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Hey I was watching your video about the many presidents before George and was thinking you should make a video about Victoria Woodhull and MLK and Shirley Chisholm, Frederick Douglass runs for presidential plz and please make a full series of it.plz
" How Did the Wright Brothers Win the Race Into the Air? " They didn't. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale considers Santos Dumont to have invented manned flight. Cry me a river.
I think a great prologue to this video would be our 1st forays into the sky via balloons. They had quite a large head start, and by the time heavier than air vehicles made their debut, the scientific data accrued by atmospheric and other experiments certainly impacted HTA machine considerations.
I once worked in a hospice. While attending the front desk a lively elderly woman drove up and walked in dressed up like she was about to attend a church service and stated very matter a fact she had been informed by her doctor that she should seek hospice care. I ushered her into a waiting room and told her to wait so I could get one of the intake counselors for her. When I learned that none were available for well iver an hour I opted to go sit and chat with her so she didn't have to sit alone. While waiting I asked her all sorts of life questions and where all she had traveled. When I asked her what was a cherished memory that she had when she was young she immediately smiled and recanted her day starting with her father waking her up early in the morning and them hitching a ride with some neighbors out to a field where they waited with a crowd of people and than President Roosevelt flew over them along with a wright brother and waved at the crowd and came back around and did it again. It was the first time she and many had ever seen a airplane. If memory serves she lived right under a year under the hospices care, she was 109
People like that, you can see and hear the awe in their voice and eyes as they recalled history being played out before them. I;m sure those who watched the Moon Landing can relate 😊
When we are kind to people, they are kind to us. And now the legacy of your kindness and this cherished moment from her life will live on to take flight in everyone who reads this comment.
TR flew above the St. Louis Worlds Fair on the 11th of October 1910. Archibald Hoxsey was the pilot, working for the Wright B demonstration team. I wouldn't forget that either!
Had a relative live to 99 years, born around the time of WWI, wish she told more stories. And wish I remembered more of the few she told. Remember one about her water wasn't working. Was piped in from a spring up the hill. There was dead raccoon blocking the pipe.
Ok, I've got a new respect for the Wright brothers after listening to this. I admire the way they went around solving the problem and they fully deserve their success.
Same I always had the thought that they had a bit of luck on their side while choosing their design. Nope, nothing but hard work, dedication, and humbleness
Not so much humbleness-even one of the quotes in the museum area of the Wright Brothers memorial in Kitty Hawk, which I just happened to see four days ago, indicated how ...confident... they were in their own work by suggesting that they were usually right whenever they tried out something new. I'm paraphrasing, but the quote is directly from their diaries, and it's pretty cringe.
OTOH, we went because I also agree that their success was hard earned. One of my favorite takeaways was that they needed help with the flyer, and also they wanted plenty of witnesses. To that end, they asked several people to assist that day, including one 17 year old kid who was a lifelong resident of Kitty Hawk and just happened to be available to help. Imagine being THAT guy. "Yeah, these guys from Ohio needed some help with this insane flying contraption, and I just happened to be nearby. That's how I got to witness the FIRST EVER heavier than air flight, and I even got to help haul the thing back and forth all day." 😂❤
I spent many months between events at Greenfield Village, my first stop was the Wright Brothers house, and bicycle shop. Orville was amazed at Henry Ford’s restoration and donated the furnishings that were in their house, and the desk that was in their Bicycle Shop to Henry Ford’s amazing restoration. Henry also took the soil from the ground.
It is no such thing. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale already did this research. Turns out there's no evidence for the Wright brothers having invented the airplane. Do your own research.
If you like this, you should also watch the video on the wright brothers by "Gregs aircraft and automobiles". Similarly in depth, but more geared towards aviation enthusiasts.
My great aunt remarried at the age of 70. Talking with her husband to be, I asked about the changes that he had seen when he was a child. He reminisced about holding his father’s hand and watching Orville take off at Kitty Hawk. Wow! He lived to see the first moon landing. I was awed!
If someone were to ask me that question at 70, I’d reply that tangible changes in technology or innovation were superficial, but intellectual and spiritual growth enabling one to see how society has never really changed was more significant. “And the song remained the same, it’s a shame nobody could be bothered enough to have the will to change it, do better.”
No mention of kiwi Richard Pearse , he may not have been controlled but it was very impressive for a person on the other side of the world working from his shed and building everything including the engine from scratch from scrap
Cheers for letting me know this. Was reading comments while watching the vid. If he's not at least mentioned in out. That means some poor research in my books.
@@woodchild2093 It's because according to Pearse he did not attempt a flight until 1904. The guy who built the plane and flew it, said that he didn't do so until 1904. And there is ZERO evidence he flew, or even built anything at all before 1904. It's really strange how the people that support Pearse as being the first completely ignore the man's own words.
@@furripupau : There are many witnesses who saw him fly on 31 March 1903 including ones who could not possibly have been there in 1904. There are three sensible explanations for this: Pearse made a mistake about the date; he was referring to refining his 1903 invention with further experiments which started in 1904; or 48 witnesses made a mistake about the date.
It was a kiwi. Most things are stolen from us. You can look at Australia for been the main ones to steal things off us (they are the off spring of criminals so it's in their blood)
@@toucheturtle3840 Yeah that was 4 years after Wilbur Wright flew for 39 minutes and 23 second flying for a distance of 24.2 miles (38.9 Km) or longer than the English channel is at the narrowest point
No, they weren't. In 1903 they were (supposedly) able to do that. (In ground effect, mind you). But it might interest you to know that No-One ! has been able to replicate that flight of their first flyer. Not a single one ! (Not for a lack of trying, mind you. However several people who have built exact replicas have injured themselves quite badly when they crashed directly after Flyer no.1 left a rail like the one the Wrights used. Maybe that's why - directly after their wondrous "first flight", they dismantled it, stored it away in a shed and went on a campaign of suing anyone who built an aeroplane. The films that show them flying is from the quite successful Flyer III in 1908.
I briefly lived in the town of Chanute, Kansas which is named for Octave Chanute. I also had the privilege of meeting Wilkinson Wright, the grand-nephew of Orville and Wilbur. He said that he personally felt that the first true airplane was the 1905 version of the Flyer.
The monument to Richard Pearce is just down the road from my family cemetery. I'm not convinced he got off the ground and the important thing about The Wright Brothers was that their invention led to the whole industry and everything that's resulted from it.
One thing that helped and hurt the Wright brothers was that they were very secretive. It was good because it prevented others from snatching their ideas, but the down side is that the rest of the world really didn't know how far along they were. Their coming out party was at their European demonstration, where they reached altitudes of over 2000 feet. They had a fully functioning flying machine at a point where others were still trying to get off of the ground.
@@patwilson2546 THANK YOU! you are the first one on here to point this fact out. I wish this fact had been in the video. it was the demonstration in France in 1912 which once and for all proved who really had mastered the invention of heavier than air self powered flight: the wright brothers. They flew for hours because by this time, they had perfected the machine. The French and everyone else who had been trying to claim they were the true winners ended up having to concede defeat. The Wright Brothers had spent the 9 years after solving the problem by improving the design to such an extent that the Europeans were left awestruck.
There is evidence Richard Pearse may have flown before the Wright brothers. He had a short flight before he crashed, so the Wright brother's flight although later, was the first controlled powered flight.
Starling Burgess, our best US naval architect invented the aeronautical wing in 1910 for the British because they were deeply concerned about Berliot's 1909 flight across the English channel. Before 1910, a wing was essentially a pair of horizontal, fully-battened, sails. The wing was an air "foil". Starling Burgess was the first to recognize that an effective wing is more than a foil, it is a shape. A US Agency, NACA (later NASA), was formed to oversee the development of optimum shapes according to air speed ranges. Twenty years later, Starling Burgess designed three "J boats", each of which defeated three British challenges for the America's Cup during the 1930s. His last and most famous boat before WW2, was the Ranger. To this day, no British Boat has ever been able to win back that modest America's Cup.
Plum Island airport (2B2) in Newburyport, MA is the oldest aerodrome in New England. It is also where, for one year in 1910, the 31 year old son of a Harvard Professor and yacht designer, shook up the prestigious NY Yacht Club. His name was William Starling Burgess (1878-1947). He would eventually merge his skills of naval architecture with the emerging field of aerodynamics to initiate aero-nautical engineering. Check photos of wings before and after on your own. Starling later designed three J-boats that successfully defeated three British challenges during the 1930s. The last of those three was the Ranger. All other Cup Races where suspended until after WW2.
