The
EARLY HISTORY
of the
AIRPLANE
| The Wright Brothers’ Aeroplane | 1 |
| How We Made the First Flight | 9 |
| Some Aeronautical Experiments | 16 |
The
DAYTON-WRIGHT AIRPLANE CO.
DAYTON·OHIO
[1]The Wright Brothers’ Aeroplane
By Orville and Wilbur Wright
THOUGH the subject of aerial navigation is generally considered new, ithas occupied the minds of men more or less from the earliest ages. Ourpersonal interest in it dates from our childhood days. Late in theautumn of 1878 our father came into the house one evening with someobject partly concealed in his hands, and before we could see what itwas, he tossed it into the air. Instead of falling to the floor, as weexpected, it flew across the room, till it struck the ceiling, where itfluttered awhile, and finally sank to the floor. It was a little toy,known to scientists as a “helicoptere,” but which we, with sublimedisregard for science, at once dubbed a “bat.” It was a light frame ofcork and bamboo, covered with paper, which formed two screws, driven inopposite directions by rubber bands under torsion. A toy so delicatelasted only a short time in the hands of small boys, but its memory wasabiding.
Several years later we began building these helicopteres for ourselves,making each one larger than that preceding. But, to our astonishment, wefound that the larger the “bat” the less it flew. We did not know that amachine having only twice the linear dimensions of another would requireeight times the power. We finally became discouraged, and returned tokite-flying, a sport to which we had devoted so much attention that wewere regarded as experts. But as we became older we had to give up thisfascinating sport as unbecoming to boys of our ages.
It was not till the news of the sad death of Lilienthal reached Americain the summer of 1896 that we again gave more than passing attention tothe subject of flying. We then studied with great interest Chanute’s“Progress in Flying Machines,” Langley’s “Experiments in Aerodynamics,”the “Aeronautical Annuals” of 1905, 1906, and 1907, and severalpamphlets published by the Smithsonian Institution, especially articlesby Lilienthal and extracts from Mouillard’s “Empire of the Air.” Thelarger works gave us a good understanding of the nature of the flyingproblem, and the difficulties in past attempts to solve it, whileMouillard and Lilienthal, the great missionaries of the flying cause,infected us with their own unquenchable enthusiasm, and transformed idlecuriosity into the active zeal of workers.
In the field of aviation there were two schools. The first, representedby such men as Professor Langley and Sir Hiram Maxim, gave chiefattention to power flight; the second, represented by Lilienthal,Mouillard, and Chanute, to soaring flight. Our sympathies were