By H.G. Frautschy, Editor,
EAA’s Vintage Airplane magazine
with acknowledgments to Tom Crouch, author of The Bishop’s Boys
Having arrived on the windswept sands of the Outer Banks of North Carolina in mid-September, 33 year-old Wilbur Wright is joined by his younger brother Orville on September 28, 1900. Wilbur finds every detail about the Kill Devil Hills area was accurately explained in the letters he received from William Tate, the local postmaster, and Joseph Dosher, the weather bureau man in Kitty Hawk. Strong average winds and few obstructions dot the sand dunes that make up the barrier islands north of Cape Hatteras. In a descriptive letter to his sister Katherine, Orville details the experience of the weather extremes of the desolate stretch of sand: "We certainly can’t complain of the place. We came down here for wind and sand, and have got them."
Together they work in the front yard of their host, the Tate family, to assemble their first man-carrying glider. On October 4, they move from the Tate’s household to a tent camp they erect half a mile away.
Wilbur and Orville begin flying their glider, which has a wing span of 17 feet, 5 inches, first as an unmanned and then as a manned, tethered kite. Wilbur is so impressed by the glider’s stability while being controlled by ropes held by his brother and him that he feels compelled to give it a try himself.
Wilbur’s first tethered flight takes place the day before they actually move to their camp. The flight ends when the glider starts to oscillate up and down, resulting in Wilbur hollering to be brought back down to earth. Wilbur and Orville then decide to continue testing it as an unmanned kite until more information can be gleaned from the tests. With a wind of at least 25 miles per hour needed to fly the biplane kite when loaded, they are puzzled by its lack of lift, which should be ample if their engineering calculations are correct. Later in their trials, young Tom Tate, nephew of William Tate, ascends on the wings of the glider since he weighs substantially less than either of the Wrights, but represents approximately the same amount of drag as either one of the brothers.
October 18 dawned with the Wrights testing their simple flying machine as a free-flying glider, launching it from the crest of a sand dune and observing its flight down to the bottom of the sand hill. The next day, with a fresh breeze blowing, Wilbur flies the glider down the dune at an altitude of no more than 5 feet, guiding his cotton muslin-covered craft using the elevator control to change his glide path, while keeping the wing-warping control locked in place. Despite Wilbur’s success, the men are still puzzled by the apparent miscalculation in their design.
By the time they break camp to head home to Dayton on October 23, 1900, the well-used glider is abandoned at the bottom of a sand dune after one last free-flight, having served its purpose of answering many questions the Wrights have about the mechanics of flight. But as it lies in the fall sunshine, its lack of lift and quirky handling create a whole new set of puzzlements for the brothers to investigate upon their return to their West Third Street workshop.
This is the first installment of a continuing series,
with new additions quarterly.