If only the Wright Brothers had an engine that could pound the air, via propeller, as relentlessly as Simon Whistler pounds facts into our heads. Whew! This video covered a lot of ground at a rapid fire pace. It's hard to appreciate now just how hard it was back then to achieve manned, controlled, heavier than air, powered flight. The Wright Brothers managed to succeed with a small, low power engine by building light, matching the technology available at the time. Their methodical approach - learning, observing, testing, and refining their own ideas, over and over again - led to their eventual success. It will remain forever an inspiration. If only they had the resources like Dumont to be "open source" about their discoveries, they might not have the detractors they do today.
Wright brothers used the box kite designs of Hargraves, who would fly people along Sydney beaches in his box kites in the 1890's... and published the designs in journals ... Wilber Wright acknowledged this... Really they took the working design added a engine and a control surface... but the Wrights nuanced mechanical ability and innovation brought powered flight to reality...
The first self-propelled man-made (and with a man inside) machine to take off was the 14-bis, created and piloted by Alberto Santos Dumont, who did it in public in october 23rd 1906 in Paris. It was barely mentioned in the video. Dumont kept innovating on airplanes until 1913. His best model was the Demoiselle (or Libellule), developed between 1907 and 1909. Its specifications, with most main characteristics of later planes already included, were freely distributed and replicated by hundreds. Dumont once flew with its version IV for 18km to a castle for dinner.
This is correct. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale awarded Santos Dumont with the invention of the airplane. This has been revised several times against the claims of Wright Brothers afficionados but they never have any evidence. The Wright Brothers did not do flights in front of the public. They only published what they said they did, but never offered any evidence. This video is just another "go USA" brainwashed victim.
This is factually incorrect and that's why it is not mentioned. Dumont was very bitter that the Wrights would not give up their secrets, and he was very bitter that he wasn't the first. But the Wrights have photographic proof. They had witnesses. The original machine still exists. Their notes on tests, design and manufacturing exist. No other claimants have such an abundance of evidence. I think Dumont, even though he would never admit it, knew for a fact that he didn't fly first, and that's why he didn't preserve such things as regards his own airplane. He knew it wasn't historically significant.
The unfortunate result of people persisting in their statements that Santos-Dumont was the first to invent the airplane is that this false assertion overshadows all the many things he DID do for aviation. Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles channel has a very detailed and comprehensive video addressing all the arguments normally cited when this discussion arises: ruclips.net/video/SgoPPg8oVt8/видео.html One of the main points he makes is the importance of the propellers. No one else understood the propellers. Look at any photos of any aircraft of the period, and you will see the drastic change from those before and those after the Wrights demonstrated their flier in France, even Santos-Dumont.
On my channel, under the icon to the left, there are 45 flight footage videos of the first and only 100% ion propelled aircrafts that fly with onboard power! While they are very lightweight and don't carry a person yet, they have other advantages such as they can fly silently with no moving mechanical parts, they do not require lighter than air gasses either. The crafts are fully patented for flying with onboard power and thoroughly verified, however there are still others who incorrectly and unfortunately claim they were first. The challenge with ion propelled flight differs from the challenges of powered manned flight with wings, with the control problem being solved in 1903. The challenge with ion propulsion was that the thrust produced by the ionic mechanism was several orders of magnitude (about 1000 times) too low to fly onboard. In other words, the crafts and their power supplies were far too heavy to fly, except when tethered to external power supplies. The patented invention US 10,119,527 solved that problem, but it is unclear whether some of the wealthy people in academia will ever admit that they did not build the first ion propelled craft to lift its power supply as well as in a sustained manner.
Nothing was proven here. There is no proof of any of Wright's flights. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale considers Santos Dumont the inventor of the airplane, not the Wright brothers.
@@23kilkenny23 Pearce's attempt is mentioned here. While Pearse was a clever and ingenious guy, There is no way that thing was going to fly. ruclips.net/video/EkpQAGQiv4Q/видео.htmlsi=vWxwySCbMDkbuhRw&t=2004
Great job! (Even better than the BBC - I once saw an article that printed the misinformation that there was only one photograph taken when the Wrights did three flights. I've seen photos of all three (rarely posted), and the reason the same one is almost always printed is because the other two have motion blur and aren't very good.)
Always interesting. There is something I have noticed over the years. If an idea is to become a reality there is usually quite a few inventors working largely independent from one another and become succesfull within the span of a few months or years.
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale considers the Wright Brothers fraudsters and scammers and awards Santos Dumont with the invention of the airplane.
As part of an attempt to discredit the Wrights, their arch-enemy Glenn Curtiss quietly made numerous modifications to Samuel Pierpont Langley's Aerodrome and finally did succeed in getting it to fly (barely) as a seaplane. After this, the Smithsonian placed their former director's Aerodrome on display alongside the Wright Flyer I, billing Aerodrome as the first aircraft capable of sustained, manned flight, even though it was originally a failure. You must remember that the Smithsonian was rather hostile turf for the Wrights, because their hottest competitor to fly first was Smithsonian Director Samuel Pierpont Langley. After Curtiss succeeded in getting Aerodrome to make a controlled hop off the water, he then removed all his modifications and returned it to it's original configuration, making it appear to have only been placed on floats and allowed to take off rather than catapulted off of a houseboat, which was how Langley had twice attempted to launch it. The effort was to try and convince the public that Aerodrome would have flown first if only Langley had chosen a better means of launching it. Not really true. Wilbur Wright had died by this time, and Orville Wright was furious with the manner in which Aerodrome was presented, since it clearly was not capable of manned flight without extensive modification. He pulled Flyer I out of the Smithsonian and sent it to the British museum for display. Years later, the Smithsonian relented and removed the accolation from Aerodrome, and Flyer I was returned.
Or maybe we can thank the British Museum and it's members for their diligent research and efforts to discover items lost to time. Perhaps they should take thousands of artifacts back to their places of origin and hide them once again for all to never see. You should expend a little effort to investigate the number of important artifacts the British Museum has indeed returned to countries of origin over the years... it is not at all uncommon. In the meantime, we can enjoy thousands of artifacts, as a species, in one location rather than spending fortunes travelling the earth visiting thousands of museums to obtain the same result. I guess it doesn't matter if you're very wealthy, but for students around the world? So --- Thank you British Museum... and the British people for sharing.
Greeks are still waiting for their Elgin Marbles to be returned to the Acropolis in Athens. This video was excellent, but I have a minor quibble. The Wright Flyer was not returned to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which did not exist in 1948. In 1959, I saw it displayed in the crammed Arts & Industries Building next to the "Castle" on the Mall. Hanging from the ceiling, a person taller than I was could touch the skids. The Flyer was moved to the A&S Museum when it opened in 1976.
When i heard about how the Wrights went about it, it struck me how they did everything 100% right. Experiments to get data, building a wind tunnel, etc. Their methods is as (or even more) impressive than the result. If you want to make progress in science, or make an invention, first figure out an experiment. (I am not a maths dude so i cannot comment on stuff starting out of maths, but that is of couse another route. But the flight maths, prior to the Wrights were flawed? So they invented that too?)
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale says the Wright brothers were fraudsters. There's no evidence for any of their flights. They awarded Santos Dumont with the invention of the airplane.
I think what most impresses me is that these people, most with little formal education, could teach themselves these various skills and produce amazing inventions. I refer to almost all of the early pioneers of aviation, electricity, architecture, and engineering. I guess back when there was no TV, movies, radio, or social media, people actually put their time to good use. Makes me fondly remember my grandparents, neither of which had more than an 8th grade education (1920's). Both were skilled writers and excellent at math. Regarding Langley, The Smithsonian, and a few others, there is a lot more story as to how the Wrights were denied credit due them, and patents, not for the flying machine itself, but for their wing and propeller designs. Lastly, the obvious benefits of these machines for use by the Army and Navy were ignored, and European countries soon bypassed American aviation. It drove home the desperate need for air power to be separated from the Army, and took another half decade to finally accomplish.
I don't agree that the Europeans passed them. In 1912, the Wrights flew in France and nobody and I mean nobody could come close to what they had created. Meanwhile, back in America, Boeing was already at work building the most capable aircraft in the world. During WWI, of course there were great German warplanes, but by the end of the war, Americans were definitely in the lead with respect to aviation. I would acknowledge that Rolls Royce did have the best engines though.
