The Wrights were right!

[old man emu]

People come up all the time claiming that people other than the Wright Brothers solved the mystery of controlled flight before 17 December 1903. Often the wording depends on the inclusion of "powered", with little attention given to "controlled". These claims most often relate to winged machines with a propeller/engine combination that travelled a few feet off the ground for very short distances. Always, these flights did not involve any turning, or control of turn.

 

It seems that all this "fake news" fails to identify that which we train to avoid: loss of sufficient Lift whilst rolling.  That which we call stall/spin is in fact the result of the phenomenon of Adverse Yaw - a further effect of controls. The Wrights were righting off their gliders prior to 1903 because, at that infant stage of aeronautical knowledge, few had experienced flights of sufficient duration to explore the further effects of controls. In 1902, the Wrights twigged to why they were getting turning with the inside wing dropping. They had been building their gliders with fixed rudders. In 1902 they worked out that rudder input was required to stop the inner wing dropping when the glider turned (probably more from the push of a crosswind that deliberate attempts to turn. So they put hinges on the rudder and provided a control system for the pilot. Their tests showed that there was a solution to the problem of controllability in three axes. So they went home and during the early part of 1903 simply worked on putting a propulsion system onto the glider.

 

So, on 17 December 1903, they made several successful, controlled, flights against a headwind which was only just overcome by the propulsions system. They would have made more flights the next day, but, being student pilots coping with a multitude of new experiences, none the least being getting accustomed to three-axis controls, one of them let a wing drop at low speed/low altitude and suffered the inevitable stall/spin/bang.

 

This video goes deeper into the topic. Don't skip the beginning. It seems irrelevant, but a point is made there.

 

[facthunter]

Planes like the "Flyer" have no keel surface and slip to the lower wing even well above the stall situation.  The reason it couldn't stay in the air was lack of power. The first engine had about 16 Horsepower  The forward elevator was also "touchy" as they can be. They must have had to LEARN to fly quickly.   Nev

[old man emu]

Calling it a "Flyer" was a good deal of an exaggeration as you point out.

 

I just jumped back here to add that the "new invention" that Wright's Patent application was not the craft itself; not the engine; not the propellers. Those things were common knowledge from way back. Their Patent homed in on control of adverse yaw in the extreme and "balance" in turns by the use of a hinged rudder.

[facthunter]

Other planes turned on the rudder without any roll control. A FLAT turn (Like the Flying Flea) which does it better than most because of the bent wing. I don't know how you'd keep straight on take off without the rudder. When the Wright's did eventually turn up in Paris the French were very impressed with the manoeuvring ability of the Plane and built them Under licence in France.  Nev

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

I don't know how you'd keep straight on take off without the rudder

Well, the Wrights fluked it by using two propeller, so they may have accidentally eliminated prop torque. But it wasn't until the Wrights clicked to the need for a moveable rudder that that facility formed the unique factor that meant that they could be granted a Patent . Have a look at this replica Lilienthal glider flying. The only reason the tail section is moving seems to be flex in the connection between it and the main structure. 

           

 

 

During their experiments in 1902 the Wrights succeeded in controlling their glider in all three axes of flight: pitch, roll and yaw. Their breakthrough discovery was the simultaneous use of roll control with wing-warping and yaw control with a rear rudder. Look at the Patent application https://patents.google.com/patent/US821393 Page 4 Lines 10 - 45.

[facthunter]

I've always regarded the significant factor was the wing warping and the ability to easily bank the plane in turns. I've read all of that link. Aeroplanes are the mainwings and  they describe vertical rudders and horizontal rudders. Replace those two with the word stabiliser and it is easier to interpret. The absence of a keel surface makes control complicated .The Bristol BOXKITE overcame that and a covered fuselage dose a lot of it in later aircraft.. Hargreaves boxkites and Lilienthal's glider work certainly influenced the wright's product.  They went over board on patents and thought they could tie all what made planes fly, was "THEIR" work and derive royalties into the future. The large delay in publically presenting it to the world made a  lot doubt there was anything special in it., but as I said the appearance at Paris around 1908 ??allayed most of that when it performed figure 8's etc at low level perfectly.    Nev

[Old Koreelah]

13 hours ago, facthunter said:

They went over board on patents and thought they could tie all what made planes fly, was "THEIR" work and derive royalties into the future. The large delay in publically presenting it to the world made a  lot doubt there was anything special in it., but as I said the appearance at Paris around 1908 ??allayed most of that when it performed figure 8's etc at low level perfectly.    Nev

It’s been argued that although the Wright Bros’ ground-breaking work laid the foundations of flight, their litigation handicapped American aviation for a decade. When American aviators joined the Great War, they mostly used French aircraft, because the Europeans had progressed far ahead of the US.

