My grandmother was born in 1912 and relayed a story to me about the first time she saw an airplane. She was about five years old and was working in the fields with her brothers when they all heard a very strange noise, looked up and saw an airplane flying overhead. She said she never forgot the feeling of awe of seeing something flying through the air. Her brother, David, had been so impressed by the sight that he became a Navy pilot when he was older. Since she said she was five when it happened, this would have been in 1917.
Wilbur Wright died in 1912 but Orville lived until 1948, long enough to see a great deal of change in aircraft design, including the rise of monoplanes, the advent of metal aircraft. the emergence of jet engines and the breaking of the sound barrier. He even saw the first (unmanned) rockets in the form of the German V-2. So many wonders in a single lifetime!
Imagine flying without any regulations, licenses, ATC, other traffic, and no rules other than physics. Must have been an exciting time for those pioneers. Unfortunately also very dangerous...
Lots of rules and pretty much all the checklist we have todays are the result of the (un)lucky pilots before us making mistakes and discovering things. I am quite happy we got those rules and things are much safer now.
The LAWS of physics are 100'% repeatable, by definition, everything else is an opinion. Law ~ from the Latin for 'ultimate' or highest truth. Opinion nor consensus are 'truth', let alone the highest truth.
The history of aviation never ceases to amaze me, we went from the first power flight to to the first super sonic flight in a little under 44 years, and to landing on the moon in 66 years.
I find that if you compare the products of a British manufacturer, Fairey, they made 2 WW2 'planes, the Fairey Battle and the Fairey Swordfish in the 1930s, both terribly slow and in the 1950s, they made the Fairey Delta, which Peter Twiss took to a World speed record and became the first man to fly faster than the Sun crosses the sky. Also, the English Electric Wren of the early 1920s and the English Electric Lightning of 30 years later.
Same here. I’ve visited several museums of flight, last one was Boeing in Seattle. I’m always drawn to the section with the very old planes. They are so fascinating! Often times they park the older planes under the wings of a more modern airliner. It really puts things in perspective, how fast they have evolved!
I have a copy of the mishap report for the Selfridge crash. The reason for the mishap is given as Orville Wright had replaced the propellers with longer ones to get more speed/power out of the aircraft. On the ground clearance was good, but when moving the aircraft flexed enough that the wires holding the wings were in the edge of the propeller arc at times generally ticking the end of the prop. In a turn it was more severe and the tip of the propeller was torn free leading to the description above.
Orville had replaced the props with wider blades as he was carrying a heavier passenger, Selfridge. The engine was powerful enough but their props could not be feathered automatically like props would be in later generations. Orville himself had turned the new props. Selfridge was the heaviest passenger he had flown with. However, Orville didn't change the props, two of his mechanics did; Charlie Taylor and Charlie Furnas. Orville reported to Wilbur that the flight w/Selfridge went just fine at first. Then he heard a tapping and decided to stop the engine and glide down from 150 feet. The right(or starboard) prop split and disengaged the bracing wires of the rudder causing the rudder to be an elevator and tilt the aircraft downward. They almost made it back to earth safely but the plane hit the ground head first. In pictures of the plane after the crash, the left (port) propeller is still intact and in place. Wilbur in letters sort of blamed Orville for allowing officials to divert his attention from the machine and going to socials and being feted. Wilbur insinuated that if Orville had installed the props himself he might have seen anomalies that he as pilot would be looking for. Wilbur also blamed himself as he was not their to see that things proceed along with the plane mechanically while Orville flew it. The brothers had always worked together. AFTERMATH The standard Wright A Flyer sat somewhat low. Both brothers had a tendency to take off steeply and I often speculate whether Orv had knicked something before becoming airborne, incurring some microscopic damage to the props. Just my speculation. The plane they returned to Ft. Myer with the next year was smaller and sat noticeably higher off the ground but had the same sized props and they look huge on the plane. Also after this accident every Wright plane had bracing struts added to the propeller housings on the port and starboard sides. This was to prevent the props and housings from coming unsituated again in the case of any future or similar scenarios.
There's a lot of information that I feel could be added here. The bicycle shop was making enough money that the brothers eventually left Charlie Taylor fully in charge of it while they went to Kitty Hawk. Charlie Taylor also made the engine for the flyer, including casting the engine case, pistons, rods, etc. The Wright Brothers received no outside funding, all coming from the bicycle shop income. Otto Lilienthal not only experimented with his gliders, but he also developed lift tables that were accepted by all aeronautical enthusiasts of the day. However, it was the Wrights who realized that the tables were in error, and using a small wind tunnel of their own design, created their own lift tables using various wing shapes. The Wright Brothers are often cited as being just two bicycle mechanics, but in fact they were in every sense aeronautical scientists. They were the first to realize that a proper propeller for an aircraft was not simply a paddle, but a rotating wing. They were able to calculate exactly how much power their engine would need to produce in order for the airplane to fly, based on calculations combining wing lift, propeller thrust, and weight. They originally used a vertical stabilizer without a rudder, realizing that a proper airplane turned by banking. They only added a rudder when they discovered the adverse-yaw effect. Even six years after they invented a controllable airplane, the aviators were turning their aircraft clumsily with rudder, like a boat. In my opinion, the incredible achievement of the Wright Brothers has never been told fully in film. I was hoping as 2003 approached that a proper film would come out, but I don't think it has yet. One final thing I'd like to say: When a new aircraft is designed, we use computer modeling and then a test pilot to fly an aircraft that we have pretty good confidence will fly. Reliable engines, proven wing design and construction, etc. On the other hand, when we learn to fly we use an airplane that has been proven to be a good trainer, and we use tried and true flying technique and a Certified Flight Instructor. Now think about what the Wright Brothers did... they designed and built an aircraft and learned to fly it simultaneously, not having any of the advantages I mentioned previously. That they didn't kill themselves doing this is amazing enough, and they succeeded dramatically. When they finally brought a truly practical airplane to France for demonstration, they met with pure skepticism from the public and the press. You see their aircraft was shipped over by boat and was mishandled and damaged by customs. When they finally finished repairing the airplane and flew it, they totally astonished the crowds, press, and other aviators who couldn't believe what they were witnessing. Their airplane flew in such a way that dramatically showed how advanced their machine and flying ability was to everything else that was being demonstrated. I apologize for the length of this comment, but I wanted to share some of the appreciation I have for what the Wright Brothers accomplished. I mean no disrespect for this video, it's a good production and I enjoyed watching it.
I seldom see much mention of how much help the Wrights received from Octave Chanute, in particular, and their reputation has always been tarnished for me by the fact that having borrowed so heavily from the work of other pioneers, completely free of charge, when they did eventually come up with an aircraft that sort of worked they then tried to patent the idea of the aeroplane - even those developed completely independently. In my view Charlie Taylor really deserves the credit for their achievement; several other previous designs, such as Stringfellow and Henson's Aerial Steam Carriage of 1842, might very well have worked (the model flew beautifully) had they had a light enough powerplant. The Aerial Steam Carriage is arranged far more like a modern aircraft that the Wrights' flimsy constructions. Gabriel Voisin's book Men, Women And 10,000 Kites contains much interesting information about how the Wrights' achievement was viewed by contemporary experts, including the role of a weight acting under gravity in launching their supposedly self-launching aircraft during experiments at Huffman Prairie.
Okay, here’s a fun story I encountered while working on a children’s book last year: The Wright Brothers stayed with the Tate family in Kitty Hawk several times; Mr. Tate was the local postmaster. Their daughter Irene was four years old when they first came, and got used to watching their work and their test flights when they came to Kitty Hawk, so this lasted until she was six or seven. She got really interested in airplanes, but became a nurse. However, when she was home visiting from Virginia when she was about 19 (they were living at Currituck by this time) she witnessed a plane that crashed into the ocean, and she was among a group of people who pulled the unfortunate pilot out of the water. Obviously, he was flying pretty low. This was a young Mr. Bennett Severn, as I recall from Philadelphia, who was evidently struck by her looks as well as the water, and they were married within a few months. He had started a little business flying people around, largely on trips to Miami and other vacation spots. He taught Irene to fly, and she became the first woman to fly a solo round trip from New York to Miami. (I hope I’m remembering all this correctly; I have not taken the time to check.) Their home is still standing and recently sold, in Brigantine, NJ. They kept their flying business there and also had fishing boats and a seafood restaurant. I think it’s fascinating that this little girl witnessed the first flights, successful and unsuccessful, and became a pilot herself.
to think that milton wright, born in *1828* got to be in a plane is just incredible. his date of birth is the furthest back in history than anyone else who has ever been in a plane.
In fact it's suggested George Cayley (b1826) flew his grandfather Sir George Cayley's glider at Brompton Dale in 1853, if that counts: and, of course, there were many balloonists before that date.
"Oh." Famous last word. I love that. My grandparents lived in northern Ohio during this fertile period of invention and my grandfather heard the news of the Wright Brothers and lived to watch on tv while people walked on the moon. He was an aviation fan, the way most people were in his time and place, and took his family to see the dirigibles Akron and Macon, where my father got a souvenir comb made of duraluminum like the dirigible (and promptly lost it), and went to see all the airshows. At one such airshow where WWI pilots made some money in the Thirties for bigger projects, my parents went up on their first flight ever, with WWI flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker at the controls. Between that and the automotive industry and what Edison was doing, the region was a happening place. My Dad's oldest brother worked on synthetic rubber as a chemist at one of the rubber plants in Akron, which in the year my father was born was the fastest growing city in America. Tom Brokaw thought the WWII generation was the greatest, but my grandfather embraced all the changes in society that made it modern, as well as lived through two world wars and the Great Depression. :D We think things are changing fast now, but that's peanuts compared to what they had to absorb and process.
Imagine going from the single seat 12 hp Wright Flyer to a DC-3 with 1,200 hp that could carry 32 passengers in just a little over 20 years. Its amazing how fast we progressed.
It must have been such an exciting period filled with remarkably inventive people. I find it so difficult to respect the people today like Musk who spent as much time inventing as they do whining about how unfair life is because after being given so much money to develop his companies he know has to pay tax.
It's worth noting that putting the elevator in front of the wing provided the Wright design with very forgiving stall characteristics. This configuration ensures that the elevator will stall before the wing stalls, thus pitching the nose down before the elevator fully stalls and before the wing stalls.
