Wright brothers plane. Who was the first? The Ingenious Inventions of the Wright Brothers Posted by the Wright Brothers

The first flight on an airplane was carried out by two Wright brothers Orville and Wilbur in December 1903. The inventors were able to realize the old dream of mankind - to conquer the expanses of heaven and view the beauty of the Earth from a bird's eye view.

Of course, the first flight of the Wright brothers did not last too long, and the transport itself did not much resemble a modern airliner. But despite this, the brothers were able to raise a controlled aircraft into the sky and soar in it in the sky like birds, by using the energy of the thermal air flow.

Before this event, a person was able to learn to raise only gliders that were not equipped with motors into the heavenly heights.

Inventors of the first flying machine

Why exactly did the brothers-inventors manage to lift into the sky hard kind transport, despite the fact that many scientists have not been able to succeed in this endeavor? Several reasons contributed to the success:

1. The brothers always worked together, carefully discussing each step among themselves.
2. Before starting to build the plane of the Wright brothers, these scientists made the right decision - to learn how to soar in the sky.
3. Inventors before the construction of air transport received a lot of experience flying on an air glider, which also helped them in the design of the aircraft.

First of all, the brothers decided to learn how to soar in the heavenly space, and only after that they tried to lift heavy vehicles into the heavenly heights. But how could this be done? Scientists were able to find a way out of a difficult situation here. In order to "learn to fly," the brothers used gliders and kites that they assembled on their own.

Such a glider had sufficient dimensions to support the weight of a person. However, the first invention was unsuccessful for many reasons, so the brothers set about creating the second and third models. And only the latter was able to fully satisfy brilliant minds, as a result, the first plane of the Wright brothers rushed into the air in 1903, piloted by already experienced glider pilots. Designing several models of gliders, the brothers gained vast experience in this direction, which, of course, helped them achieve unprecedented success.

Important nuances

For the Wright brothers, it was primarily the control of the mechanism and the stability of the flight that were important. Perhaps that is why they sought to find effective ways, helping to control air transport, which they succeeded in full. In the course of numerous experiments, scientists have found an effective three-stage control method, which helped them achieve remarkable maneuverability and complete control of the aircraft.

Scientists have revised a lot of information about the design of the wings of the old air Vehicle, which could not be lifted into the sky, and decided to make some changes to the design. The brothers developed a unique form of a wind tunnel and passed over it over 100 experiences until they were able to find the ideal wing shape for the aircraft.

Wright brothers plane

How long was the first flight?

The first flight of the Wright brothers was incredibly short by today's standards - only 12 seconds. But on the same day, the researchers raised their invention into the sky two more times. The longest was the last flight, which lasted 55 seconds. During this time, the glider successfully flew a distance of 255 meters. Taking into account all the shortcomings, Wright was able to make numerous improvements to their ingenious design.

The brothers spent more than 5 years on improving the first model, and only in 1908 they presented an aircraft assembled by their own hands for Europe. Of course, the European public was shocked by what they saw, especially since, as it turned out, such an invention could be created by two ordinary person without special education.

How was the first plane flown?

The Wright brothers' first aircraft was named " Flyer-1”, and the main methods of controlling it, with minor improvements, are still used in world aviation today:

1. Cabrating - performing a transverse turn on the plane of the Wright brothers was carried out by changing the angle of the front rudder, which regulates the flight altitude. In modern airliners, the altitude control rudder is also used in aircraft, however, it is located in the tail section.
2. So that the first aircraft could carry out a longitudinal turn, a special mechanism was used. The pilot's legs were used to control it. With the help of a foot mechanism, the pilot could both bend and tilt the wings of the glider.
3. The rear steering wheel was used to implement the vertical turn.

Modern pilots performing the above maneuvers also need to control the speed, coordinate the tilt of the aircraft and the angle of flight. If these points are not taken into account, then the lifting force will be insufficient, since the wings of the airliner will lose the necessary streamlining. As a result, the plane will enter the so-called tailspin, and only a pilot with vast experience who will not lose his composure at a critical moment will be able to get out of this difficult situation.

One of the drawings by the Wright brothers

Use of the first airframe for military purposes

The plane of the Wright brothers could not but interest the military, who very quickly were able to appreciate the unique capabilities of the airplane. To create as many of these machines as possible, a huge factory was built. It was on these planes that the first bombs were dropped on the ground, and real battles took place in the airspace.

