Click2Flicks - Space Cowboys - Chapter 4

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>SPACE COWBOYS</p></b></font> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 4 - BRILLIANT BIKE SHOP EXPERIMENTS</b></font></p> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">For the next two years, Will and Orville used their bike shop as an invention center. Using a bike as their first testing device, they performed <a target="_blank" href="http://sln.fi.edu/flights/first/foil1.html"><b>airfoil</b></a> experiments. Pedaling <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/WBbike.jpg" target="_blank"><b>their contraption</b></a> as fast as they could was exhausting, so the brothers invented a <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/1901%20Wind%20tunnel%20in%20bike%20shop.jpg" target="_blank"><b>wind tunnel</b></a> into which they placed two homemade devices - one to test <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/WT%20Lift%20Balance%20Front.jpg" target="_blank"><b>lift</b></a> and the other to test <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/WT%20drag%20Balance%20side.jpg" target="_blank"><b>drag</b></a>. The blower fan, which was driven by an overhead belt, created winds up to 35 miles per hour.</p> <p>Writing down all their <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/WT%20note.jpg" target="_blank"><b>observations</b></a> on strips of wallpaper, they ultimately compiled <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/WT%20reslts%20compiled.jpg" target="_blank"><b>their findings</b></a> into a notebook. Among other important conclusions, the brothers determined the commonly accepted coefficient of lift was too high and a wing produced more lift if it had the shape of a <a href="http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Curves/Parabola.html" target="_blank"><b>parabola</b></a>. </p> <p>Using the data from all their experiments, the <a target="_blank" href="http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Wrights/gliders/1B8.jpeg"><b>brothers built</b></a> a reworked glider in 1902. It was the <a target="_blank" href="http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Wrights/gliders/1C4.jpeg"><b>first aircraft</b></a> that solved the fundamental problems of flight: <a target="_blank" href="http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Wrights/gliders/1B14.jpeg"><b>lift</b></a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ueet.nasa.gov/StudentSite/images/planes/PRY.gif"><b>three-axis</b></a> control.</p> <p>Once the brothers were able to achieve sustained and controlled flight, based on their calculations and field tests, they constructed a larger version of their 1902 glider. They called it <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/history%20images/model_b_schematics.gif" target="_blank"><b>The Flyer</b></a>. Most folks today know it as Flyer 1 or the Kitty Hawk.</p> <p>But Flyer 1 would be an airplane, not a glider. Will and Orville needed to figure out how to use a propeller in the air. Although they looked at shipbuilding literature, it didn't help them. There was no theory of propulsion. At the time, no one truly understood a propeller is nothing more than a wing rotating on its axis which lifts the plane forward.</p> <p>Once the Wright brothers reasoned through this fundamental tenet of self-propelled flight, they were ready to build <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ueet.nasa.gov/StudentSite/images/flight/enginewright.jpg"><b>their power source</b></a>. It was a 4-cylinder, 12 horsepower gas engine they built with the help of their mechanic, Charlie Taylor.</p> <p>The Wright brothers had been in a race to see who could develop the first heavier-than-air powered flying machine. <a href="http://avstop.com/History/first/Langley.html" target="_blank"><b>Samuel Langley</b></a>, the distinguished secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, had developed an <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/Langley_Aerodrome_and_Houseboat_1903.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Aerodrome</b></a>. When it <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/Langley_Aerodrome_crashes.JPG" target="_blank"><b>crashed</b></a> on launch, though, Langley left future experiments to the Wright brothers. </p> <p>Langley wasn't the only competition the brothers faced, however. They had to press forward. It was time for another trip to <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/1902%20Kitty%20Hawk.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Kitty Hawk</b></a> and <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/1902%20Kill%20Devill%20Hill.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Kill Devil Hill</b></a>. </p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="space_cowboys_ch3.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="space_cowboys_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER  </a>   <a href="space_cowboys_ch5.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>