Well... not so fast. It is correct that in a correctly designed airplane the front wing will stall before the rear wing, thus driving the nose down and preventing the rear wing from stalling. Note that this applies both to conventional and canard designs. The difference, of course, is that in a conventional design the front wing is the main wing so when it stalls the nose goes down but at the same time you lose most of the lift, while in a canard design the front wing is the elevator so having it stalling and the nose going down "automatically" as a result is equivalent to just push the nose down, you recover and the main wing never stalls. All that said... did I say "in a correctly designed airplane"? The canard configuration doesn't guarantee, by itself, that the canard would stall first. It will depend on a lot of things including the airfoil profile of each wing, the aspect ratio of each wing, the decalage (incidence) of each wing and, most critically, the wing loading of each wing (other things equal, the wing with more wing loading stalls first). And how much weight each of the wings take depends on the position of the center of gravity. I've heard that the Wright brothers were more concerned about controllability that stability (plus, airplane stability was not well understood back then) so they put the CG very close to the "neutral" point. That made the plane to lack positive longitudinal (pitch) stability, or even being a bit unstable. This in turn required constant inputs in the elevator just to keep the plane from pitching too much up or down by itself. This can be actually seen sin some of the early footage of the Wright brothers flight, how they were constantly "modulating" the elevator up and down all the time and with quite large alternating inputs. A side effect of this would be that the canard elevator would NOT stall before the main wing.
@@adb012thank you for this clear explanation. It would have taken me considerably more words to do. You also mentioned an issue that I had completely forgotten about. That being the C of G formula used by the Wright's. By today's standards, their designs were tail heavy (C of G too far aft). This meant that the weight loading on the forward wing (canard) was so light that it could not stall before the main wing did. It made their designs very "squirrelly" on the pitch axis, and consequently, difficult to fly. It caused an imbalance or non-harmony of the controls. The roll and yaw axis responded similarly to each other, that is, neither were overly sensitive. This pitch axis, however, was very sensitive. This lead to the dreaded tendency that today we call PIO (pilot induced oscillation).
Not a guarantee. The front horizontal stabilizer must have higher specific load among some other factors in order to stall before the main wing. And the theory of flight back in Wright Brother's days was incomplete and very basic. That was the main limiting factor in the design of early airplanes.
Thank you for crediting Charles E. Taylor for his contribution to powered flight. For years, the engine design and fabrication was attributed to the Wright Brothers. Charlie Taylor was my great-great uncle.
Well you probably don't know this, but Boeing has a division of highly trained, advanced Avionics technicians/mechanics that are considered to be the top dogs of aviation when it comes to diagnosis, troubleshoot and repair. They are so good that even Airbus operators will call them for help. This program is called "Charlie Works" for the very obvious reason. I had the pleasure of working with them.
@@saviodutra6212 I was aware of the "Charlie Taylor Award" for outstanding avionics technicians, but I have never heard of the program you mentioned. Thanks for the information. I will have to check into that.
11:30 Something to keep in mind here. These men were student pilots flying without any instruction of any kind from more experienced pilots flying an experimental aircraft built by self taught aviation engineers with no experience in building or designing airplanes. It's astonishing they flew at all. It should be expected that their first flights would not be very impressive, judging from the pure stats. If you think about it you soon realize just how impressive their first flights actually were. And even more, modern day test pilots who have flown replicas of the Wright Flyer have said it is incredibly difficult to fly.
This comment and many other like it talking about the difficulty of learning how to fly your own aircraft is making me realize how much playing KSP with the aerodynamic realism mods has made me a better pilot. Being a shitty aeronautical engineer designing high performance craft means I end up making craft that are nearly impossible to control. Being a shitty pilot trying to fly these awful deathtraps I became a better pilot really quickly. Surprisingly these skills transferred over to proper flight sims pretty well and planes that people describe as really hard to fly are easy for me. Most things are easy compared to flying planes that land at 280 knots and have landing gear that disintegrates at 300 because adding flaps is a lot of work and you wanna minimize drag when flying at mach 3.
The greed of the Wright family is responsible for forgetting and lying about the first flight. Honour to Gustav Weißkopf, first flight 300 meters in 1901. RIP. First proof for flying Wrights in 1908.
Unlike cars and trains, bicycles must also roll to initiate a turn, they turn in 3D. In fact, the Wrights knew that you must first steer opposite the turn to allow the bike to fall into the turn, then steer back to hold the turn.
Yes, on motorcycles, you are taught that you can avoid obstacles that appear in the road by 'reverse steering', pushing on the side you want to turn to and then quickly pushing on the other side to straighten up. Depending on how quickly it is done, and how fast the bike was going (it is only really effective above 15mph) it will shimmy over a few feet to the side that was pushed first.
It is only good for moto racing, due to the speed required. For commuting, it is almost useless and dangerous. Please obey the speed limit whenever you encounter a sharp turn.
@@wilfri3476 that's right, counter-steering! It's been a while. I agree, it's how you get any bike to lay over at speed. I used it consciously once to lay a bike right over so it slid under a car that suddenly pulled out rather than splatting into the side of it.
There are direct connections between bicycle engineering and flight engineering -- aerodynamics, control, materials weight versus strength. In retrospect, it should be no surprise that bicycle inventors invented powered flight, as opposed to steam locomotive engine designers and car designers. Their aluminum engine was was perfect for their specific use. And aluminum remains the principle component of all types of flying machines today.
Giggled at 10:19 when you said Toin Coss instead of Coin Toss or Toss Coin. Kidding aside, binging on your Aviation Accidents playlist really got me hooked. It's awesome to get a little bit of a history lesson after all the stressful accidents I just watched. Hope you keep updating this playlist with new videos! Thanks, Mentour Pilot!
My great uncle was a pilot and he was present at the airshow where Charles Rolls (of Rolls Royce) fatally crashed in 1910. Second pilot holder in the UK. My great uncle was No72 in the Royal Aero Club.
Mine made me an axe, when I was 5. I still have all 10 fingers and 10 toes. But almost gutted myself with a sword. Didn't harden it right. I was 14. Never underestimated metal hardening since. Use oil, not water. We learn as we go...
I used to have discussions with my great-grandfather who helped the brothers design and build their first propellers. I still have a drill press and hand tools that were used at the time. The stories were spellbinding and made me feel like I was there...
And they did their research very scientifically. They carved propellers by hand, but they tested them on the ground and developed a prop that was 80% efficient. A modern prop is only 85% efficient.
@@peregrinemccauley5010 Not what was being said. The Wright Brothers both took many, many images and extensively documented (wrote down) everything they did. This is compared to most aviation pioneers who we don't have nearly the same sort of documentation. The next person to have nearly the same recognition would be Santos-Dumont in 1906. Now I would argue that due to their secrecy, their influence on later aviation in Europe was more limited, given the success of the various designs over there at the time (Voison 1907 - later evolving into the Farman type, Bleriot VIII - later evolving into the Bleriot XI, and the Antoinette series) but through their writing their claims can be far more easily judged than a note in a diary saying they flew for x minutes.
@@GroundHOG-2010 Most 'aviation pioneers' as you put it , actually demonstrated their aircraft's flying abilities in front of witnesses , including the Press of the day , Government Officials , Captains of Industry and visiting overseas Government Officials and the public in general . Planes were flying well before the Fraud Brothers got in on the act . It's better to stay silent and look the fool , than to open your mouth and have it confirmed .
The pride that must have felt when his father asked to go higher, surely it was something beyond description. Always knew Wright Brothers made the first aircraft, but oh the details, they are the season of life, thank you.
I read a letter from Lawrence Hargrave to the Wright brothers before the first successful flight. He respected them as scientists. There was a community helping each other towards the sky.
I've spent a huge amount of time in the Wright exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum where the 1903 Flyer was displayed. The thing I found most fascinating that you touched on here was that the Coefficient of Air Pressure data that they were using was not reflecting what they were experiencing with their first glider attempt. So they went back and developed an experiment (the test articles are still part of the NASM collection and were on display back in 2018 - don't know if they still are), then calculated a corrected table of coefficients based on that information, which was substantiated by their 1902 glider. A great example of the scientific method in action.
Afirmar que o Flyers I conseguiu voar pesando 340 Kg com piloto com apenas 12 HP de potência seria o mesmo afirma que as galinha conseguem roer osso! Kkkkkkk Uma foto sem data que só apareceu em 1908 e um telegrama escrito pelo Wright nunca provara o maior sonho da humanidade de voar!
Turns out the Wright brother's father holds the distinction of being the first loud and demanding passenger to scream at a flight crew because the flight was not meeting his expectations. lol. Great video.
I'm feeling so inspired after watching this video. I lived almost the first 12 years of my life very near to the start of rwy 35 at Quito's old airport and I remember watching the airplanes approaching for landing everyday (and also taking off from the opposite direction). Watching this video made me think about how pilots are like artists in some kind of way, free souls, and it must have been that way back in the early years of aviation. I'm currently a musician, and I definitely want to fulfill my dream of becoming a pilot one day 🥹❤✈️
It's amazing to me having lived near Selfridge Air national guard base most of my life, having work on harriers in the Marines, and loving to learn all things aviation, that after 58 years on this planet I find out how lieutenant Selfridge died on your (one of my favorites) channel. Keep up the good work Peter Love the channel.
Great video as always, although I do feel obliged to point out that the Wright Flyer was the first powered *heavier than air* aircraft, and not the first powered aircraft in general. Powered airships existed long before it, and, sadly people had been killed in crashes of them prior to this crash of the Wright.
Henry Ford moved the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop and childhood home to his museum in the Detroit area (less than a mile from my childhood home), and also bought a lot of their tools and whatnot-so, SO cool to see in person!
Personal tale: My office use to overlook the woods where the first UK fatal powered military aircraft accident occurred. On 18 August 1911 newly qualified (the day before) pilot Lt. Theodore J. Ridge, flying the, marginally stable, Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.1 was killed on impact when he stalled in a turn. He was the Assistant Superintendent of the Royal Aircraft Factory, which was based at what became Farnborough Airfield. Ridge's previous experience has been in light-than-air craft. He had been warned against flying what was a heavily modified Blériot XII (itself labelled as a 'The Man-Killer' for its poor handling) by a factory engineer and the aircrafts designer, one 2nd Lt Geoffrey de Havilland (yes the De Havilland Aircraft one). The location was on the south side of Pystock woods, the trees just outside the airfield boundary to the north of the west end of the runway, within easy reach of a time-travelling investigator from the UK's aviation accident investigation organisation, the Air Accident Investigation Branch, whose headquarters are on the other side of the runway. Random note: Charles Rolls (he of Roll-Royce) was killed in the first fatal powered aircraft in the UK on the 18 April 1910 when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during an air display.
The Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk ten days before my grandmother Elizabeth Kraus Wishman's 17th birthday. She lived long enough and watched with us Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.
Wow. What a beautifully written and illustrated presentation. Should be required viewing for anyone studying history or aviation at any age. Thoroughly enjoyed. Best video. Felt like I was there! Thank you
ironically awhile ago a friend and i happened upon the 1st flight of a wright flyer replica. so we stopped by the fence to watch it. they took off, immediately pulled the nose too high and stalled, landing hard to the sound of breaking wood.
This is one of your best videos, and I can tell you put in a lot of work researching the information. The editing is fantastic too. Yet it has way less views than other recent videos. I'll never understand the TH-cam algorithm.
Just came back and watched this again nearly two years later- and I just wanted to say that not only were your earlier videos very GOOD , but also that your current videos have continued to get better and better as the years have gone on.
I've always heard that Wilbur got the idea of wing warping from opening up a bicycle inner tube box, and he twisted the box cardboard, spawning the warping idea. Also, the Wright Flyer #1 didn't have 3 wheels as depicted, and didn't take off from dirt/sand. The flyer launched from a single railroad type rail to minimize resistance of the sand/dirt. The brother that wasn't flying would hold the wing level, and run with the plane as it took off, due to the lack of tripod landing wheels.
You must have been saving this for xmas Petter. Excellent. The story of how the Wright brothers figured out that a propeller is a rotating wing rather than wind paddles is a good one too. Might make for another episode.
I honestly got chills when you talked about their childhood, as the realization of how many things came as a result of this struck me all at once. The Space Race, Chuck Yeager’s supersonic flight, etc.
Keep going with this historical look at aircraft. I want to know which was the first flight to fly at 1,000 feet, 10,000 feet. How did engineers learn how to build better aircraft engines etc.
A small correction regarding the animation of the first flight: The Wright brothers' plane had no wheels, it was simply catapulted. The first airplane (with landing gears) that took off under its own power was that of Traian Vuia, in 1906.
The 1903 flights did not use a catapult - but rather what's essentially a skateboard on a rail. The photographs taken of the first flight clearly show this. The Wrights did start using catapults when they started flying from Huffman Prairie, outside of Dayton, Ohio, in 1905 in order to get more consistent performance. Film showing the catapult, and the use of the cat in the 1908 demonstrations in France have led those who wish Pride of Place to go with their particular champion (Most usually Alberto Santos-Dumont who was a legitimate pioneer, but some others as well) to try to de-legitimize the Wright's claims. (Some of which are based on that the 1903 Flights dont' have FAI certification, due to the FAI not yet existing - how very circular) This was, except for a few zealots, put to rest in 1908, when Wibur Wright and the 1908 Flyer far outperformed all others at the demonstrations.
Yeah it was on rails. Wilbur and Orville took turns on the first flight day. The last flight was about 8X further than the first. They were on site, and worked feverishly for years doing R&D/fabrication and testing.
Va multumesc domnule Fota! Mr. Fota's correction does not diminish the Wright brothers' merit at all! But because in that early period there were many people who made great efforts to achieve this great dream of the people - the flight, we should remember as many of them as possible. Here, for example, is what we learn about Traian Vuia: “On July 1, 1902, he arrived in Paris, carrying in his luggage the design of an original "airplane-car", designed during his student days, and the related model, made during the last twelve months. In the winter of 1902/1903, Vuia began the construction of the device [...]” “On March 18, 1906, at Montesson, near Paris, the Vuia I aircraft flew for the first time.” At that time, the internet was going very hard and I don't think they could be accused of being inspired by each other :) So, everyone deserves our respect! Likewise, we can't talk about jet flying without mentioning Henri Coanda.
I visited the Munich science museum in 1991 and was puzzled to see a display celebrating 100 years of manned flight because I knew the Wright Brothers first flew in 1903. Upon viewing the main display, I learned that 1991 was indeed the 100 year anniversary of manned flight - by German Otto Lilienthal. The Wright Brothers were not the first to fly, just the first to fly heavier-than-air aircraft.
@@hughmungus1767 Cool! Just another correction: The Wright brothers were the first to conduct a _powered_ heavier-than-air manned flight, as Lilienthal was using gliders.
@@fritz46 And the irony is that the camber is not responsible for lift. It just improves it. It is the resultant vector of the air mass that provides lift. Think about how an aircraft can fly inverted.
Yes, given enough speed, even a barn door can fly. And some acrobatic planes have a symmetrical wing profile, so they can fly inverted as good as normal.
I just found your channel and I'm really enjoying it. I'm not a pilot at all. It's something I was always interested in, but never pursued. One thing that really strikes me is how much influence the airline and its policies have on the safety of flying. Based on what I've learned I realize what airline I choose could very well make the difference between a safe flight and a disaster.
Thank you so much for covering the details of the Wright brothers' story. There is so much to learn from it at so many levels. Inspiring. Thank you Petter :)
Our close friend mom related that when she was a young girl, her family knew the the Wright family and she was held by one of the brothers. I forget which one,and shared a Hersey bar. It’s amazing to think of the advancement that aviation has developed in her and our lifetime. She now lives in Florida.
I’m not a parent, but I really felt for Milton Wright when he asked his sons not to fly together. Milton, a staunch abolitionist and social reformer, was a loving father who encouraged his children’s interests, and kept up with their activities through regular correspondence, when his work kept him away from home. He completely stood by his sons’ single-minded, but arguably quixotic pursuit, thanks in part to assurances by Orville and Wilbur’s sister Katharine that her brothers would not be “reckless”-but in that moment, Milton was just a worried dad. When the brothers completed that first set of successful test flights in December 1903, they addressed the telegram containing the announcement to their father, so that _he_ could share the news with the press.
I completely and fully addicted to your videos. The excellent quality and perspective along with your positive attitude is truly refreshing. Having visited Kitty Hawk in person and holding a PPL with instrument, I found the video to be great. It is amazing how you pick out just the right facts to highlight out of the multitude of facts surrounding famous events. Kitty Hawk was packed full of interesting things to see, but your video still helped me to learn more! Great job!
I can't stop watching your videos... lol. I have never flown an airplane, but have always been fascinated by flight and simulators. I have learned so much over the past two years that I can sometimes conclude before you finish the explanation. Thank you for being a teacher that explains in an entertaining, logical and educational way.
Knowing their dad said that just makes me think of that immense pride every dad feels when their child acheives their goals. With maybe a sprinkle of that glee of excitement when you’re on a swingset as a child.
You’re about to break a mil subs. I see this channel having several million within a couple years. Keep up the great investigation content. Very well organized and put together. Def sets this channel apart from all the othersz
Love Aviation! So much so I am happy to say I am a licensed A&P ( in Europe I believe you call the "Engineers"), 40 plus years. No desire to pilot, but to fix! But when it comes to accidents, it matters to both pilot and technicians/engineers/mechanics. You go Mentour Pilot, you go!
actually at one point the cool thing at Heathrow was a circular building with the gates simply being the exterior spokes of the building, and you still had to walk outside for a few meters before entering the aircraft.
Thank you! As a retired United Airline Flight Attendant I am so thankful for all that is learned in each accident. So many accidents I remember and even know some that were in the accidents. Many of our everyday task came about from the knowledge of of what works and didn't work from the accidents. Thank you, Jane.
Dayton’s pride and joy! If anyone is particularly interested in the Wright brothers, I highly recommend visiting the museum in Carillon Park. It’s very impressive. And for those wanting even more aviation, head to the Air Force museum on Wright-Patterson and plan to stay the whole day. It’s incredible.
Never heard this before , schools here in the US don't go into that much history about flight. It is a shame they don't thanks for making me learn something new today
What an amazing story! It made me very happy to hear that the brothers got to fly together and in the end they took their father up too. It must have been the highlight of their lives.
The first and oldest continuously operating airport is in College Park, Maryland when the Wright brothers secured a military contract. Not far from DC and an hour away from my hometown
Brilliant! Love this, I did not even know this. I just learned some history, thank you! Merry Christmas to you and yours. May the New Year be a better one. I sure hope that someday that I can travel to my ancestral home of Sweden. Our distant cousins traveled here quite frequently (before covid), I loved every chance that I got to meet them. Love to hear about Sweden from them. I think this is another reason I like to listen to you and how you explain things in detail. Which brings me to a question, do you have any historical information of aviation in Sweden? I have heard of some interesting things especially with the Sweden's Air Force, but don't know much about it. Again thank you for all of your hard work.
Super interesting story... As always from last 1 year u made videos which mate me feel better than any movie or series which created suspense..... Salute to you.... You r the best youtuber for all avgeeks... According to me......
If you're ever in Washington D.C., I highly suggest visiting the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. They have a wonderful exhibit pertaining to the Wright's. On display is an actual 1903 Wright Flyer!
10:20 'toin coss' haha Man, I love your content. I've been binge watching for like a week now, and started at the most current. I've been to Kitty Hawk/Kill Devil Hills, and it's no longer the dunes you see in the pictures, it's been overtaken by invasive non-native grasses, but the monument and track of the first flight is still well maintained despite it. Keep making this content, it's been an amazing ride, mate!
The US military saw the applications much earlier than the '30's, but ironically, US aircraft technology had fallen way behind that of Britain, France, and especially Germany. It was really air racing that advanced technology in engine design and aerodynamics. Jimmy Doolittle was an air racer, (and a crazy one, at that!) and The designer of the legendary Supermarine Spitfire honed his design skills building race planes.
Actually the US Army was one of the first to have airplanes. Much of the various anti-aircraft myths resolve around ignoring the actual capabilities of aircraft at the time in question versus military needs. Often, militaries seem dense but they have a practical reality with aircraft. They have to do something useful to be worth having. If they are used to bomb targets they have to carry a useful bomb load and actually hit the target. In the 1920's and 1930's may air power theorists badly over estimated the damage a bomb would and grossly misread bombing's effect on civilian morale.