After the end of the war, airplanes were not forgotten, they turned into a convenient and fast mode of transport that delivered various cargoes to cities and countries. An airplane was often used to deliver mail and correspondence, especially to the most remote places and settlements.

Passenger traffic began in the mid-20s of the last century and was available only to wealthy people. A few years later, having received many improvements, the airplane was able to overcome a very long distance - to fly over the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

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Leonardo da Vinci thought about flying in the sky with the help of a special device in the 16th century, but the first flight was officially registered at the beginning of the last century. There is still fierce debate about who we owe the possibility of air travel to, but the fact remains that the first flight was officially registered in 1903. The very first airplane in the world was invented by the Wright brothers.

Aviation history

The first attempts to build an aircraft capable of lifting a person into the air began at the end of the 18th century. The history of the invention of the aircraft dates back to England, when Sir George Cayley took up this issue seriously and published several scientific papers in which he detailed the principle of construction and operation of the prototype of a modern aircraft.

The inventor began his work with birdwatching. scientist dedicated long time measurements of bird flight speed and wing span. These data subsequently became the basis of several publications that marked the beginning of the development of aviation.

In his first sketches, Cayley envisioned the aircraft as a boat with a tail at one end and a pair of oars at the bow. The structure was supposed to be driven by oars, which would transfer rotation to a cruciform shank at the end of the vessel. In this way, Cayley unmistakably depicted the main elements of the aircraft. It was the work of this scientist that laid the foundation for the development of aviation and became the impetus for the development of the concept of the aircraft.

The pioneer of aviation in its modern sense was another English inventor - William Henson. It was he who received an order to develop a project for an aircraft in 1842.

The "steam air crew" proposed by Henson described all the main elements of a propeller-driven aircraft. As a device that moves the entire structure, the inventor proposed to use a propeller. Many of the ideas proposed by Henson were subsequently developed and began to be used in early aircraft models.

Russian inventor N.A. Teleshov patented the project for the construction of an "aeronautics system". The concept of the flying machine was also based on a steam engine and a propeller. A few years later, the scientist improved his project and was one of the first to propose the idea of ​​​​creating a jet aircraft.

A feature of Teleshov's projects was the idea of ​​transporting passengers in a closed fuselage.

Who invented the airplane

Despite the fact that the development of the design of the aircraft was carried out by many scientists in the middle of the 19th century, the invention of the aircraft is attributed to the Wright brothers, whose airplane made a short flight in 1903.

Not everyone agrees that the Wright brothers were the first. Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont designed, built and tested the world's first airship prototype in 1901. It was then that it was proved that controlled flights are indeed possible.

According to another version, the championship in the invention of the first working aircraft should be given to the Russian inventor A.F. Mozhaisky, whose name will forever remain in the history of aviation. Thus, disputes about who invented and who created the aircraft are still ongoing.

Interesting! Despite the fact that officially the invention of the aircraft is awarded to the Wright brothers, all Brazilians are sure that Santos-Dumont invented the world's first aircraft. In Russia, it is believed that the first prototype of a modern aircraft was built by Mozhaisky.

The work of the Wright brothers

The Wright brothers were not the first inventors of the airplane. Moreover, the first uncontrolled human flight also does not belong to them. Nevertheless, the Wright brothers were able to prove the most important thing - that a person is able to fly an aircraft.

It was Wilbur and Orville Wright who first carried out controlled flight on an aircraft, thanks to which the idea of ​​​​the possibility of carrying out passenger transportation by air was further developed.

At a time when all scientists were puzzling over the possibility of installing more powerful engines to lift the aircraft into the air, the brothers focused on questions of the ability to control the aircraft. The result was a series of wind tunnel experiments that provided the basis for the development of airplane wings and propellers.

The first powered glider built by the brothers was named Flyer 1. It was made of spruce, as this material is lightweight and durable. The device was driven by a gasoline engine.

Interesting! The engine for the Flyer-1 was made by mechanic Charlie Taylor, a design feature was light weight. To do this, the mechanic used duralumin, also called duralumin.

The first successful flight was made on December 17, 1903. The plane climbed a few meters and flew about 40 meters in 12 seconds. Then there were repeated tests, as a result of which the duration and altitude of the flight increased.

Santos Dumont and 14bis

Alberto Santos-Dumont is known as the inventor of hot air balloons, he is also sometimes credited as the creator of the world's first controlled aircraft. He also owns the invention of airships, which were controlled by an engine.

