By 1903 the Wrights had wings that lifted as predicted and controls that worked. Now they needed an engine light enough to carry and propellers to turn its power into push. Nobody sold either.
Key idea
The engine
Car makers could not supply a light enough engine, so Charlie Taylor, their shop mechanic, built one in about six weeks: four cylinders, an aluminum block, about 12 horsepower. Chains like bicycle chains drove two propellers that turned in opposite directions, so their twisting forces canceled.
The propeller: a wing that spins
Ship propellers were made by trial and error. The Wrights realized a propeller blade is a wing moving in a spiral, so each part of the blade meets the air at its own speed and angle. Using their tunnel data, they worked out blade shapes that gave far more push than earlier designs. Their notes show months of argument between the brothers before it came together.
December 1903
On December 14 Wilbur won a coin toss and tried first, but pulled up too steeply; the Flyer stalled and settled into the sand after about three seconds, with minor damage. On December 17, in a cold wind of over 20 miles per hour, it was Orville's turn. The Flyer ran along a wooden rail and rose. They took turns, four flights in all. That evening they sent a telegram home to their father, beginning:
Success four flights thursday morning all against twenty one mile wind started from Level with engine power alone average speed through air thirty one miles longest 57 seconds inform Press home Christmas.
| Flight | Pilot | Time | Distance over the ground |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orville | 12 seconds | 120 feet |
| 2 | Wilbur | about 12 seconds | about 175 feet |
| 3 | Orville | 15 seconds | about 200 feet |
| 4 | Wilbur | 59 seconds | 852 feet |
Worked example: Ground speed
- $852 \div 59 \approx 14.4$ ft/s.
Answer: About 14.4 feet per second, roughly 10 mph over the ground; into a strong headwind, its air speed was much higher.
Why it works
After 1903: learning to really fly
The 1903 flights were short and straight. In 1904 and 1905, at Huffman Prairie, a cow pasture near Dayton, they learned to turn, circle and land safely. On October 5, 1905, Wilbur flew about 24 miles in 39 minutes. Few people believed it until 1908, when Wilbur flew in public in France and Orville in Virginia for the U.S. Army. During the Army trials a crash injured Orville and killed his passenger, Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, the first person to die in an airplane accident. In 1909 the Army bought its first Wright airplane.
Story or history?
Others claimed earlier powered flights, such as Gustave Whitehead in Connecticut in 1901. Historians generally find the evidence for those claims too thin. Samuel Langley's government-funded Aerodrome crashed into the Potomac twice in late 1903, just days before the Wrights' success. The Wrights' claim rests on witnesses, a famous photograph, their detailed notebooks, and above all on what they did next: controlled flights that anyone could see by 1908.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Early 1903 | Charlie Taylor builds the engine; the brothers design the propellers |
| December 8, 1903 | Langley's Aerodrome fails a second time |
| December 14, 1903 | Wilbur's first attempt stalls after about three seconds |
| December 17, 1903 | Four flights at Kill Devil Hills, near Kitty Hawk |
| 1904–1905 | Learning to circle at Huffman Prairie, Dayton |
| 1905 | A 39-minute flight |
| 1908 | Public flights in France and at Fort Myer, Virginia |
| 1909 | The U.S. Army buys a Wright airplane |
| 1912 | Wilbur dies of typhoid fever |
| 1948 | Orville dies; the 1903 Flyer goes to the Smithsonian |
Worked example: From 12 seconds to 39 minutes
- 39 minutes is $39 \times 60 = 2340$ seconds.
- $2340 \div 12 = 195$.
Answer: 195 times longer.
What it led to
Within ten years airplanes crossed seas; within fifty, jets carried passengers across oceans. Every airplane still uses the Wrights' three-axis control, and engineers still test wings in wind tunnels.
Common mistake
Read more: Wright brothers and Wright Flyer.