@@washingtonradio The US Army only used them for recon, they didn't see them as anything more them over glorified recon balloons. And the Navy didn't even want them for that reason, Adm. William S. Benson, the Chief of Naval Operations, said in 1919 "I cannot conceive of any use that the fleet will ever have for aircraft" and that “the Navy doesn’t need airplanes. Aviation is just a lot of noise.” Then in August 1919, Benson disbanded the Navy Aviation Division. It took an act of Congress two years later to reinstate the Navy Aviation Division. And even as of 1941 the US navy still felt planes were worthless, even going as far as showing a Photo of the USS Arizona at the Nov. 29, Army-Navy football game with the caption “It is significant that despite the claims of air enthusiasts no battleship has yet been sunk by bombs,” ohhh the soon to be irony.
What people often forget: at the time of the first powered airplane flight, there was already quite a mature powered aviation scene: with the balloons and Zeppelins.
A New Zealander by the name of Richard Pearce actually flew before the Wright Brothers in early 1903. His aircraft had ailerons for lateral control. Pearce was a brilliant man. He even built his own lathe to build the engine - a twin cylinder opposed piston engine.
@@tedmoss - He first flew in early 1903 - months before the Wright brothers. There are a number of witness to some of his flights along with the the date of a snow storm when he landed on top of a hedge ,show it was 1903.- not 1910
One thing to notice here. The Wright brothers knew of Lilienthals work and his famous book "Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst" (birdflight as the basis for aviation) where he describes the relationship between cambered airfoils and lift from experimental data. (Good book by the way and a must read for any aviator.)
@@roichir7699 It is recorded in their journals that they initially tried using Lilienthal's charts but had no success. After testing in their own wind tunnel they discovered he was off by a considerable amount. Lilienthal was no doubt an inspiration for the Wrights and a brave pioneer.
I couldn't help wondering, during your introduction, what are the most mysterious plane losses where we really tried but failed to learn (so not including the missing planes). I think we all expect that any plane crash will be explained, and we learn from every single one of them but that expectation I think is probably very wrong.
The 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447 comes to mind. There are explanations for that crash, maybe too many of them. There are also lessons learned from it, but some feel they are the wrong ones.
@@paulbrouyere1735 Yes one of the notable pilots in the class of aviators that are missing. Amelia Earhart is another famous missing aviator. There are also many like my great uncle who were simply pilots who vanished on missions during the wars. My great uncle was over the north sea in '44 and never returned. This is a topic due it's own respectful retrospection for sure :)
@@renerpho Yes, there is controversy on this one still. However, the Pitot Tube is a technology that has had lots of bad things happen with it for many carriers. Personal take is that it is a tech that should be abandoned in its present form as they fail to know they have failed in operation. Critical Control Points in systems are where failure management happens, and it cannot if the failure cannot be validated.
@@keeperofthegood the Pitot Tube never failed. It is a perfect home for a mud dauber wasp, which carries in mud to close up the hole. This may happen when an aircraft is parked for a day or longer, the day a wasp is looking for a hole to fill. They thought of it later (after the incident)and made caps that fit over the tube so it don't get "bugged". Maybe an alternative is having more than one Pitot tube to read from? Or always check them before flying off. The Captain pulls off the covers manually) Pitot tube works on basic physics-physics you can't change. They learned the cause for those "incidents" even when parked on a small island in the middle of an ocean. The wasp still exists.
Even from the very beginning, pilots cared more about preventing a repeating outcome than blaming and pointing fingers. Frankly, that's incredibly inspiring.
Lovely and fascinating video. Gives me chills and goosebumps to imagine how they felt in those very early days as the wheels lifted off the ground under them and they were first to experience the world from the air in powered controlled (sort of!) flight after years of hard work and innovation. Wishing Petter and all the viewers of this unique channel very Happy Holidays and a high flying '22.
I always learn something from these videos...I would have thought that the Wright Brothers went from printing to bicycles because they needed a fleet of boys on bikes to deliver their newspapers and other printed material, and found out that repairing and selling bikes was more profitable than printing. I never would have thought that they simply wanted to get in on the ground floor of a new mode of transportation.
This is the best history lesson regarding the first flight I have ever seen. Thanks for this. The graphics and explanations are great as always. Thanks from Cape Town, South Africa,
At Kitty Hawk, there is a National Park exhibit which has a replica of one of the Wrights’ first planes with articulated “ fingers” almost feathers on its wing edges and tips. This is a fabulous exhibit if you are ever there!!
Very cool! Even with a couple of degrees in history, there’s a lot of room to learn more and you’ve done that for me. Thank you so much, Pilot. Merry Christmas to you and yours, and safe travels always!
Many thanks! I knew much of their story, but you brought out critical elements that everyone else glossed over. There is also a story I have heard of a pilot delivering a jet aircraft to a field, where he is greeted by several men known to him and one elder he does not know. That man engages him in conversation, proving to be quite knowledgeable about flight but most interested in how the craft responded. They have a long conversation, after which they part ways. Later, the pilot is asked if he knew who that was, "no. Who is he?" "Orville Wright."
I've always wanted aviation channels to cover more crashes from the pioneering days (we seem so focused in modern aviation), and you've delivered. Thank you very much Petter, wish much more successes. Merry Christmas!
I admire those brave men from the beginning of aviation. They were inventors, engineers and pilots. One story has many similarities to where I come from. The Rusjan brothers, Edvard and Josip (father was Slovenian, mother Italian) built an airplane called Eda1, which first flew in November 1909. In January 1911 bothers went on a promotional tour through the Balkan cities. During a flight in Belgrade on 9 January 1911 a strong wind broke a wing of aeroplane and it dived into a fatal crash killing Edvard. His funeral was attended by a crowd of about 14,000 people. The airport in Maribor is today named after Edvard Rusjan.
My grandfather recalled reading about the first flight in the news when he was a lad. Later in life he crossed the Atlantic in a BOAC Boeing 707. Amazing. I thought I knew the Wright story, but trust Petter to give it such vivid new life. Thank you.
Nothing like walking into the shop, looking at your employee, and saying "hay bro can you design an engine for me" (obviously in their lingo) sometimes the past is crazy
My grandmother was born in 1912 and relayed a story to me about the first time she saw an airplane. She was about five years old and was working in the fields with her brothers when they all heard a very strange noise, looked up and saw an airplane flying overhead. She said she never forgot the feeling of awe of seeing something flying through the air. Her brother, David, had been so impressed by the sight that he became a Navy pilot when he was older. Since she said she was five when it happened, this would have been in 1917.
Later in life, she witnessed supersonic planes.
That's such a cool story.
Mine was, too! Really cool stuff
My mom told me that when my grandfather saw an airplane for the first time, he got scared and ran.
@Cheryltwin2012 - Even today the sight of a metal plane weighing literal tons flying overhead leaves me in awe--and I even know HOW it stays up there!
Wilbur Wright died in 1912 but Orville lived until 1948, long enough to see a great deal of change in aircraft design, including the rise of monoplanes, the advent of metal aircraft. the emergence of jet engines and the breaking of the sound barrier. He even saw the first (unmanned) rockets in the form of the German V-2. So many wonders in a single lifetime!
Now I understand where the odd name for the TV series space ship comes from.
A contribuição Wright na aviação veio só a partir de 1908!
Imagine what a feeling Orville had when he saw the planes evole through WWl & WWll knowing he invented them. Quite bizarre 😶🌫️
@@damienjeremyweir4543 I know right it must have been an amazing feeling seeing how much their invention continued to change the world
@@damienjeremyweir4543I wouldn't say they invented them. They just made one of the first working ones
Imagine flying without any regulations, licenses, ATC, other traffic, and no rules other than physics. Must have been an exciting time for those pioneers. Unfortunately also very dangerous...
Lots of rules and pretty much all the checklist we have todays are the result of the (un)lucky pilots before us making mistakes and discovering things. I am quite happy we got those rules and things are much safer now.
You forgot to include the TSA !
It wasn’t all easy. Orville’s luggage was sent to Pittsburgh by mistake.
Hence the comment early on "Sacrifices must be made"
The LAWS of physics are 100'% repeatable, by definition, everything else is an opinion.
Law ~ from the Latin for 'ultimate' or highest truth.
Opinion nor consensus are 'truth', let alone the highest truth.
The history of aviation never ceases to amaze me, we went from the first power flight to to the first super sonic flight in a little under 44 years, and to landing on the moon in 66 years.
Yes, me too. It´s exactly on the point.
Crazy isn't it, wonder what the next 30 years hold.
I find that if you compare the products of a British manufacturer, Fairey, they made 2 WW2 'planes, the Fairey Battle and the Fairey Swordfish in the 1930s, both terribly slow and in the 1950s, they made the Fairey Delta, which Peter Twiss took to a World speed record and became the first man to fly faster than the Sun crosses the sky. Also, the English Electric Wren of the early 1920s and the English Electric Lightning of 30 years later.
Probably thanks to 2 of the worst events in human history. WW1 and especially WW2.
Same here. I’ve visited several museums of flight, last one was Boeing in Seattle. I’m always drawn to the section with the very old planes. They are so fascinating! Often times they park the older planes under the wings of a more modern airliner. It really puts things in perspective, how fast they have evolved!
I have a copy of the mishap report for the Selfridge crash. The reason for the mishap is given as Orville Wright had replaced the propellers with longer ones to get more speed/power out of the aircraft. On the ground clearance was good, but when moving the aircraft flexed enough that the wires holding the wings were in the edge of the propeller arc at times generally ticking the end of the prop. In a turn it was more severe and the tip of the propeller was torn free leading to the description above.
That's awesome stuff man! You should upload a video showing it and explain it to folks, it would be a great video.
I guess Orville didn't follow the STC
@@paulslevinsky580 OMG, yeah, the Cult Mechanicus would not approve at all!
To bad Wilbur wasn't there to correct his error.