Maxim's son, Hiram Percy Maxim, and Clarence Tuska, in 1914 founded the American Radio Relay League for the new Hobby of Amateur Radio. I am 80, licensed since 1962, and I attended the 50th Anniversay in 1964, and the 100th in 2014. 73 de W2CH. 😅
I've built a full scale section of the Wright Flyer wing using Smithsonian blueprints acquired, and it is quite a thing to see amongst many other aviation artifacts I have at my North Carolina home.
Controlled flight incredible methodology in their work and a great engine , Personally I think the Wright Brothers literally launched us on an aviation path that we are still on today. I thank them wholeheartedly .
Otto Lilienthal was a known glider constuctor. But in early 19th century there was a tailor in german town Ulm , who did glider experiments. Seeming sucessfull, he wanted to show his sucess by promising, he could fly over Danube river from a small wooden tower. A large crowd wanted to see this, also noblemen and highranking persons. But the tailor failed and fell into Danube river, causing a poem making fun about the , Tailor of Ulm/ Schneider von Ulm'. May be twenty years ago, some scientists build a reconstruction of the glider. The scientists came to conclusion, that flying with the glider could have possible, but the tailor didn' t know that air over water ( Danube ) is not good for gliding.
There is another piece of tech that needed to be addressed that you didnt mention. Yes the engine is important, but often overlooked is the fuel. The method by which energy is stored to later be translated by the motor.
Yes, Diesel first invented engines that were as large as a house. Still, it is strange that diesel engines are not the obvious choice for planes. Now there are some, but why oh why is that an exception?
Langley did a lot of research into how wings work. Behind Allegheny Observatory, he built a large rotating arm to which he affixed wings from birds and artificial wings. The observatory to which he became the first director was built by wealthy industrialists who lost interest and didn't pay the bills. He took care of the bills, created research programs, and made important discoveries besides his work in aviation.
The problem was that the Wright Brothers then sought to monopolize aircraft development and manufacture in the US, suing every company that tried to break into this business. They spent so much of their energy in the courts that their own aircraft development stalled and they also managed to stall aircraft development in general in the US all the way until WWI. The only patent they ever had for their Flyer was for the wing warp control method. Glenn Curtiss tried to get around that by using hinged flaps, but got sued anyway. Eventually, with war looming, and US aircraft production far lagging behind Europe, the US government stepped in and took over the Wright patent to finally free up aircraft production in the US. The Curtiss and Wright companies would eventually merge to form what was at the time the largest aircraft company in the world. This post-triumph story, of how the Wrights stymied aircraft development in the US after their initial triumph, is a story that you need to tell also. The story of Curtiss-Wright, its rise and fall, is also a story worth telling.
I haven't been able to verify this, but I heard about a European (?) who made a water-launched plane that would have worked, but the Internal Combustion Engine delivered to him was twice the weight of what he ordered. He tried to use it anyway, but his airplane wouldn't take off, ran into rocks, and he was killed in the attempt.
Kress Drachenflieger, although it was wrecked, its builder did not die in the crash. It wouldn't have been capable of flight even with a stronger/lighter engine, the propellers were (like all the other pre-Wright designs) poorly made and inefficient. With the engine it did have it was extremely overweight (being more than twice as heavy as the Wright flyer).
48:10 The Wright brothers were concerned that the torque of the engine might make the plane roll. They used two counter rotating propellers to prevent the problem. In the end, others found that the torque of the engine does not affect a plane's flight very much at all.
Human innovation is a community effort. When people are only in it to benefit themselves, it is always delayed, imperfect or never happens at all. And we find ourselves in 2024.
Lawrence Hargrave contributed more to aviation than any other human. 1893 he conquered lift with stable heavier than air manned flight. He also invented the rotary engine.
I believe Felix Millet designed and built the first rotary radial engine in 1888 to power his early motorcycle designs, in which a five-cylinder radial engine was incorporated into the rear wheel, with the crankshaft serving as the axle, and the rest of the engine spinning as part of the wheel.
My respect for the Wright brothers increased exponentially as I watched this. Its interesting to note that Langley's contraption looks heavy, cumbersome and Heath-Robinsonesque , whilst the Wright's aircraft looks light, beautiful and elegant. One can see the good practices and thought processes in its aesthetic.
The dawn of flight had little to do with flight. The inventors had a good idea of how to control an aircraft. What they were waiting for was an engine with a high enough power to weight ratio.
24:50 An unmanned Langley Aerodrome is on display at the University of Pittsburgh. It's a steam powered model airplane with a wingspan of about 25 feet.
It was not covered with canvas. It was covered with muslin cloth. Many people think airplanes were covered with canvas, but this is not true. Canvas is too heavy, and has never been used as a covering for fabric-covered aircraft.
Can you imagine how heavy doped canvas would be, lol. Diy'ers make what's called poor man's fiberglass for their little homemade trailers which is canvas painted first with watered construction glue then painted.
@@jimp.7286 Yes, I can imagine, after erecting a large canvas awning over a patio. Took seven guys to carry it rolled up. I saw a little single seat German glider called a Schiebe L-Spatz 55 that was being towed from a ranch strip in west-central Texas. The brushy terrain was tearing up the belly fabric, so they decided to replace the fabric with one layer of resin impregnated fiberglas cloth. That glider was then so heavy it never flew again. Last time I saw it, it was still rotting on its trailer at the Brady, TX, airport.
I don't think your opening remarks were quite right; There were three flights on Dec 17th; two very short ones of about 10-15 seconds, and then the third one, which lasted just under a minute, with the Flyer traveling just over 800 feet. Scott Manley has an excellent video on the question of who was first to fly.
Wilbur noted that getting into the air was not the problem as man had been flying kites, etc. for thousands of years. STAYING in the air was the problem and THAT required CONTROL--- And THAT is what he concentrated on.
There are claims that others, before the Wrights, managed to achieve flight but in all these cases, nobody managed to get all the prerequisites for it to be real flight as we know it. Mainly both powered and fully controllable.
Wrong! Read what the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale has to say about this. They were present when Santos Dumont flew the first powered and fully controllable airplane. Wright Brothers never did such a thing in front of any public. They said they did and you believed it.
@@jboss1073 It's too bad the Wright brothers flew many times before 1906, their flights were witnessed and photographed, their notes, designs, and planes still exist, and each design they made introduced improvements resulting in better airworthiness. Unlike say, Santos Dumont... whose follow up to the 14 Bis failed to fly. And his follow up to the follow up also failed to fly.
@@jboss1073 why is this so important to you that you've replied to multiple comments about it? Santos-Dumont did have the first manned, controlled flight in _Europe_ specifically, but even that was a year after the Wright Brothers' Flyer III made it's flight demonstrations, which were witnessed by multiple people. Not to take away from Santos-Dunont's accomplishment, which was incredible, but the Wrights not only got there first, but their machine had greater stability, control and longevity of flight. Their design was also the bedrock upon which most later biplanes were based, especially after their 1908 demonstrations. Their design wasn't perfect, and their Model C led to deaths, but it kick-started the industry.
Otto Lilienthal’s machines were hang gliders. When asked about the danger of his flying experiments he said (not quoting) that personal injury or death was not as important as furthering the understanding of manned flight. In books I read they said he built the store room ( hangar) for his gliders into the hill, not upon it. A minor difference, not meaning to criticize your presentation.
Check out John Stringfellow (1799-1883), from Chard in Somerset and his much earlier work on his Aerial Steam Carriage.... Chard is indeed the birthplace of powered flight, as it was in 1848....
Fortunately, the mosquitos that plagued the brothers have been somewhat controlled and living in KDH is bearable. Now if the tourist would leave, it would be ideal.
You cannot fly a kite into the wind. Wind speed is like taking a drug..., too little and it's not effective, too much and it will kill you. The wind speed at Kitty Hawk on Dec 17, 1903, was between 20 and 27 mph. The optimal wind speed for the flyer was between 15 and 20 mph. Think about it, an airplane is not like a kite that is tethered to the ground, it has to move forward against the wind, or it will be taken like a grocery bag and just thrown about. The Wright Flyer only had 12 horsepower, yet it "landed" 120 feet in FRONT of the launch rail (on flat ground) not behind it. We also know the later that day the wind increased and picked up the flyer and wrecked it for any more flights that day..., like a grocery bag.
It must be remembered gat although currently, “bicycle mechanic” might be seen as a slightly derogatory term, at the turn of the 20th century, bicycles were the “high tech” of the time. . .
Very interesting…I had no idea the Smithsonian was in such opposition to the Wright brothers. Nowadays, you think of that place as being the last word in American preservation of history, etc.
