This December 17 marks the 117th anniversary of the celebration of the first controlled flight in history achieved in a powered airplane, designed by brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright.
That feat in the late 1903s, which took place in the aviation era, raised the aircraft about 40 meters for 12 seconds in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The great contribution to the flight of the Wright was the control of the trip by means of the balance. Until then, existing aircraft had designs that made them difficult to control because they did not consider the need to tilt their wings to change direction.
Before Orville flew across the sky in his plane, his brother had already intended it with the same aircraft. However, fate wanted Orville and not Wilbur to go down in history for the first flight.
After overcoming many difficulties and conducting hundreds of experiments, on December 14, 1903 the Wright brothers had their plane ready and Wilbur was chosen to test, though without much success. He managed to get up just over 3 meters and walk about 20 meters, but lost momentum and ended up crashing without being inherited. Three days later, Orville got it.
BEFORE THEY SOLD BICYCLES
Before inventing the first airplane, the Wright brothers sold bicycles in their own shop and did not have much technical knowledge, although their passion for flying managed to overcome these obstacles and turn them into experts in the field.
In fact, before undertaking any intention to fly the brothers are thoroughly documented and contact all sorts of experts who advise them on issues such as the engine to be used or even the best place to fly. test your solution, leaving no detail to improvisation.
Before going down in history to build the first airplane capable of flying, the brothers had already led to a multitude of inventions considered revolutionary in their time, including the use of the wind tunnel to test their airplanes.
The brothers built a rudimentary wind tunnel in their gas-powered bicycle shop because they had no electricity in their tent. We will use this device to test the aerodynamic properties of the wings of your devices.
THE ARMY REJECTED ITS INVENTION AT FIRST
The Wright brothers contacted the United States Army in 1905 to offer him their invention, but his proposal was rejected because of the zeal shown by the brothers in giving technical details about their airplane and the bad experiences the military had had before. other inventors who offered the same.
Two years later, and in the face of the celebrity the brothers had won in the world with their flights, the army changed its mind and decided to buy an airplane. The inaugural flight turned out to be a tragedy.
Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge who traveled on the edge of the aircraft died and Orville, at the controls, was seriously inherited after a mechanical failure that caused the aircraft to crash into an exhibition at Fort Myer, Virginia, 1908.