Orville had replaced the props with wider blades as he was carrying a heavier passenger, Selfridge. The engine was powerful enough but their props could not be feathered automatically like props would be in later generations. Orville himself had turned the new props. Selfridge was the heaviest passenger he had flown with. However, Orville didn't change the props, two of his mechanics did; Charlie Taylor and Charlie Furnas. Orville reported to Wilbur that the flight w/Selfridge went just fine at first. Then he heard a tapping and decided to stop the engine and glide down from 150 feet. The right(or starboard) prop split and disengaged the bracing wires of the rudder causing the rudder to be an elevator and tilt the aircraft downward. They almost made it back to earth safely but the plane hit the ground head first. In pictures of the plane after the crash, the left (port) propeller is still intact and in place.
Wilbur in letters sort of blamed Orville for allowing officials to divert his attention from the machine and going to socials and being feted. Wilbur insinuated that if Orville had installed the props himself he might have seen anomalies that he as pilot would be looking for. Wilbur also blamed himself as he was not their to see that things proceed along with the plane mechanically while Orville flew it. The brothers had always worked together.
AFTERMATH
The standard Wright A Flyer sat somewhat low. Both brothers had a tendency to take off steeply and I often speculate whether Orv had knicked something before becoming airborne, incurring some microscopic damage to the props. Just my speculation. The plane they returned to Ft. Myer with the next year was smaller and sat noticeably higher off the ground but had the same sized props and they look huge on the plane. Also after this accident every Wright plane had bracing struts added to the propeller housings on the port and starboard sides. This was to prevent the props and housings from coming unsituated again in the case of any future or similar scenarios.
There's a lot of information that I feel could be added here. The bicycle shop was making enough money that the brothers eventually left Charlie Taylor fully in charge of it while they went to Kitty Hawk. Charlie Taylor also made the engine for the flyer, including casting the engine case, pistons, rods, etc. The Wright Brothers received no outside funding, all coming from the bicycle shop income. Otto Lilienthal not only experimented with his gliders, but he also developed lift tables that were accepted by all aeronautical enthusiasts of the day. However, it was the Wrights who realized that the tables were in error, and using a small wind tunnel of their own design, created their own lift tables using various wing shapes. The Wright Brothers are often cited as being just two bicycle mechanics, but in fact they were in every sense aeronautical scientists. They were the first to realize that a proper propeller for an aircraft was not simply a paddle, but a rotating wing. They were able to calculate exactly how much power their engine would need to produce in order for the airplane to fly, based on calculations combining wing lift, propeller thrust, and weight. They originally used a vertical stabilizer without a rudder, realizing that a proper airplane turned by banking. They only added a rudder when they discovered the adverse-yaw effect. Even six years after they invented a controllable airplane, the aviators were turning their aircraft clumsily with rudder, like a boat. In my opinion, the incredible achievement of the Wright Brothers has never been told fully in film. I was hoping as 2003 approached that a proper film would come out, but I don't think it has yet.
One final thing I'd like to say: When a new aircraft is designed, we use computer modeling and then a test pilot to fly an aircraft that we have pretty good confidence will fly. Reliable engines, proven wing design and construction, etc. On the other hand, when we learn to fly we use an airplane that has been proven to be a good trainer, and we use tried and true flying technique and a Certified Flight Instructor. Now think about what the Wright Brothers did... they designed and built an aircraft and learned to fly it simultaneously, not having any of the advantages I mentioned previously. That they didn't kill themselves doing this is amazing enough, and they succeeded dramatically. When they finally brought a truly practical airplane to France for demonstration, they met with pure skepticism from the public and the press. You see their aircraft was shipped over by boat and was mishandled and damaged by customs. When they finally finished repairing the airplane and flew it, they totally astonished the crowds, press, and other aviators who couldn't believe what they were witnessing. Their airplane flew in such a way that dramatically showed how advanced their machine and flying ability was to everything else that was being demonstrated.
I apologize for the length of this comment, but I wanted to share some of the appreciation I have for what the Wright Brothers accomplished. I mean no disrespect for this video, it's a good production and I enjoyed watching it.
As a side note: the FAA now gives the Charlie Taylor Award to licensed mechanics with 50-years of experience in aviation maintenance.
@@Snaproll47518 that’s pretty cool to know! He deserves the recognition.
I seldom see much mention of how much help the Wrights received from Octave Chanute, in particular, and their reputation has always been tarnished for me by the fact that having borrowed so heavily from the work of other pioneers, completely free of charge, when they did eventually come up with an aircraft that sort of worked they then tried to patent the idea of the aeroplane - even those developed completely independently. In my view Charlie Taylor really deserves the credit for their achievement; several other previous designs, such as Stringfellow and Henson's Aerial Steam Carriage of 1842, might very well have worked (the model flew beautifully) had they had a light enough powerplant. The Aerial Steam Carriage is arranged far more like a modern aircraft that the Wrights' flimsy constructions.
Gabriel Voisin's book Men, Women And 10,000 Kites contains much interesting information about how the Wrights' achievement was viewed by contemporary experts, including the role of a weight acting under gravity in launching their supposedly self-launching aircraft during experiments at Huffman Prairie.
Truly fascinating thanks for the extra info
No mention of Santos Dumont ? It was he who was the real first inventor to demonstrate power flight in front of society.
Okay, here’s a fun story I encountered while working on a children’s book last year: The Wright Brothers stayed with the Tate family in Kitty Hawk several times; Mr. Tate was the local postmaster. Their daughter Irene was four years old when they first came, and got used to watching their work and their test flights when they came to Kitty Hawk, so this lasted until she was six or seven. She got really interested in airplanes, but became a nurse. However, when she was home visiting from Virginia when she was about 19 (they were living at Currituck by this time) she witnessed a plane that crashed into the ocean, and she was among a group of people who pulled the unfortunate pilot out of the water. Obviously, he was flying pretty low. This was a young Mr. Bennett Severn, as I recall from Philadelphia, who was evidently struck by her looks as well as the water, and they were married within a few months. He had started a little business flying people around, largely on trips to Miami and other vacation spots. He taught Irene to fly, and she became the first woman to fly a solo round trip from New York to Miami. (I hope I’m remembering all this correctly; I have not taken the time to check.) Their home is still standing and recently sold, in Brigantine, NJ. They kept their flying business there and also had fishing boats and a seafood restaurant. I think it’s fascinating that this little girl witnessed the first flights, successful and unsuccessful, and became a pilot herself.
to think that milton wright, born in *1828* got to be in a plane is just incredible. his date of birth is the furthest back in history than anyone else who has ever been in a plane.
In fact it's suggested George Cayley (b1826) flew his grandfather Sir George Cayley's glider at Brompton Dale in 1853, if that counts: and, of course, there were many balloonists before that date.
@@terraplane1116 He should have said, for the purists, powered plane.
Older than most Civil War veterans
Yeah but his name was Milton, that's pretty weird
"Oh." Famous last word. I love that. My grandparents lived in northern Ohio during this fertile period of invention and my grandfather heard the news of the Wright Brothers and lived to watch on tv while people walked on the moon. He was an aviation fan, the way most people were in his time and place, and took his family to see the dirigibles Akron and Macon, where my father got a souvenir comb made of duraluminum like the dirigible (and promptly lost it), and went to see all the airshows. At one such airshow where WWI pilots made some money in the Thirties for bigger projects, my parents went up on their first flight ever, with WWI flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker at the controls. Between that and the automotive industry and what Edison was doing, the region was a happening place. My Dad's oldest brother worked on synthetic rubber as a chemist at one of the rubber plants in Akron, which in the year my father was born was the fastest growing city in America. Tom Brokaw thought the WWII generation was the greatest, but my grandfather embraced all the changes in society that made it modern, as well as lived through two world wars and the Great Depression. :D We think things are changing fast now, but that's peanuts compared to what they had to absorb and process.
Indeed, absolutely!!!
At least they didn't have youtube
Imagine going from the single seat 12 hp Wright Flyer to a DC-3 with 1,200 hp that could carry 32 passengers in just a little over 20 years. Its amazing how fast we progressed.
Ohio produced 8 presidents, powered aviation, electric light, the NFL, and DEVO. Truly the greatest location in the nation.
It must have been such an exciting period filled with remarkably inventive people. I find it so difficult to respect the people today like Musk who spent as much time inventing as they do whining about how unfair life is because after being given so much money to develop his companies he know has to pay tax.
It's worth noting that putting the elevator in front of the wing provided the Wright design with very forgiving stall characteristics. This configuration ensures that the elevator will stall before the wing stalls, thus pitching the nose down before the elevator fully stalls and before the wing stalls.
Well... not so fast. It is correct that in a correctly designed airplane the front wing will stall before the rear wing, thus driving the nose down and preventing the rear wing from stalling. Note that this applies both to conventional and canard designs. The difference, of course, is that in a conventional design the front wing is the main wing so when it stalls the nose goes down but at the same time you lose most of the lift, while in a canard design the front wing is the elevator so having it stalling and the nose going down "automatically" as a result is equivalent to just push the nose down, you recover and the main wing never stalls.
All that said... did I say "in a correctly designed airplane"? The canard configuration doesn't guarantee, by itself, that the canard would stall first. It will depend on a lot of things including the airfoil profile of each wing, the aspect ratio of each wing, the decalage (incidence) of each wing and, most critically, the wing loading of each wing (other things equal, the wing with more wing loading stalls first). And how much weight each of the wings take depends on the position of the center of gravity.
I've heard that the Wright brothers were more concerned about controllability that stability (plus, airplane stability was not well understood back then) so they put the CG very close to the "neutral" point. That made the plane to lack positive longitudinal (pitch) stability, or even being a bit unstable. This in turn required constant inputs in the elevator just to keep the plane from pitching too much up or down by itself. This can be actually seen sin some of the early footage of the Wright brothers flight, how they were constantly "modulating" the elevator up and down all the time and with quite large alternating inputs. A side effect of this would be that the canard elevator would NOT stall before the main wing.
Q
@@andythornburg3917 Yes.
@@adb012thank you for this clear explanation. It would have taken me considerably more words to do. You also mentioned an issue that I had completely forgotten about. That being the C of G formula used by the Wright's. By today's standards, their designs were tail heavy (C of G too far aft). This meant that the weight loading on the forward wing (canard) was so light that it could not stall before the main wing did. It made their designs very "squirrelly" on the pitch axis, and consequently, difficult to fly. It caused an imbalance or non-harmony of the controls. The roll and yaw axis responded similarly to each other, that is, neither were overly sensitive. This pitch axis, however, was very sensitive. This lead to the dreaded tendency that today we call PIO (pilot induced oscillation).