By the standards of the Wright brothers themselves. They claimed that powered flight was not possible until their plane could fly well over 800 ft. In 1903 they never achieved powered flight! I believe it wasn't until 1905 or 1907 that they actually were able to fly far enough to be considered powered flight because they had already been able to launch a craft into the air and glide on the wind for well over 100 ft and sometimes much further than that
According to historical accounts, Sir Richard Pearse, a New Zealand farmer and inventor, is believed to have made his first powered flight attempt on 31 March 1903 in Tumaru, near Timaru, New Zealand. While there is some debate about the exact date and nature of his achievement, witnesses described observing Pearse flying and landing a powered heavier-than-air machine on this day.
Other inventors did predate the Wright Brothers for making semi controlled (at best) 'powered leaps'. NO ONE beat the Wright Brothers for 'Flight'. More specifically, flight where the pilot has actual meaningful control.
If they had claimed "_powered_ heavier than air flight" I'd have conceeded their claim. Simply "heavier than air, comtrolled flight" had been done many times before.
What beats me is that the son flew higher and the sun melt the wax causing him to crash!!!? I always thought that the higher you went the colder it got!?
I do not consider the Wrights December 17, 1903 attempts at flight to be true flights. These never rose above and out of ground effect and therefore what they accomplished on that day were actually forward-moving hovers. However, learning much from these attempts at flight, particularly the power required to climb higher than a few feet above the ground, they did accomplish the first true flights in a heavier-than-air, engine-powered aeroplane capable of carrying a human being in sustained, fully controllable flight at Huffman Prairie, near Dayton Ohio in 1904 in an improved version of their first, underpowered aeroplane. On November 16, 1904, Orville Wright flew their Flyer II above and out of ground effect over a distance of approximately 1,760 feet in 40 1/5 seconds (there is a photograph of this flight). They made more than one hundred such flights during 1904-05, including flying the first complete circle. No one had been able to do anything close to this before them.
The real Norwegian Vikings invented flying. The Nowegian Viking ships would occasionally fly from one wave-top to another in strong wind, thus inventing the art of flying. Thank you NORWAY for inventing flying!
What a load of crap! Flying requires, besides heavier than air structure, the capacity to lift a payload and the capabilty to control and navigate the aircraft. This is an aeronautical engineer writing.
@@oswaldoramosferrusola5235 Haven't you seen speed boats fly from wave to wave before? When the viking ships got up to speed they were the first to leave earth in a man made device, thereby inventing flying. We should thank the real Norwegian Vikings for teaching man how to fly!
When you see the behaviour of people like Langley, and the treatment by his ilk of truely inspirational inventors such as John Harrison, you have to question how many of their claimed achievements were their own, and not stolen from others or their students.
Wow, who knew that the Smithsonian could be so petty! I wonder if they talk about waiting 45 years till the Wright flyer was finally displayed at the Air and Space Museum?
If there’s one surefire way to bring Brazilians together in the RUclips comments, aside from mentioning Brazil, it’s by saying that the Wright brothers invented the airplane. Okay, before you start dodging the stones for not mentioning Alberto Santos Dumont in your video, let me clarify quickly: Santos Dumont flew his invention for the first time in 1906, in a public area, witnessed by a crowd of curious onlookers, reporters, and officials from the Aéro-Club de France, which was the leading French aviation institution at the time. These officials were there to witness and validate the flight, tasked with measuring the distance and confirming that the flight met the rules established for motorized flights. The flight of the 14-Bis was considered a success and a milestone in the history of aviation. And considering that the first public flight of the Wright brothers, recorded in photos and films, only happened in 1908, two years after Santos Dumont's flight, the Brazilian is widely considered the Father of Aviation. At least in Brazil... and maybe in France, too! :) But wait, the argument doesn’t end here. What’s really interesting in this debate about who invented what, in a journey where the airplane has many indirect parents, is one key difference between the Wright brothers and Santos Dumont: their intentions. It’s well known that the Americans kept their invention a secret for several years, not only with the intention of selling it for military use, but also to protect their patent and exploit the invention commercially. Meanwhile, the Brazilian was an altruist, a true citizen of the world. All of his projects were made public, available for anyone to copy and improve. In 1909, while the Wright brothers' machine was flying farther and was more efficient, Santos Dumont was debuting the Demoiselle, a small, lightweight, practical airplane, considered the first "open-source" aircraft project (to use a modern term), easy to build and fly for anyone. So, to wrap things up, we Brazilians might acknowledge the Wright brothers as the "fathers of the airplane" for mastering the technology and getting the machine to fly, but we’ll always see Alberto Santos Dumont as the "Father of Aviation", for his great achievements and his determination to share his knowledge for the betterment of humanity.
The unfortunate result of people persisting in their statements that Santos-Dumont was the first to invent the airplane is that this false assertion overshadows all the many things he DID do for aviation. Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles channel has a very detailed and comprehensive video addressing all the arguments normally cited when this discussion arises: ruclips.net/video/SgoPPg8oVt8/видео.html One of the main points he makes is the importance of the propellers. No one else understood the propellers. Look at any photos of any aircraft of the period, and you will see the drastic change from those before and those after the Wrights demonstrated their flier in France, even Santos-Dumont.
This video brought to you in part by our Patrons over on Patreon. If you’d like to support our efforts here directly, and our continued efforts to improve our videos, as well as do more ultra in-depth long form videos that built in ads and even sponsors don’t always cover fully, check out our Patreon page and perks here: www.patreon.com/TodayIFoundOut And as ever, thanks for watching!
Hey I was watching your video about the many presidents before George and was thinking you should make a video about Victoria Woodhull and MLK and Shirley Chisholm, Frederick Douglass runs for presidential plz and please make a full series of it.plz
Pretty sure Santa was first and it was done with an unfathomable amount of cargo... mainly coal from what I can tell
" How Did the Wright Brothers Win the Race Into the Air? "
They didn't.
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale considers Santos Dumont to have invented manned flight.
Cry me a river.
😂😂 do some more research New Zealand was the first country to fly please right this wrong as this is incorrect
I think a great prologue to this video would be our 1st forays into the sky via balloons. They had quite a large head start, and by the time heavier than air vehicles made their debut, the scientific data accrued by atmospheric and other experiments certainly impacted HTA machine considerations.
I once worked in a hospice. While attending the front desk a lively elderly woman drove up and walked in dressed up like she was about to attend a church service and stated very matter a fact she had been informed by her doctor that she should seek hospice care. I ushered her into a waiting room and told her to wait so I could get one of the intake counselors for her. When I learned that none were available for well iver an hour I opted to go sit and chat with her so she didn't have to sit alone. While waiting I asked her all sorts of life questions and where all she had traveled. When I asked her what was a cherished memory that she had when she was young she immediately smiled and recanted her day starting with her father waking her up early in the morning and them hitching a ride with some neighbors out to a field where they waited with a crowd of people and than President Roosevelt flew over them along with a wright brother and waved at the crowd and came back around and did it again. It was the first time she and many had ever seen a airplane.
If memory serves she lived right under a year under the hospices care, she was 109
People like that, you can see and hear the awe in their voice and eyes as they recalled history being played out before them.
I;m sure those who watched the Moon Landing can relate 😊
When we are kind to people, they are kind to us. And now the legacy of your kindness and this cherished moment from her life will live on to take flight in everyone who reads this comment.
I can't recall the last time I spoke to a anyone about their life who mentioned Roosevelt meaning TEDDY. Wow.
TR flew above the St. Louis Worlds Fair on the 11th of October 1910. Archibald Hoxsey was the pilot, working for the Wright B demonstration team. I wouldn't forget that either!
Had a relative live to 99 years, born around the time of WWI, wish she told more stories. And wish I remembered more of the few she told. Remember one about her water wasn't working. Was piped in from a spring up the hill. There was dead raccoon blocking the pipe.
Fun fact: The first aircraft to perform a powered flight on another planet (the Ingenuity helicopter) carried a small piece of the 1903 Flier.
Really?
Finally, an actual fun fact... And not another one of those "fun fact if you double tap this comment it will like it!" BS spambois
Is that nasa with the mars drone ?
@@danielstokoe6564 Yup
Scientists use relics too!
Fascinating, thanks. Most documentaries focus just on the wright bros, without the context of others attempts.
Ok, I've got a new respect for the Wright brothers after listening to this. I admire the way they went around solving the problem and they fully deserve their success.