[old man emu]

In the Patent Wars, the Wrights seem to have simply been the figurative applicants because by that time they had no total ownership of the patent.

 

In 1906, the Wrights received a U.S. patent for their method of flight control. In 1909 they sold the patent to the newly formed Wright Company in return for $100,000 in cash, 40% of the company's stock, and a 10% royalty on all aircraft sold. Investors who injected $1,000,000 into the company were financial barons like Cornelius Vanderbilt, Theodore P. Shonts, Allan A. Ryan, and Morton F. Plant. It was this company that waged the patent war, initially in an attempt to secure a monopoly on U.S. aircraft manufacturing.

 

Being rather naive in patent matters, I wonder if they also obtained patents in European countries. If not, then the Europeans would have been free to use the idea as soon as they learned of it. At the time of this one's issue, a patent had a life of 17 years.

[spacesailor]

IF ! , 

Those patents were only ' country ' spacific ' has it changed , in that nowdays you have to get multicountry patents to safeguard your idea's .

OR films .

spacesailor

[old man emu]

You always had to get patents in many countries to really tighten your grip on your invention or idea. Being engineers and not patent lawyers, the Wrights slipped up.

[onetrack]

Caterpillar learned the great benefit of patents and trademarks very early on, and instigated them in every country of the world where there was any kind of patent recording system.

They were also ruthless at pursuing "infringers" of their patents and trademarks and logos. 

This attitude came from the founder of Caterpillar, Daniel Best (of the Best Tractor Company), and from Benjamin Holt (of the Holt Tractor Company), who sued each other relentlessly over patent infringements from the early 1900's onwards - until it got to the stage they decided they had better amalgamate - rather than give all their assets to lawyers.

It was reported that Benjamin Holt spent over US$475,000 on lawyers in just one year, around 1914, fighting over patent infringements (a staggering sum in that era).

It was generally accepted that Daniel Best built the better crawler, but Benjamin Holt was a better salesperson and organiser - having developed a major number of Holt dealerships, which Best neglected to attend to.

The first Caterpillar tractors from the new merged entity in 1925, were basically Best tractors.

Every single patent and trademark and logo of Caterpillar has been faithfully renewed, every time it was due to lapse. This includes includes the wavy "Caterpillar" name/logo, attached to the very first Caterpillars. You copy it at your peril.

[spacesailor]

My post was in reference to ' netflix ' now stoping you streaming movies while roaming !.

Just like the C D area code that stoped us using prerecorded  U S  ,C Ds in Australia . ( movies  ) .

I have reloes that are NOT HAPPY .

Can't watch their Irish favorite films .

spacesailor

[facthunter]

Litigation nearly wiped out the BIG Four (or three) at one time. IF any plane crashed the designer or builder got sued. Nev

[octave]

2 hours ago, spacesailor said:

My post was in reference to ' netflix ' now stopping you streaming movies while roaming !.

 

I think roaming will still be OK but it is password sharing they are attempting to crack down on.   

 

"Subscribers had no restrictions placed on mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets or laptops, to enable legitimate users to still access their accounts while travelling."

 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jan/26/netflix-crackdown-on-password-sharing-to-begin-in-coming-months

 

Full disclosure, for many years we shared my sons Netflix subscription (he lives in NZ) and indeed at the moment we are sharing my brother in-laws Stan subscription (he lives interstate.)

 

 

 

 

[spacesailor]

Not quite the same ,

Something to do with England being out of the European-Market , are not to use Ireland's Common-market services . If you believe it could be a political ploy ( you could get a prize ) .

 So roaming in England & watching Irish Netflix is being stopped '' No Service '' is what appears on screen .

Also working the other way round , No Serve when trying to watch English Netflix streaming serials in the Republic of Ireland .

Sounds petty , BUT we extended family do share our hols with each other & sometime the serials too. LoL

spacesailor

Edited February 2, 2023 by spacesailor
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