Not a guarantee. The front horizontal stabilizer must have higher specific load among some other factors in order to stall before the main wing. And the theory of flight back in Wright Brother's days was incomplete and very basic. That was the main limiting factor in the design of early airplanes.
Thank you for crediting Charles E. Taylor for his contribution to powered flight. For years, the engine design and fabrication was attributed to the Wright Brothers. Charlie Taylor was my great-great uncle.
Wow! Now that is something to be proud of!
He was a brilliant engineer to create the engine they needed
Well you probably don't know this, but Boeing has a division of highly trained, advanced Avionics technicians/mechanics that are considered to be the top dogs of aviation when it comes to diagnosis, troubleshoot and repair. They are so good that even Airbus operators will call them for help. This program is called "Charlie Works" for the very obvious reason. I had the pleasure of working with them.
@@saviodutra6212 I was aware of the "Charlie Taylor Award" for outstanding avionics technicians, but I have never heard of the program you mentioned. Thanks for the information. I will have to check into that.
@@ShardithThanks. Yes, he was a natural-born, self taught engineer.
11:30 Something to keep in mind here. These men were student pilots flying without any instruction of any kind from more experienced pilots flying an experimental aircraft built by self taught aviation engineers with no experience in building or designing airplanes.
It's astonishing they flew at all. It should be expected that their first flights would not be very impressive, judging from the pure stats. If you think about it you soon realize just how impressive their first flights actually were. And even more, modern day test pilots who have flown replicas of the Wright Flyer have said it is incredibly difficult to fly.
This comment and many other like it talking about the difficulty of learning how to fly your own aircraft is making me realize how much playing KSP with the aerodynamic realism mods has made me a better pilot. Being a shitty aeronautical engineer designing high performance craft means I end up making craft that are nearly impossible to control. Being a shitty pilot trying to fly these awful deathtraps I became a better pilot really quickly.
Surprisingly these skills transferred over to proper flight sims pretty well and planes that people describe as really hard to fly are easy for me. Most things are easy compared to flying planes that land at 280 knots and have landing gear that disintegrates at 300 because adding flaps is a lot of work and you wanna minimize drag when flying at mach 3.
Their father must have been so proud as he flew, it sounds like he really enjoyed the experience
Man I totally agree, he could tell his sons complished the stuff of legends.
If he’s being heard yelling ‘higher’, you may be sure that was the case, and he was thrilled…
He sounded just like a kid getting to do something naughty.
Consider the religious ramifications.
The greed of the Wright family is responsible for forgetting and lying about the first flight. Honour to Gustav Weißkopf, first flight 300 meters in 1901. RIP. First proof for flying Wrights in 1908.
Unlike cars and trains, bicycles must also roll to initiate a turn, they turn in 3D. In fact, the Wrights knew that you must first steer opposite the turn to allow the bike to fall into the turn, then steer back to hold the turn.
Correct
Yes, on motorcycles, you are taught that you can avoid obstacles that appear in the road by 'reverse steering', pushing on the side you want to turn to and then quickly pushing on the other side to straighten up. Depending on how quickly it is done, and how fast the bike was going (it is only really effective above 15mph) it will shimmy over a few feet to the side that was pushed first.
It is only good for moto racing, due to the speed required. For commuting, it is almost useless and dangerous. Please obey the speed limit whenever you encounter a sharp turn.
@@wilfri3476 that's right, counter-steering! It's been a while. I agree, it's how you get any bike to lay over at speed. I used it consciously once to lay a bike right over so it slid under a car that suddenly pulled out rather than splatting into the side of it.
There are direct connections between bicycle engineering and flight engineering -- aerodynamics, control, materials weight versus strength. In retrospect, it should be no surprise that bicycle inventors invented powered flight, as opposed to steam locomotive engine designers and car designers. Their aluminum engine was was perfect for their specific use. And aluminum remains the principle component of all types of flying machines today.
I just cried a lot watching this. This story couldn't have been told better than Mentour Pilot.
Cried ? For 2 morons ?
Giggled at 10:19 when you said Toin Coss instead of Coin Toss or Toss Coin.
Kidding aside, binging on your Aviation Accidents playlist really got me hooked. It's awesome to get a little bit of a history lesson after all the stressful accidents I just watched. Hope you keep updating this playlist with new videos!
Thanks, Mentour Pilot!
Good catch. My brain heard coin toss. Haha
A cute little spoonerism!
My great uncle was a pilot and he was present at the airshow where Charles Rolls (of Rolls Royce) fatally crashed in 1910. Second pilot holder in the UK. My great uncle was No72 in the Royal Aero Club.
Mine made me an axe, when I was 5. I still have all 10 fingers and 10 toes. But almost gutted myself with a sword. Didn't harden it right. I was 14. Never underestimated metal hardening since. Use oil, not water. We learn as we go...
Did he shout "do a barrel roll!" And then the guy croaked?
14:04 - “in August 2008”, slight mistake or have we accidentally discovered that the Wright brothers developed time travel? :) Great Video as always!
he's not used to talking about events over a century old
Y2K error (first time to occur in a human)
well he did also say "wilbur won the toin coss" so yeah
Just going to post same thing 😂
They didn't even discover and achieve powered flight first, that was Gustav Weißkopf 28 months before.
I used to have discussions with my great-grandfather who helped the brothers design and build their first propellers. I still have a drill press and hand tools that were used at the time. The stories were spellbinding and made me feel like I was there...
You are much more than a pilot and specialist in flying disasters , you are a GREAT TEACHER , from a teacher .... CONGRATS
What’s fascinating about the Wrights was that they documented their progress and research.
No they didn't .
And they did their research very scientifically. They carved propellers by hand, but they tested them on the ground and developed a prop that was 80% efficient. A modern prop is only 85% efficient.
Up untill 1908 no one witnessed any flights . One had to just believe them . You are a tool .
@@peregrinemccauley5010 Not what was being said. The Wright Brothers both took many, many images and extensively documented (wrote down) everything they did. This is compared to most aviation pioneers who we don't have nearly the same sort of documentation. The next person to have nearly the same recognition would be Santos-Dumont in 1906.
Now I would argue that due to their secrecy, their influence on later aviation in Europe was more limited, given the success of the various designs over there at the time (Voison 1907 - later evolving into the Farman type, Bleriot VIII - later evolving into the Bleriot XI, and the Antoinette series) but through their writing their claims can be far more easily judged than a note in a diary saying they flew for x minutes.
@@GroundHOG-2010 Most 'aviation pioneers' as you put it , actually demonstrated their aircraft's flying abilities in front of witnesses , including the Press of the day , Government Officials , Captains of Industry and visiting overseas Government Officials and the public in general . Planes were flying well before the Fraud Brothers got in on the act . It's better to stay silent and look the fool , than to open your mouth and have it confirmed .
The pride that must have felt when his father asked to go higher, surely it was something beyond description.
Always knew Wright Brothers made the first aircraft, but oh the details, they are the season of life, thank you.
I read a letter from Lawrence Hargrave to the Wright brothers before the first successful flight. He respected them as scientists. There was a community helping each other towards the sky.
4:19 Otto Lilienthal began serious flight tests between Derwitz and Krielow somewhere in Brandenburg, a well-known area in France, yes, of course.
A Christmas present from Petter!! Thank you!! Compliments of the season to you and your family Petter.
Same to you!
@@MentourPilot small error at 14:03. August 2008? I think you meant 1908. Great video and awesome work as usual :)
I've spent a huge amount of time in the Wright exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum where the 1903 Flyer was displayed. The thing I found most fascinating that you touched on here was that the Coefficient of Air Pressure data that they were using was not reflecting what they were experiencing with their first glider attempt. So they went back and developed an experiment (the test articles are still part of the NASM collection and were on display back in 2018 - don't know if they still are), then calculated a corrected table of coefficients based on that information, which was substantiated by their 1902 glider. A great example of the scientific method in action.
Afirmar que o Flyers I conseguiu voar pesando 340 Kg com piloto com apenas 12 HP de potência seria o mesmo afirma que as galinha conseguem roer osso! Kkkkkkk
Uma foto sem data que só apareceu em 1908 e um telegrama escrito pelo Wright nunca provara o maior sonho da humanidade de voar!
Turns out the Wright brother's father holds the distinction of being the first loud and demanding passenger to scream at a flight crew because the flight was not meeting his expectations. lol. Great video.
I have a feeling couple of army dudes during those demonstrations/tests had already done this
He, and he was also the first ever moron !
I'm feeling so inspired after watching this video. I lived almost the first 12 years of my life very near to the start of rwy 35 at Quito's old airport and I remember watching the airplanes approaching for landing everyday (and also taking off from the opposite direction). Watching this video made me think about how pilots are like artists in some kind of way, free souls, and it must have been that way back in the early years of aviation. I'm currently a musician, and I definitely want to fulfill my dream of becoming a pilot one day 🥹❤✈️
It's amazing to me having lived near Selfridge Air national guard base most of my life, having work on harriers in the Marines, and loving to learn all things aviation, that after 58 years on this planet I find out how lieutenant Selfridge died on your (one of my favorites) channel. Keep up the good work Peter Love the channel.
Great video as always, although I do feel obliged to point out that the Wright Flyer was the first powered *heavier than air* aircraft, and not the first powered aircraft in general. Powered airships existed long before it, and, sadly people had been killed in crashes of them prior to this crash of the Wright.
Henry Ford moved the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop and childhood home to his museum in the Detroit area (less than a mile from my childhood home), and also bought a lot of their tools and whatnot-so, SO cool to see in person!
This is definitely your most wholesome video yet. RIP 1st lieutenant Thomas Etholen Selfridge.
This channel just gets better and better.
Thank you! That’s what we are going for!
Except he leaves out real facts about powered flight. See Gustav Weißkopf.
@@Neil-AspinallReal facts? What do you define as real?
Personal tale: My office use to overlook the woods where the first UK fatal powered military aircraft accident occurred. On 18 August 1911 newly qualified (the day before) pilot Lt. Theodore J. Ridge, flying the, marginally stable, Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.1 was killed on impact when he stalled in a turn. He was the Assistant Superintendent of the Royal Aircraft Factory, which was based at what became Farnborough Airfield.