Same I always had the thought that they had a bit of luck on their side while choosing their design. Nope, nothing but hard work, dedication, and humbleness
Not so much humbleness-even one of the quotes in the museum area of the Wright Brothers memorial in Kitty Hawk, which I just happened to see four days ago, indicated how ...confident... they were in their own work by suggesting that they were usually right whenever they tried out something new. I'm paraphrasing, but the quote is directly from their diaries, and it's pretty cringe.
OTOH, we went because I also agree that their success was hard earned. One of my favorite takeaways was that they needed help with the flyer, and also they wanted plenty of witnesses. To that end, they asked several people to assist that day, including one 17 year old kid who was a lifelong resident of Kitty Hawk and just happened to be available to help. Imagine being THAT guy. "Yeah, these guys from Ohio needed some help with this insane flying contraption, and I just happened to be nearby. That's how I got to witness the FIRST EVER heavier than air flight, and I even got to help haul the thing back and forth all day." 😂❤
The Wright's brass tacks approach to heavier than air flight was about as American as it gets...
New Zealander Richard Pearse did.....
Otto Lilienthal was the first hang glider/paraglider pilot and manufacturer. We still use weight shift, with paragliders also using a deformable wing.
I spent many months between events at Greenfield Village, my first stop was the Wright Brothers house, and bicycle shop. Orville was amazed at Henry Ford’s restoration and donated the furnishings that were in their house, and the desk that was in their Bicycle Shop to Henry Ford’s amazing restoration. Henry also took the soil from the ground.
This is the best and most helpful account of the Wright Brothers' work I have yet seen! Thank you so much, and keep up the fine work!
I think this is the most comprehensive collection of information about the advent of powered flight l have ever seen. Bravo!
It is no such thing. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale already did this research. Turns out there's no evidence for the Wright brothers having invented the airplane. Do your own research.
If you like this, you should also watch the video on the wright brothers by "Gregs aircraft and automobiles". Similarly in depth, but more geared towards aviation enthusiasts.
My great aunt remarried at the age of 70. Talking with her husband to be, I asked about the changes that he had seen when he was a child. He reminisced about holding his father’s hand and watching Orville take off at Kitty Hawk. Wow! He lived to see the first moon landing. I was awed!
If someone were to ask me that question at 70, I’d reply that tangible changes in technology or innovation were superficial, but intellectual and spiritual growth enabling one to see how society has never really changed was more significant.
“And the song remained the same, it’s a shame nobody could be bothered enough to have the will to change it, do better.”
people will make up ANY old shit just to get the attention
No mention of kiwi Richard Pearse , he may not have been controlled but it was very impressive for a person on the other side of the world working from his shed and building everything including the engine from scratch from scrap
Cheers for letting me know this. Was reading comments while watching the vid. If he's not at least mentioned in out. That means some poor research in my books.
@@woodchild2093 It's because according to Pearse he did not attempt a flight until 1904. The guy who built the plane and flew it, said that he didn't do so until 1904. And there is ZERO evidence he flew, or even built anything at all before 1904. It's really strange how the people that support Pearse as being the first completely ignore the man's own words.
@@furripupau : There are many witnesses who saw him fly on 31 March 1903 including ones who could not possibly have been there in 1904. There are three sensible explanations for this: Pearse made a mistake about the date; he was referring to refining his 1903 invention with further experiments which started in 1904; or 48 witnesses made a mistake about the date.
@@furripupauthat's mainly because he was known to hate publicity and would say anything to be left alone to do his work.
It was a kiwi. Most things are stolen from us. You can look at Australia for been the main ones to steal things off us (they are the off spring of criminals so it's in their blood)
Fascinating! Thank you for your very informative and amusing delivery of the story of the race to manned flight!
The Wright Brothers had some help...
Bicycle Repairman!
Look how he uses that spanner!
Its a bird! Its a plane!
NO!
Its...
...BICYCLE REPAIRMAN!!
In 1905, the Wright brothers were the only people who could fly up, stay up for awhile, change and choose direction, and safely come back down.
In 1909 Bleriot flew the English Channel…🤷🏻♂️
@@toucheturtle3840 Yeah that was 4 years after Wilbur Wright flew for 39 minutes and 23 second flying for a distance of 24.2 miles (38.9 Km) or longer than the English channel is at the narrowest point
Bleriot flew it in a monoplane…
Bleriot was able to use(steal) Wilbur Wrights ideas when he flew his flyer in Le Mans in 1908.
No, they weren't. In 1903 they were (supposedly) able to do that. (In ground effect, mind you). But it might interest you to know that No-One ! has been able to replicate that flight of their first flyer. Not a single one ! (Not for a lack of trying, mind you. However several people who have built exact replicas have injured themselves quite badly when they crashed directly after Flyer no.1 left a rail like the one the Wrights used.
Maybe that's why - directly after their wondrous "first flight", they dismantled it, stored it away in a shed and went on a campaign of suing anyone who built an aeroplane.
The films that show them flying is from the quite successful Flyer III in 1908.
There are some of us who just love to hear this story over and over.
I have new respect for Maxim.
I briefly lived in the town of Chanute, Kansas which is named for Octave Chanute. I also had the privilege of meeting Wilkinson Wright, the grand-nephew of Orville and Wilbur. He said that he personally felt that the first true airplane was the 1905 version of the Flyer.
I know a lot of people say bad things about you but this is a awesome effort in compiling this great historical epic feat. Well done.
The monument to Richard Pearce is just down the road from my family cemetery. I'm not convinced he got off the ground and the important thing about The Wright Brothers was that their invention led to the whole industry and everything that's resulted from it.
One thing that helped and hurt the Wright brothers was that they were very secretive. It was good because it prevented others from snatching their ideas, but the down side is that the rest of the world really didn't know how far along they were. Their coming out party was at their European demonstration, where they reached altitudes of over 2000 feet. They had a fully functioning flying machine at a point where others were still trying to get off of the ground.
@@patwilson2546 THANK YOU! you are the first one on here to point this fact out. I wish this fact had been in the video. it was the demonstration in France in 1912 which once and for all proved who really had mastered the invention of heavier than air self powered flight: the wright brothers. They flew for hours because by this time, they had perfected the machine. The French and everyone else who had been trying to claim they were the true winners ended up having to concede defeat. The Wright Brothers had spent the 9 years after solving the problem by improving the design to such an extent that the Europeans were left awestruck.
Another fact...
The kiwi is a flightless bird.
The photo of the takeoff of the first flight is so spectacularly good that it barely seems real. Love it.
There is evidence Richard Pearse may have flown before the Wright brothers. He had a short flight before he crashed, so the Wright brother's flight although later, was the first controlled powered flight.
Starling Burgess, our best US naval architect invented the aeronautical wing in 1910 for the British because they were deeply concerned about Berliot's 1909 flight across the English channel.
Before 1910, a wing was essentially a pair of horizontal, fully-battened, sails. The wing was an air "foil".
Starling Burgess was the first to recognize that an effective wing is more than a foil, it is a shape.
A US Agency, NACA (later NASA), was formed to oversee the development of optimum shapes according to air speed ranges.
Twenty years later, Starling Burgess designed three "J boats", each of which defeated three British challenges for the America's Cup during the 1930s. His last and most famous boat before WW2, was the Ranger. To this day, no British Boat has ever been able to win back that modest America's Cup.
Bs
Plum Island airport (2B2) in Newburyport, MA is the oldest aerodrome in New England.
It is also where, for one year in 1910, the 31 year old son of a Harvard Professor and yacht designer, shook up the prestigious NY Yacht Club.
His name was William Starling Burgess (1878-1947). He would eventually merge his skills of naval architecture with the emerging field of aerodynamics to initiate aero-nautical engineering.
Check photos of wings before and after on your own.
Starling later designed three J-boats that successfully defeated three British challenges during the 1930s. The last of those three was the Ranger. All other Cup Races where suspended until after WW2.
If only the Wright Brothers had an engine that could pound the air, via propeller, as relentlessly as Simon Whistler pounds facts into our heads. Whew! This video covered a lot of ground at a rapid fire pace.
It's hard to appreciate now just how hard it was back then to achieve manned, controlled, heavier than air, powered flight. The Wright Brothers managed to succeed with a small, low power engine by building light, matching the technology available at the time. Their methodical approach - learning, observing, testing, and refining their own ideas, over and over again - led to their eventual success. It will remain forever an inspiration. If only they had the resources like Dumont to be "open source" about their discoveries, they might not have the detractors they do today.
