice that Leinhard's book is not organized in chronological order--we will go backwards in time in the inventions we consider

This page written and copyright Pamela E. Mack

HIST 122
last updated 8/27/07