Ridge's previous experience has been in light-than-air craft. He had been warned against flying what was a heavily modified Blériot XII (itself labelled as a 'The Man-Killer' for its poor handling) by a factory engineer and the aircrafts designer, one 2nd Lt Geoffrey de Havilland (yes the De Havilland Aircraft one).
The location was on the south side of Pystock woods, the trees just outside the airfield boundary to the north of the west end of the runway, within easy reach of a time-travelling investigator from the UK's aviation accident investigation organisation, the Air Accident Investigation Branch, whose headquarters are on the other side of the runway.
Random note: Charles Rolls (he of Roll-Royce) was killed in the first fatal powered aircraft in the UK on the 18 April 1910 when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during an air display.
Wow! Thanks for that interesting story!
The Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk ten days before my grandmother Elizabeth Kraus Wishman's 17th birthday. She lived long enough and watched with us Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.
Wow. What a beautifully written and illustrated presentation. Should be required viewing for anyone studying history or aviation at any age. Thoroughly enjoyed. Best video. Felt like I was there! Thank you
ironically awhile ago a friend and i happened upon the 1st flight of a wright flyer replica. so we stopped by the fence to watch it. they took off, immediately pulled the nose too high and stalled, landing hard to the sound of breaking wood.
This is one of your best videos, and I can tell you put in a lot of work researching the information. The editing is fantastic too. Yet it has way less views than other recent videos. I'll never understand the TH-cam algorithm.
Just came back and watched this again nearly two years later- and I just wanted to say that not only were your earlier videos very GOOD , but also that your current videos have continued to get better and better as the years have gone on.
I've always heard that Wilbur got the idea of wing warping from opening up a bicycle inner tube box, and he twisted the box cardboard, spawning the warping idea. Also, the Wright Flyer #1 didn't have 3 wheels as depicted, and didn't take off from dirt/sand. The flyer launched from a single railroad type rail to minimize resistance of the sand/dirt. The brother that wasn't flying would hold the wing level, and run with the plane as it took off, due to the lack of tripod landing wheels.
Early prototypes were modeled on bird wings.
You must have been saving this for xmas Petter. Excellent. The story of how the Wright brothers figured out that a propeller is a rotating wing rather than wind paddles is a good one too. Might make for another episode.
I honestly got chills when you talked about their childhood, as the realization of how many things came as a result of this struck me all at once. The Space Race, Chuck Yeager’s supersonic flight, etc.
Not only that, Frank Lahm (the impressed US Army Lieutenant) lived long enough to fly on a passenger jet if he wanted to.
A helicopter on mars
Keep going with this historical look at aircraft. I want to know which was the first flight to fly at 1,000 feet, 10,000 feet. How did engineers learn how to build better aircraft engines etc.
A small correction regarding the animation of the first flight: The Wright brothers' plane had no wheels, it was simply catapulted. The first airplane (with landing gears) that took off under its own power was that of Traian Vuia, in 1906.
I'm guessing this is a limitation of whatever flight simulator they were using
The 1903 flights did not use a catapult - but rather what's essentially a skateboard on a rail. The photographs taken of the first flight clearly show this. The Wrights did start using catapults when they started flying from Huffman Prairie, outside of Dayton, Ohio, in 1905 in order to get more consistent performance. Film showing the catapult, and the use of the cat in the 1908 demonstrations in France have led those who wish Pride of Place to go with their particular champion (Most usually Alberto Santos-Dumont who was a legitimate pioneer, but some others as well) to try to de-legitimize the Wright's claims. (Some of which are based on that the 1903 Flights dont' have FAI certification, due to the FAI not yet existing - how very circular) This was, except for a few zealots, put to rest in 1908, when Wibur Wright and the 1908 Flyer far outperformed all others at the demonstrations.
Another correction to t e animation is, Orville was lying prone in the airplane when it took off, not sitting.
Yeah it was on rails. Wilbur and Orville took turns on the first flight day. The last flight was about 8X further than the first. They were on site, and worked feverishly for years doing R&D/fabrication and testing.
Va multumesc domnule Fota!
Mr. Fota's correction does not diminish the Wright brothers' merit at all! But because in that early period there were many people who made great efforts to achieve this great dream of the people - the flight, we should remember as many of them as possible.
Here, for example, is what we learn about Traian Vuia:
“On July 1, 1902, he arrived in Paris, carrying in his luggage the design of an original "airplane-car", designed during his student days, and the related model, made during the last twelve months. In the winter of 1902/1903, Vuia began the construction of the device [...]”
“On March 18, 1906, at Montesson, near Paris, the Vuia I aircraft flew for the first time.”
At that time, the internet was going very hard and I don't think they could be accused of being inspired by each other :)
So, everyone deserves our respect! Likewise, we can't talk about jet flying without mentioning Henri Coanda.
14:02 Wow, Wilbur was still pitching the flyer in 2008! 🙂
Correction: Otto Lilienthal was German, not French.
I visited the Munich science museum in 1991 and was puzzled to see a display celebrating 100 years of manned flight because I knew the Wright Brothers first flew in 1903. Upon viewing the main display, I learned that 1991 was indeed the 100 year anniversary of manned flight - by German Otto Lilienthal. The Wright Brothers were not the first to fly, just the first to fly heavier-than-air aircraft.
@@hughmungus1767 Cool! Just another correction: The Wright brothers were the first to conduct a _powered_ heavier-than-air manned flight, as Lilienthal was using gliders.
And it was Lilienthal who discovered that wings need to have a camber, not the Wrights.
@@fritz46 And the irony is that the camber is not responsible for lift. It just improves it. It is the resultant vector of the air mass that provides lift. Think about how an aircraft can fly inverted.
Yes, given enough speed, even a barn door can fly. And some acrobatic planes have a symmetrical wing profile, so they can fly inverted as good as normal.
I just found your channel and I'm really enjoying it. I'm not a pilot at all. It's something I was always interested in, but never pursued. One thing that really strikes me is how much influence the airline and its policies have on the safety of flying. Based on what I've learned I realize what airline I choose could very well make the difference between a safe flight and a disaster.
Thank you so much for covering the details of the Wright brothers' story. There is so much to learn from it at so many levels. Inspiring. Thank you Petter :)
1903. It's hard to believe how far (I'm sure there's a pun there somewhere) human flight has come in such a relatively short space of time.
Our close friend mom related that when she was a young girl, her family knew the the Wright family and she was held by one of the brothers. I forget which one,and shared a Hersey bar. It’s amazing to think of the advancement that aviation has developed in her and our lifetime. She now lives in Florida.
I’m not a parent, but I really felt for Milton Wright when he asked his sons not to fly together. Milton, a staunch abolitionist and social reformer, was a loving father who encouraged his children’s interests, and kept up with their activities through regular correspondence, when his work kept him away from home. He completely stood by his sons’ single-minded, but arguably quixotic pursuit, thanks in part to assurances by Orville and Wilbur’s sister Katharine that her brothers would not be “reckless”-but in that moment, Milton was just a worried dad. When the brothers completed that first set of successful test flights in December 1903, they addressed the telegram containing the announcement to their father, so that _he_ could share the news with the press.
I completely and fully addicted to your videos. The excellent quality and perspective along with your positive attitude is truly refreshing. Having visited Kitty Hawk in person and holding a PPL with instrument, I found the video to be great. It is amazing how you pick out just the right facts to highlight out of the multitude of facts surrounding famous events. Kitty Hawk was packed full of interesting things to see, but your video still helped me to learn more! Great job!
That must have been an incredible moment for their dad. He went from being so scared he made them promise not to fly together to, "Higher. Higher."
Indeed. I loved that part!
I couldn't help but think of Sabaton's "The Red Baron" when i heard that...
Great work as usual! Particularly impressed by the change of the young boys' expressions when their helicopter toy broke!
I can't stop watching your videos... lol. I have never flown an airplane, but have always been fascinated by flight and simulators.
I have learned so much over the past two years that I can sometimes conclude before you finish the explanation. Thank you for being a teacher that explains in an entertaining, logical and educational way.
Knowing their dad said that just makes me think of that immense pride every dad feels when their child acheives their goals. With maybe a sprinkle of that glee of excitement when you’re on a swingset as a child.
Amazing story. Sad that someone had to be the first death, but to achieve great things "sacrifices must be made".
Correct.
You’re about to break a mil subs. I see this channel having several million within a couple years. Keep up the great investigation content. Very well organized and put together. Def sets this channel apart from all the othersz
I'm always amazed at how quickly aviation engineering accelerated from these humble beginnings to where it was even 20 or 30 years later. Incredible!
watched that twice, the way you create the videos and the story itself were great. thank you Peter.
Glad you liked it!
If you want to help me and the channel, feel free to share it on social media. ❤️
Love Aviation! So much so I am happy to say I am a licensed A&P ( in Europe I believe you call the "Engineers"), 40 plus years. No desire to pilot, but to fix! But when it comes to accidents, it matters to both pilot and technicians/engineers/mechanics. You go Mentour Pilot, you go!
This was a cool video! Maybe one about the first airport with an actual paved runway and passenger terminal could be in the future? Merry Christmas!
actually at one point the cool thing at Heathrow was a circular building with the gates simply being the exterior spokes of the building, and you still had to walk outside for a few meters before entering the aircraft.
Thank you!
As a retired United Airline Flight Attendant I am so thankful for all that is learned in each accident. So many accidents I remember and even know some that were in the accidents.
Many of our everyday task came about from the knowledge of of what works and didn't work from the accidents.
Thank you, Jane.
Dayton’s pride and joy! If anyone is particularly interested in the Wright brothers, I highly recommend visiting the museum in Carillon Park. It’s very impressive. And for those wanting even more aviation, head to the Air Force museum on Wright-Patterson and plan to stay the whole day. It’s incredible.
Fascinating piece of history. It's amazing how the work of just a few dedicated and creative people can completely alter our way of life.
Never heard this before , schools here in the US don't go into that much history about flight. It is a shame they don't thanks for making me learn something new today
Gustav Weißkopf
@@Neil-Aspinall Forget it.
@@tedmoss What in the world does that mean Edward, you don't like the truth?
What an amazing story! It made me very happy to hear that the brothers got to fly together and in the end they took their father up too. It must have been the highlight of their lives.
At some point they’re sister also went for a flight. Her long skirt was tied down on her legs because of wind.