Wright brothers used the box kite designs of Hargraves, who would fly people along Sydney beaches in his box kites in the 1890's... and published the designs in journals ... Wilber Wright acknowledged this... Really they took the working design added a engine and a control surface... but the Wrights nuanced mechanical ability and innovation brought powered flight to reality...
The first self-propelled man-made (and with a man inside) machine to take off was the 14-bis, created and piloted by Alberto Santos Dumont, who did it in public in october 23rd 1906 in Paris. It was barely mentioned in the video.
Dumont kept innovating on airplanes until 1913. His best model was the Demoiselle (or Libellule), developed between 1907 and 1909. Its specifications, with most main characteristics of later planes already included, were freely distributed and replicated by hundreds. Dumont once flew with its version IV for 18km to a castle for dinner.
This is correct.
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale awarded Santos Dumont with the invention of the airplane.
This has been revised several times against the claims of Wright Brothers afficionados but they never have any evidence.
The Wright Brothers did not do flights in front of the public.
They only published what they said they did, but never offered any evidence.
This video is just another "go USA" brainwashed victim.
This is factually incorrect and that's why it is not mentioned. Dumont was very bitter that the Wrights would not give up their secrets, and he was very bitter that he wasn't the first. But the Wrights have photographic proof. They had witnesses. The original machine still exists. Their notes on tests, design and manufacturing exist. No other claimants have such an abundance of evidence. I think Dumont, even though he would never admit it, knew for a fact that he didn't fly first, and that's why he didn't preserve such things as regards his own airplane. He knew it wasn't historically significant.
The unfortunate result of people persisting in their statements that Santos-Dumont was the first to invent the airplane is that this false assertion overshadows all the many things he DID do for aviation.
Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles channel has a very detailed and comprehensive video addressing all the arguments normally cited when this discussion arises: ruclips.net/video/SgoPPg8oVt8/видео.html
One of the main points he makes is the importance of the propellers. No one else understood the propellers. Look at any photos of any aircraft of the period, and you will see the drastic change from those before and those after the Wrights demonstrated their flier in France, even Santos-Dumont.
So well narrated it kept me interested and motivated thank you so much!
On my channel, under the icon to the left, there are 45 flight footage videos of the first and only 100% ion propelled aircrafts that fly with onboard power! While they are very lightweight and don't carry a person yet, they have other advantages such as they can fly silently with no moving mechanical parts, they do not require lighter than air gasses either. The crafts are fully patented for flying with onboard power and thoroughly verified, however there are still others who incorrectly and unfortunately claim they were first.
The challenge with ion propelled flight differs from the challenges of powered manned flight with wings, with the control problem being solved in 1903. The challenge with ion propulsion was that the thrust produced by the ionic mechanism was several orders of magnitude (about 1000 times) too low to fly onboard. In other words, the crafts and their power supplies were far too heavy to fly, except when tethered to external power supplies. The patented invention US 10,119,527 solved that problem, but it is unclear whether some of the wealthy people in academia will ever admit that they did not build the first ion propelled craft to lift its power supply as well as in a sustained manner.
This is better than some college courses I have taken. Great information in a great presentation.
The information is incorrect. Fédération Aéronautique Internationale does not consider the Wright Brothers to have invented the airplane.
Just a note - Maxim was of course born in 1840, not 1940 :)
"What do you mean the machine gun's already been invented??" :D
Maxim invented time travel so he could go back in history and invent the machine gun 😂
Another good video that thoroughly proves the Wright’s did it first is by Greg’s Airplanes and Automobiles
New Zealander Richard Pearse did.....
@23kilkenny23 if you know anything, even the tiniest thing about aerodynamics you would know that is untrue.
Nothing was proven here. There is no proof of any of Wright's flights. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale considers Santos Dumont the inventor of the airplane, not the Wright brothers.
@@23kilkenny23 Pearce's attempt is mentioned here. While Pearse was a clever and ingenious guy, There is no way that thing was going to fly. ruclips.net/video/EkpQAGQiv4Q/видео.htmlsi=vWxwySCbMDkbuhRw&t=2004
@@nickthompson318 - Said the nationalistic American that didn't even bother to google the name.
Weirdly, I was at the First Flight memorial in Kitty Hawk just this Monday. Timing be strange sometimes. It's a lovely spot.
Great job! (Even better than the BBC - I once saw an article that printed the misinformation that there was only one photograph taken when the Wrights did three flights. I've seen photos of all three (rarely posted), and the reason the same one is almost always printed is because the other two have motion blur and aren't very good.)
John Stringfellow? First powered flight (unmanned) 1848 Chard, Somerset. The Wright Bros were aware of his work.
Wow, what an amazing and difficult journey it took to achieve such a thing. Thanks for the video!
Always interesting. There is something I have noticed over the years. If an idea is to become a reality there is usually quite a few inventors working largely independent from one another and become succesfull within the span of a few months or years.
Gliders had been around. While by then trouble was that most Engines were simply to heavy ..
And did not generate enough power to overcome that weight…
Excellent video! Thanks 🙏
First “Powered” flight.
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale considers the Wright Brothers fraudsters and scammers and awards Santos Dumont with the invention of the airplane.
Agreed, Hargreaves was flying in box kites years before. He shared his research globally regarding wing fitms.
They also held back the progress of flight due to there patent rights. That's well worth a follow up video.
Wait, an artifact went to a British museum and was then returned to the original country?
Maybe because they weren't the winners in this case.
@@danielgreen1124 How does that make any sense?
As part of an attempt to discredit the Wrights, their arch-enemy Glenn Curtiss quietly made numerous modifications to Samuel Pierpont Langley's Aerodrome and finally did succeed in getting it to fly (barely) as a seaplane. After this, the Smithsonian placed their former director's Aerodrome on display alongside the Wright Flyer I, billing Aerodrome as the first aircraft capable of sustained, manned flight, even though it was originally a failure. You must remember that the Smithsonian was rather hostile turf for the Wrights, because their hottest competitor to fly first was Smithsonian Director Samuel Pierpont Langley. After Curtiss succeeded in getting Aerodrome to make a controlled hop off the water, he then removed all his modifications and returned it to it's original configuration, making it appear to have only been placed on floats and allowed to take off rather than catapulted off of a houseboat, which was how Langley had twice attempted to launch it. The effort was to try and convince the public that Aerodrome would have flown first if only Langley had chosen a better means of launching it. Not really true.
Wilbur Wright had died by this time, and Orville Wright was furious with the manner in which Aerodrome was presented, since it clearly was not capable of manned flight without extensive modification. He pulled Flyer I out of the Smithsonian and sent it to the British museum for display. Years later, the Smithsonian relented and removed the accolation from Aerodrome, and Flyer I was returned.
Or maybe we can thank the British Museum and it's members for their diligent research and efforts to discover items lost to time. Perhaps they should take thousands of artifacts back to their places of origin and hide them once again for all to never see.
You should expend a little effort to investigate the number of important artifacts the British Museum has indeed returned to countries of origin over the years... it is not at all uncommon.
In the meantime, we can enjoy thousands of artifacts, as a species, in one location rather than spending fortunes travelling the earth visiting thousands of museums to obtain the same result. I guess it doesn't matter if you're very wealthy, but for students around the world?
So --- Thank you British Museum...
and the British people for sharing.
Greeks are still waiting for their Elgin Marbles to be returned to the Acropolis in Athens. This video was excellent, but I have a minor quibble. The Wright Flyer was not returned to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which did not exist in 1948. In 1959, I saw it displayed in the crammed Arts & Industries Building next to the "Castle" on the Mall. Hanging from the ceiling, a person taller than I was could touch the skids. The Flyer was moved to the A&S Museum when it opened in 1976.
When i heard about how the Wrights went about it, it struck me how they did everything 100% right. Experiments to get data, building a wind tunnel, etc. Their methods is as (or even more) impressive than the result.
If you want to make progress in science, or make an invention, first figure out an experiment.
(I am not a maths dude so i cannot comment on stuff starting out of maths, but that is of couse another route. But the flight maths, prior to the Wrights were flawed? So they invented that too?)
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale says the Wright brothers were fraudsters. There's no evidence for any of their flights. They awarded Santos Dumont with the invention of the airplane.
