IP: Engineers Test Wright Glider Replica in Wind Tunnel

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 09:22:43 -0500
> To: Dave () farber net
> From: "Tice F. DeYoung" <tdeyoung () mail arc nasa gov>
>
>
> Dave,
>
>    IPers might be interested in yesterday's NASA Langley Research Center 
> Press Release.  It is interesting to note that the Wright brothers built 
> and used a small wind tunnel for testing their designs.
>
> Tice
>
> _______________
>
>
> Michael Braukus
> Headquarters, Washington                               Nov. 1, 2001
> (Phone: 202/358-1979)
>
> Kathy Barnstorff
> Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
> (Phone: 757/864-9886)
>
> RELEASE: 01-211
>
> ENGINEERS TEST WRIGHT GLIDER REPLICA IN WIND TUNNEL
>
>      Before they learned to fly, the Wright brothers learned to glide. A 
> life-size reproduction of one of the aviation pioneers' early gliders has 
> undergone wind tunnel tests at NASA's Langley Research Center's Full 
> Scale Tunnel in Hampton, Va.
>
> During the experiment, which is being underwritten by the Langley Research 
> Center, engineers took a number of different measurements to determine how 
> the Wright 1901 glider performed. The 22-foot wingspan aircraft was the 
> second glider designed by Orville and Wilbur Wright as they worked to 
> create the first human-powered flying machine.
>
> "It's fitting that we invest in wind tunnel tests to document the Wrights' 
> discoveries. Orville Wright was on the advisory committee that established 
> Langley Research Center in 1917, just fourteen years after that first 
> historic flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C. Wright also visited Langley a number 
> of times," said Mike Finneran, head of Langley's Office of External 
> Affairs. "Our first engineers built on the Wright brothers' early 
> successes and helped advance aeronautics into a modern science."
>
> The wind tunnel tests are part of ongoing research being done by Old 
> Dominion University (ODU) of Norfolk, Va., and The Wright Experience of 
> Warrenton, Va. The Discovery of Flight Foundation, a non-profit 
> organization also in Warrenton, has contracted with The Wright Experience 
> to uncover and document how the Wright brothers, neither of whom finished 
> high school, managed to conquer the principles of flight in five short years.
>
> None of the Wrights' first prototype aircraft were saved, nor were their 
> early construction documents and drawings. To try to retrace the brothers' 
> ground-breaking steps to flight, Wright Experience founder Ken Hyde and 
> his team are researching, reconstructing, testing, analyzing and 
> documenting authentic full-scale reproductions of many of the Wright 
> brothers' aircraft and engines.
>
> "Rediscovering the secrets of the Wright brothers to inspire a new 
> generation is what motivates The Wright Experience," said Hyde. "Our 
> journey will continue through December 17, 2003, with the flight of a 
> reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk. Our ultimate goal is 
> to build and test all the Wrights' aircraft. It is The Wright Experience's 
> mission to keep the Wright brothers' dream alive."
>
> The 1901 glider was an important step in the Wrights' development of the 
> Flyer, not because it was successful, but because it wasn't.
>
> "The 1901 glider was extremely difficult to control and it didn't 
> demonstrate flight-handling characteristics consistent with theories used 
> by the Wright brothers," said Professor Robert Ash, Wright tunnel-test 
> program manager for ODU. "So Wilbur and Orville decided they needed a 
> different approach. They built a small-scale wind tunnel to evaluate 
> nearly 200 airfoil and wing models. They started the world's first 
> successful wind tunnel-based aircraft design program, a precursor to the 
> systems engineering approach used by the aviation industry today."
>
> The Wright Experience and ODU have already built and tested a number of 
> reproductions of Wright propellers in their quest to "reverse engineer" 
> the 1903 Wright Flyer and other early Wright aircraft. The reproduction of 
> the Flyer is under construction at The Wright Experience workshop.
>
> More information on the Wright Experience is available at: 
> http://www.wrightexperience.com
>
> More information on the Langley Full Scale Tunnel is available at: 
> http://www.lfst.com
>
> The US Centennial of Flight Commission was set up by Congress to provide 
> recommendations and advice to the President, Congress and Federal agencies 
> on the most effective ways to encourage and promote national and 
> international commemoration of the centennial of powered flight. More 
> information on the centennial, the history and future of powered flight, 
> and events planned to celebrate the upcoming anniversary is available at:
> http//www.centennialofflight.gov
>
>                          -end-
>
> PRODUCERS NOTE: Video of the Wright glider tunnel tests will be available 
> November 1 and 2 on the NASA Television video file, which airs weekdays at 
> noon EST, with replays at 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight. NASA 
> Television is available on GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85 degrees West 
> longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency  of 3880 MHz, and audio 
> of 6.8 MHz.


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