The first and oldest continuously operating airport is in College Park, Maryland when the Wright brothers secured a military contract. Not far from DC and an hour away from my hometown
Love that you gave Lilienthal a shoutout, as he is often forgotten in the creation of aerodynamic flight...
Brilliant! Love this, I did not even know this. I just learned some history, thank you!
Merry Christmas to you and yours. May the New Year be a better one.
I sure hope that someday that I can travel to my ancestral home of Sweden. Our distant cousins traveled here quite frequently (before covid), I loved every chance that I got to meet them.
Love to hear about Sweden from them.
I think this is another reason I like to listen to you and how you explain things in detail. Which brings me to a question, do you have any historical information of aviation in Sweden?
I have heard of some interesting things especially with the Sweden's Air Force, but don't know much about it.
Again thank you for all of your hard work.
How cool is it to be the ones who comes up with the solutions necessary and become the first ones to perform controlled powered flight.
Super interesting story... As always from last 1 year u made videos which mate me feel better than any movie or series which created suspense..... Salute to you.... You r the best youtuber for all avgeeks... According to me......
Hear, hear!
Great job! Wish this was shown in every school.
Thank you.
If you're ever in Washington D.C., I highly suggest visiting the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. They have a wonderful exhibit pertaining to the Wright's. On display is an actual 1903 Wright Flyer!
Should be to Gustav Weißkopf
They do have the original, I saw it in 1952. It has been conserved now.
If you are ever in Dayton Ohio I strongly recommend visiting the Wright B Flyer museum. They even have a replica that people can book rides on.
I loved this video! One of the best channels of all TH-cam.
10:20 'toin coss' haha
Man, I love your content. I've been binge watching for like a week now, and started at the most current. I've been to Kitty Hawk/Kill Devil Hills, and it's no longer the dunes you see in the pictures, it's been overtaken by invasive non-native grasses, but the monument and track of the first flight is still well maintained despite it.
Keep making this content, it's been an amazing ride, mate!
US Military: " We see no Military applications for this technology"
A sentiment they held right into the 1930's lol
The US military saw the applications much earlier than the '30's, but ironically, US aircraft technology had fallen way behind that of Britain, France, and especially Germany. It was really air racing that advanced technology in engine design and aerodynamics. Jimmy Doolittle was an air racer, (and a crazy one, at that!) and The designer of the legendary Supermarine Spitfire honed his design skills building race planes.
Actually the US Army was one of the first to have airplanes. Much of the various anti-aircraft myths resolve around ignoring the actual capabilities of aircraft at the time in question versus military needs. Often, militaries seem dense but they have a practical reality with aircraft. They have to do something useful to be worth having. If they are used to bomb targets they have to carry a useful bomb load and actually hit the target. In the 1920's and 1930's may air power theorists badly over estimated the damage a bomb would and grossly misread bombing's effect on civilian morale.
@@washingtonradio The US Army only used them for recon, they didn't see them as anything more them over glorified recon balloons. And the Navy didn't even want them for that reason, Adm. William S. Benson, the Chief of Naval Operations, said in 1919 "I cannot conceive of any use that the fleet will ever have for aircraft" and that “the Navy doesn’t need airplanes. Aviation is just a lot of noise.” Then in August 1919, Benson disbanded the Navy Aviation Division. It took an act of Congress two years later to reinstate the Navy Aviation Division. And even as of 1941 the US navy still felt planes were worthless, even going as far as showing a Photo of the USS Arizona at the Nov. 29, Army-Navy football game with the caption “It is significant that despite the claims of air enthusiasts no battleship has yet been sunk by bombs,” ohhh the soon to be irony.
What people often forget: at the time of the first powered airplane flight, there was already quite a mature powered aviation scene: with the balloons and Zeppelins.
Yeah but they are lighter-than-air aircraft designs, which cannot really maneuver like a heavier-than-air airplane can.
Indeed ! Those brothers were just morons !
"Higher! Higher!" This is so sweet. He must have been so proud of his kids. Perfect Christmas Aviation Story. Thanks Petter.
A New Zealander by the name of Richard Pearce actually flew before the Wright Brothers in early 1903. His aircraft had ailerons for lateral control. Pearce was a brilliant man. He even built his own lathe to build the engine - a twin cylinder opposed piston engine.
From Oamaru correct?
Richard Pearse of Waitohi, NZ flew in 1910, long after the Wright brothers.
@@tedmoss - He first flew in early 1903 - months before the Wright brothers. There are a number of witness to some of his flights along with the the date of a snow storm when he landed on top of a hedge ,show it was 1903.- not 1910
One thing to notice here. The Wright brothers knew of Lilienthals work and his famous book "Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst" (birdflight as the basis for aviation) where he describes the relationship between cambered airfoils and lift from experimental data.
(Good book by the way and a must read for any aviator.)
It was the discovery that Lilienthal's lift tables were wrong that gave the Wright's the edge over so many other people.
@@pauljackson358 Where do you got this information?
@@roichir7699 It is recorded in their journals that they initially tried using Lilienthal's charts but had no success. After testing in their own wind tunnel they discovered he was off by a considerable amount. Lilienthal was no doubt an inspiration for the Wrights and a brave pioneer.
I couldn't help wondering, during your introduction, what are the most mysterious plane losses where we really tried but failed to learn (so not including the missing planes). I think we all expect that any plane crash will be explained, and we learn from every single one of them but that expectation I think is probably very wrong.
The 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447 comes to mind. There are explanations for that crash, maybe too many of them. There are also lessons learned from it, but some feel they are the wrong ones.
I wonder what happened with Alexandre de Saint Exupery
@@paulbrouyere1735 Yes one of the notable pilots in the class of aviators that are missing. Amelia Earhart is another famous missing aviator. There are also many like my great uncle who were simply pilots who vanished on missions during the wars. My great uncle was over the north sea in '44 and never returned. This is a topic due it's own respectful retrospection for sure :)
@@renerpho Yes, there is controversy on this one still. However, the Pitot Tube is a technology that has had lots of bad things happen with it for many carriers. Personal take is that it is a tech that should be abandoned in its present form as they fail to know they have failed in operation. Critical Control Points in systems are where failure management happens, and it cannot if the failure cannot be validated.
@@keeperofthegood the Pitot Tube never failed. It is a perfect home for a mud dauber wasp, which carries in mud to close up the hole. This may happen when an aircraft is parked for a day or longer, the day a wasp is looking for a hole to fill. They thought of it later (after the incident)and made caps that fit over the tube so it don't get "bugged". Maybe an alternative is having more than one Pitot tube to read from? Or always check them before flying off. The Captain pulls off the covers manually) Pitot tube works on basic physics-physics you can't change. They learned the cause for those "incidents" even when parked on a small island in the middle of an ocean. The wasp still exists.
Even from the very beginning, pilots cared more about preventing a repeating outcome than blaming and pointing fingers. Frankly, that's incredibly inspiring.
“Trying to get this bicycle shop to take off” - ha I see what you did there!
Lovely and fascinating video. Gives me chills and goosebumps to imagine how they felt in those very early days as the wheels lifted off the ground under them and they were first to experience the world from the air in powered controlled (sort of!) flight after years of hard work and innovation.
Wishing Petter and all the viewers of this unique channel very Happy Holidays and a high flying '22.
Thank you! I agree!
I always learn something from these videos...I would have thought that the Wright Brothers went from printing to bicycles because they needed a fleet of boys on bikes to deliver their newspapers and other printed material, and found out that repairing and selling bikes was more profitable than printing. I never would have thought that they simply wanted to get in on the ground floor of a new mode of transportation.
Wright Brothers were just 2 morons !
This story made me cry. What brave people!
This a great example of Good Storytelling. Thanks to all involved
Just finished binge watching ur "AAV" (Aviation Accidents Videos) Really good stuff. (Hoppas du och din familj får en bra JUL)
This is the best history lesson regarding the first flight I have ever seen. Thanks for this. The graphics and explanations are great as always. Thanks from Cape Town, South Africa,
Thank you for your support! I really appreciate it
Very well done, accuracy is so important. Thank you. M
At Kitty Hawk, there is a National Park exhibit which has a replica of one of the Wrights’ first planes with articulated “ fingers” almost feathers on its wing edges and tips. This is a fabulous exhibit if you are ever there!!
Very cool! Even with a couple of degrees in history, there’s a lot of room to learn more and you’ve done that for me. Thank you so much, Pilot. Merry Christmas to you and yours, and safe travels always!
Many thanks! I knew much of their story, but you brought out critical elements that everyone else glossed over.
There is also a story I have heard of a pilot delivering a jet aircraft to a field, where he is greeted by several men known to him and one elder he does not know. That man engages him in conversation, proving to be quite knowledgeable about flight but most interested in how the craft responded.
They have a long conversation, after which they part ways. Later, the pilot is asked if he knew who that was, "no. Who is he?"
"Orville Wright."
The Good brothers (Walt and Bill) recount meeting Henry Ford in the same way.
I've always wanted aviation channels to cover more crashes from the pioneering days (we seem so focused in modern aviation), and you've delivered. Thank you very much Petter, wish much more successes. Merry Christmas!
The Wright bicycle shop is at Greenfield Village/The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
I admire those brave men from the beginning of aviation. They were inventors, engineers and pilots. One story has many similarities to where I come from. The Rusjan brothers, Edvard and Josip (father was Slovenian, mother Italian) built an airplane called Eda1, which first flew in November 1909. In January 1911 bothers went on a promotional tour through the Balkan cities. During a flight in Belgrade on 9 January 1911 a strong wind broke a wing of aeroplane and it dived into a fatal crash killing Edvard. His funeral was attended by a crowd of about 14,000 people. The airport in Maribor is today named after Edvard Rusjan.
Accident Report: Pilot failed to follow basic safety procedures because there aren't any.
Correct 😂
Also failure to carry a parachute, a selfie stick and insufficient number of GoPros
My grandfather recalled reading about the first flight in the news when he was a lad. Later in life he crossed the Atlantic in a BOAC Boeing 707. Amazing.
I thought I knew the Wright story, but trust Petter to give it such vivid new life. Thank you.
Nothing like walking into the shop, looking at your employee, and saying "hay bro can you design an engine for me" (obviously in their lingo) sometimes the past is crazy