I think what most impresses me is that these people, most with little formal education, could teach themselves these various skills and produce amazing inventions. I refer to almost all of the early pioneers of aviation, electricity, architecture, and engineering. I guess back when there was no TV, movies, radio, or social media, people actually put their time to good use. Makes me fondly remember my grandparents, neither of which had more than an 8th grade education (1920's). Both were skilled writers and excellent at math. Regarding Langley, The Smithsonian, and a few others, there is a lot more story as to how the Wrights were denied credit due them, and patents, not for the flying machine itself, but for their wing and propeller designs. Lastly, the obvious benefits of these machines for use by the Army and Navy were ignored, and European countries soon bypassed American aviation. It drove home the desperate need for air power to be separated from the Army, and took another half decade to finally accomplish.
I don't agree that the Europeans passed them. In 1912, the Wrights flew in France and nobody and I mean nobody could come close to what they had created. Meanwhile, back in America, Boeing was already at work building the most capable aircraft in the world. During WWI, of course there were great German warplanes, but by the end of the war, Americans were definitely in the lead with respect to aviation. I would acknowledge that Rolls Royce did have the best engines though.
Maxim's son, Hiram Percy Maxim, and
Clarence Tuska, in 1914 founded the
American Radio Relay League for the
new Hobby of Amateur Radio.
I am 80, licensed since 1962, and I
attended the 50th Anniversay in 1964,
and the 100th in 2014. 73 de W2CH. 😅
I've built a full scale section of the Wright Flyer wing using Smithsonian blueprints acquired, and it is quite a thing to see amongst many other aviation artifacts I have at my North Carolina home.
Wright on, dude!
One of your better videos Simon and team.
Thanks for this. Unfortunately, there is too much misinformation about Wright's contribution to flight on the internet.
Controlled flight incredible methodology in their work and a great engine , Personally I think the Wright Brothers literally launched us on an aviation path that we are still on today. I thank them wholeheartedly .
Otto Lilienthal was a known glider constuctor. But in early 19th century there was a tailor in german town Ulm , who did glider experiments. Seeming sucessfull, he wanted to show his sucess by promising, he could fly over Danube river from a small wooden tower. A large crowd wanted to see this, also noblemen and highranking persons. But the tailor failed and fell into Danube river, causing a poem making fun about the , Tailor of Ulm/ Schneider von Ulm'. May be twenty years ago, some scientists build a reconstruction of the glider. The scientists came to conclusion, that flying with the glider could have possible, but the tailor didn' t know that air over water ( Danube ) is not good for gliding.
Great Video!
I actually been at Kitty Hawk with my cousins in 2013. I experience the first flight!
53:58 what flight was that footage taken?
There is another piece of tech that needed to be addressed that you didnt mention. Yes the engine is important, but often overlooked is the fuel. The method by which energy is stored to later be translated by the motor.
Yes, Diesel first invented engines that were as large as a house. Still, it is strange that diesel engines are not the obvious choice for planes. Now there are some, but why oh why is that an exception?
Because the power to mass ratio is too low. @@voornaam3191
Otto Lillienthal's gliders live on in the form of modern hang gliders.
Wasn't there a group of monks at an early monastry first to fly in an early form of hang gliders???
Langley did a lot of research into how wings work. Behind Allegheny Observatory, he built a large rotating arm to which he affixed wings from birds and artificial wings.
The observatory to which he became the first director was built by wealthy industrialists who lost interest and didn't pay the bills. He took care of the bills, created research programs, and made important discoveries besides his work in aviation.
Loved this one
This was a REALLY cool story 👏👍
The problem was that the Wright Brothers then sought to monopolize aircraft development and manufacture in the US, suing every company that tried to break into this business. They spent so much of their energy in the courts that their own aircraft development stalled and they also managed to stall aircraft development in general in the US all the way until WWI. The only patent they ever had for their Flyer was for the wing warp control method. Glenn Curtiss tried to get around that by using hinged flaps, but got sued anyway. Eventually, with war looming, and US aircraft production far lagging behind Europe, the US government stepped in and took over the Wright patent to finally free up aircraft production in the US. The Curtiss and Wright companies would eventually merge to form what was at the time the largest aircraft company in the world.
This post-triumph story, of how the Wrights stymied aircraft development in the US after their initial triumph, is a story that you need to tell also.
The story of Curtiss-Wright, its rise and fall, is also a story worth telling.
Awesome episode, lots of new info I'd never heard before. Just one question, WHO the h3ll was that at 20:02?
I haven't been able to verify this, but I heard about a European (?) who made a water-launched plane that would have worked, but the Internal Combustion Engine delivered to him was twice the weight of what he ordered. He tried to use it anyway, but his airplane wouldn't take off, ran into rocks, and he was killed in the attempt.
Kress Drachenflieger, although it was wrecked, its builder did not die in the crash. It wouldn't have been capable of flight even with a stronger/lighter engine, the propellers were (like all the other pre-Wright designs) poorly made and inefficient. With the engine it did have it was extremely overweight (being more than twice as heavy as the Wright flyer).
48:10 The Wright brothers were concerned that the torque of the engine might make the plane roll. They used two counter rotating propellers to prevent the problem. In the end, others found that the torque of the engine does not affect a plane's flight very much at all.
Human innovation is a community effort. When people are only in it to benefit themselves, it is always delayed, imperfect or never happens at all.
And we find ourselves in 2024.
Can someone link the origins page? Can’t seem to find it.
Lawrence Hargrave contributed more to aviation than any other human. 1893 he conquered lift with stable heavier than air manned flight. He also invented the rotary engine.
Agreed. The Wrights correspondended with him, so he deserved a mention in this video.
I believe Felix Millet designed and built the first rotary radial engine in 1888 to power his early motorcycle designs, in which a five-cylinder radial engine was incorporated into the rear wheel, with the crankshaft serving as the axle, and the rest of the engine spinning as part of the wheel.
My respect for the Wright brothers increased exponentially as I watched this. Its interesting to note that Langley's contraption looks heavy, cumbersome and Heath-Robinsonesque , whilst the Wright's aircraft looks light, beautiful and elegant. One can see the good practices and thought processes in its aesthetic.
The dawn of flight had little to do with flight. The inventors had a good idea of how to control an aircraft. What they were waiting for was an engine with a high enough power to weight ratio.
Thank you Simon
24:50 An unmanned Langley Aerodrome is on display at the University of Pittsburgh. It's a steam powered model airplane with a wingspan of about 25 feet.
It was not covered with canvas. It was covered with muslin cloth. Many people think airplanes were covered with canvas, but this is not true. Canvas is too heavy, and has never been used as a covering for fabric-covered aircraft.
Can you imagine how heavy doped canvas would be, lol. Diy'ers make what's called poor man's fiberglass for their little homemade trailers which is canvas painted first with watered construction glue then painted.
@@jimp.7286
Yes, I can imagine, after erecting a large canvas awning over a patio. Took seven guys to carry it rolled up.
I saw a little single seat German glider called a Schiebe L-Spatz 55 that was being towed from a ranch strip in west-central Texas. The brushy terrain was tearing up the belly fabric, so they decided to replace the fabric with one layer of resin impregnated fiberglas cloth. That glider was then so heavy it never flew again. Last time I saw it, it was still rotting on its trailer at the Brady, TX, airport.
@@rescue270 👍
I stuck around the whole vid just glancing at what kind of new Watch you have? Do a watch collection.
Always full of great details and excellent story telling, Simon is the Whistler!
I don't think your opening remarks were quite right; There were three flights on Dec 17th; two very short ones of about 10-15 seconds, and then the third one, which lasted just under a minute, with the Flyer traveling just over 800 feet. Scott Manley has an excellent video on the question of who was first to fly.
Wilbur noted that getting into the air was not the problem as man had been flying kites, etc. for thousands of years. STAYING in the air was the problem and THAT required CONTROL--- And THAT is what he concentrated on.
There are claims that others, before the Wrights, managed to achieve flight but in all these cases, nobody managed to get all the prerequisites for it to be real flight as we know it. Mainly both powered and fully controllable.
Wrong! Read what the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale has to say about this. They were present when Santos Dumont flew the first powered and fully controllable airplane. Wright Brothers never did such a thing in front of any public. They said they did and you believed it.
@@jboss1073 It's too bad the Wright brothers flew many times before 1906, their flights were witnessed and photographed, their notes, designs, and planes still exist, and each design they made introduced improvements resulting in better airworthiness. Unlike say, Santos Dumont... whose follow up to the 14 Bis failed to fly. And his follow up to the follow up also failed to fly.
@@jboss1073 why is this so important to you that you've replied to multiple comments about it? Santos-Dumont did have the first manned, controlled flight in _Europe_ specifically, but even that was a year after the Wright Brothers' Flyer III made it's flight demonstrations, which were witnessed by multiple people.
Not to take away from Santos-Dunont's accomplishment, which was incredible, but the Wrights not only got there first, but their machine had greater stability, control and longevity of flight. Their design was also the bedrock upon which most later biplanes were based, especially after their 1908 demonstrations. Their design wasn't perfect, and their Model C led to deaths, but it kick-started the industry.
Otto Lilienthal’s machines were hang gliders. When asked about the danger of his flying experiments he said (not quoting) that personal injury or death was not as important as furthering the understanding of manned flight.
In books I read they said he built the store room ( hangar) for his gliders into the hill, not upon it. A minor difference, not meaning to criticize your presentation.
Wasn't there a group of monks at an early monastry first to fly in an early form of hang gliders???
Check out John Stringfellow (1799-1883), from Chard in Somerset and his much earlier work on his Aerial Steam Carriage.... Chard is indeed the birthplace of powered flight, as it was in 1848....
I wonder what the Wrights would think of the 737 or any other modern aircraft.
this one was fire
Percy Pilcher, an Englishman working in Scotland, pre-dated the Wright Borthers.
Fortunately, the mosquitos that plagued the brothers have been somewhat controlled and living in KDH is bearable. Now if the tourist would leave, it would be ideal.
Funny that Curtis and the Wright Bros respective companies are now one, merging way back in 1929.
I’ll add. . . The Dec 17 flight was basically flying a kite in wind, with their engine serving the purpose of the kite string
You cannot fly a kite into the wind. Wind speed is like taking a drug..., too little and it's not effective, too much and it will kill you. The wind speed at Kitty Hawk on Dec 17, 1903, was between 20 and 27 mph. The optimal wind speed for the flyer was between 15 and 20 mph. Think about it, an airplane is not like a kite that is tethered to the ground, it has to move forward against the wind, or it will be taken like a grocery bag and just thrown about. The Wright Flyer only had 12 horsepower, yet it "landed" 120 feet in FRONT of the launch rail (on flat ground) not behind it. We also know the later that day the wind increased and picked up the flyer and wrecked it for any more flights that day..., like a grocery bag.
At 80, I stll ride bicycles, and am proud to have been able to fly my own airplane for many years
For anyone who cares. Lyman Gilmore of Grass Valley, CA. On Wikipedia. I am from Grass Valley, so .......
It must be remembered gat although currently, “bicycle mechanic” might be seen as a slightly derogatory term, at the turn of the 20th century, bicycles were the “high tech” of the time. . .
The aircraft of an Australian inventor were on display in a German museum when the city got bombed in WW2.
Very interesting…I had no idea the Smithsonian was in such opposition to the Wright brothers. Nowadays, you think of that place as being the last word in American preservation of history, etc.
No mention at all of George Cayley?
Indeed. The "Father of Aeronautics.
By the standards of the Wright brothers themselves. They claimed that powered flight was not possible until their plane could fly well over 800 ft. In 1903 they never achieved powered flight! I believe it wasn't until 1905 or 1907 that they actually were able to fly far enough to be considered powered flight because they had already been able to launch a craft into the air and glide on the wind for well over 100 ft and sometimes much further than that
i take it you can do longer vids since you aint doing so many videos for so many channels?
According to historical accounts, Sir Richard Pearse, a New Zealand farmer and inventor, is believed to have made his first powered flight attempt on 31 March 1903 in Tumaru, near Timaru, New Zealand. While there is some debate about the exact date and nature of his achievement, witnesses described observing Pearse flying and landing a powered heavier-than-air machine on this day.
Other inventors did predate the Wright Brothers for making semi controlled (at best) 'powered leaps'.
NO ONE beat the Wright Brothers for 'Flight'. More specifically, flight where the pilot has actual meaningful control.
New Zealander Richard Pearse did.....
Richard Pearce achieved powered controlled flight in March 1903
@@markdeeming4765 You (and everyone else) lack any evidence that pre dates the Wright Brother flights.
You have nothing.
Sure, with a catapult even I can fly.
14-bis beat it.
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale says so.
If they had claimed "_powered_ heavier than air flight" I'd have conceeded their claim. Simply "heavier than air, comtrolled flight" had been done many times before.
You missed John Stringfellow and Lord Cayley.
Wasn't there a group of monks at an early monastry first to fly in an early form of hang gliders???
Icarus... Y'all see how that went! ;-)
What beats me is that the son flew higher and the sun melt the wax causing him to crash!!!? I always thought that the higher you went the colder it got!?
I do not consider the Wrights December 17, 1903 attempts at flight to be true flights. These never rose above and out of ground effect and therefore what they accomplished on that day were actually forward-moving hovers. However, learning much from these attempts at flight, particularly the power required to climb higher than a few feet above the ground, they did accomplish the first true flights in a heavier-than-air, engine-powered aeroplane capable of carrying a human being in sustained, fully controllable flight at Huffman Prairie, near Dayton Ohio in 1904 in an improved version of their first, underpowered aeroplane.
On November 16, 1904, Orville Wright flew their Flyer II above and out of ground effect over a distance of approximately 1,760 feet in 40 1/5 seconds (there is a photograph of this flight). They made more than one hundred such flights during 1904-05, including flying the first complete circle. No one had been able to do anything close to this before them.
The real Norwegian Vikings invented flying. The Nowegian Viking ships would occasionally fly from one wave-top to another in strong wind, thus inventing the art of flying. Thank you NORWAY for inventing flying!
What a load of crap! Flying requires, besides heavier than air structure, the capacity to lift a payload and the capabilty to control and navigate the aircraft. This is an aeronautical engineer writing.
@@oswaldoramosferrusola5235 Haven't you seen speed boats fly from wave to wave before? When the viking ships got up to speed they were the first to leave earth in a man made device, thereby inventing flying. We should thank the real Norwegian Vikings for teaching man how to fly!
When you see the behaviour of people like Langley, and the treatment by his ilk of truely inspirational inventors such as John Harrison, you have to question how many of their claimed achievements were their own, and not stolen from others or their students.
So true. Poor John Harrison.
Wow, who knew that the Smithsonian could be so petty!
I wonder if they talk about waiting 45 years till the Wright flyer was finally displayed at the Air and Space Museum?
If there’s one surefire way to bring Brazilians together in the RUclips comments, aside from mentioning Brazil, it’s by saying that the Wright brothers invented the airplane.
Okay, before you start dodging the stones for not mentioning Alberto Santos Dumont in your video, let me clarify quickly:
Santos Dumont flew his invention for the first time in 1906, in a public area, witnessed by a crowd of curious onlookers, reporters, and officials from the Aéro-Club de France, which was the leading French aviation institution at the time. These officials were there to witness and validate the flight, tasked with measuring the distance and confirming that the flight met the rules established for motorized flights. The flight of the 14-Bis was considered a success and a milestone in the history of aviation.
And considering that the first public flight of the Wright brothers, recorded in photos and films, only happened in 1908, two years after Santos Dumont's flight, the Brazilian is widely considered the Father of Aviation. At least in Brazil... and maybe in France, too! :)
But wait, the argument doesn’t end here. What’s really interesting in this debate about who invented what, in a journey where the airplane has many indirect parents, is one key difference between the Wright brothers and Santos Dumont: their intentions.
It’s well known that the Americans kept their invention a secret for several years, not only with the intention of selling it for military use, but also to protect their patent and exploit the invention commercially.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian was an altruist, a true citizen of the world. All of his projects were made public, available for anyone to copy and improve. In 1909, while the Wright brothers' machine was flying farther and was more efficient, Santos Dumont was debuting the Demoiselle, a small, lightweight, practical airplane, considered the first "open-source" aircraft project (to use a modern term), easy to build and fly for anyone.
So, to wrap things up, we Brazilians might acknowledge the Wright brothers as the "fathers of the airplane" for mastering the technology and getting the machine to fly, but we’ll always see Alberto Santos Dumont as the "Father of Aviation", for his great achievements and his determination to share his knowledge for the betterment of humanity.
The unfortunate result of people persisting in their statements that Santos-Dumont was the first to invent the airplane is that this false assertion overshadows all the many things he DID do for aviation.
Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles channel has a very detailed and comprehensive video addressing all the arguments normally cited when this discussion arises: ruclips.net/video/SgoPPg8oVt8/видео.html
One of the main points he makes is the importance of the propellers. No one else understood the propellers. Look at any photos of any aircraft of the period, and you will see the drastic change from those before and those after the Wrights demonstrated their flier in France, even Santos-Dumont.
The price always go to the person to succeed in building a market for there contribution.