In 1906, his plane called "14-bis" took off and flew over 60 meters. The height to which the inventor raised his aircraft was about 2.5 meters. A month later, Alberto Santos-Dumont flew 220 meters on the same plane, setting the first longest flight record as a result.

A feature of the "14-bis" was that the design was able to take off on its own. The Wright brothers failed to achieve this, and their plane took off with outside help. It was this nuance that became fundamental in the debate about who should be considered the inventor of the first aircraft.

After the "14-bis" the inventor seriously engaged in the development of a monoplane, as a result, the world saw the "Demoiselle".

Alberto Santos-Dumont never rested on his laurels and kept his inventions a secret. The inventor willingly shared the designs of his aircraft with thematic publications.

Aircraft Mozhaisky

The scientist presented the project of his aircraft for consideration back in 1876. Mozhaisky faced a misunderstanding of the officials of the Military Ministry, as a result, he was not allocated funds to continue his research.

Despite this, the scientist continued to develop, investing own funds, because of which the construction of the prototype of the Mozhaisky aircraft dragged on for many years.

Mozhaisky's plane was built in 1882. The first tests of the aircraft ended in disaster, but witnesses claim that the aircraft still rose some distance from the ground before it crashed.

Since there is no documentary evidence of the flight, it is impossible to consider Mozhaisky the first person to fly an airplane. However, the development of the scientist served as the basis for the development of aviation.

So who was the first

Despite numerous disputes about the year in which the aircraft was invented, the first officially registered flight belongs to the Wright brothers, which is why the Americans are considered the "fathers" of the first aircraft.

It is inappropriate to compare the contribution to the development of aviation by the Wright brothers, Santos-Dumont and Mozhaisky. Despite the fact that Mozhaisky's first aircraft was built 20 years before the first controlled flight, the inventor used a different construction principle, so it is impossible to compare his aircraft with the Wright brothers' Flyer.

Santos-Dumont was not the first to fly, but the inventor used a fundamentally new approach to the construction of an aircraft, thanks to which his device took to the air on its own.

In addition to the first controlled flight, the Wright brothers made a significant contribution to the development of aviation, the first to propose a fundamentally new approach to the construction of the propeller and wings of the aircraft.

It makes no sense to argue which of these scientists became the first, because they all made a huge contribution to the development of aviation. It was their work and research that became the basis for the invention of the prototype of the modern airliner.

The first military aircraft

Prototypes of the Flyer by the Wright brothers and the Santos-Dumont aircraft were used for military purposes.

If the brothers initially pursued the goal of inventing technology that would give an advantage to the American army, then the Brazilian Santos-Dumont was against the use of aviation for military purposes. Despite this, his work served as the starting point for the creation of a number of aircraft, which were then used during the war. Interestingly, Mozhaisky initially also pursued the construction of an aircraft that would be used for military purposes.

The first jet aircraft appeared at the height of World War II.

The first passenger aircraft

The first passenger aircraft appeared thanks to I.I. Sikorsky. The prototype of the modern airliner took off in 1914 with 12 passengers on board. In the same year, the Ilya Muromets airliner set a world record by making its first long-distance flight. He flew the distance from St. Petersburg to Kyiv, making one landing for refueling.

The airliner also participated in the transport of bombs during the First World War. The war forced Russian aviation to freeze in development for some time.

In 1925, the first K-1 aircraft appeared, then the world saw Tupolev passenger airliners and aircraft developed by KhAI. Since that time, more and more attention has been paid to passenger aircraft, they are acquiring greater passenger capacity and the ability to fly over long distances.

History of the development of jet aircraft

The first idea of ​​a jet aircraft was proposed by the Russian inventor Teleshov. An attempt to replace the propeller with a piston engine was made in 1910 by a designer from Romania, A. Coanda.

These attempts were unsuccessful, and the first successful test of a jet aircraft took place in 1939. The tests were carried out by the German company Heinkel, however, several mistakes were made during the design of the model:

• wrong choice of engine design;
• high fuel consumption;
• frequent need for refueling.

However, the first jet prototype was able to achieve a high rate of climb - more than 60 meters in one second of flight.

Due to design errors made, the jet aircraft could not move more than 50 kilometers from the airfield, due to the need for frequent refueling. Due to a number of shortcomings, the first successful model never got into mass production.

The first production aircraft was the Me-262 in 1944. This model has become an improved version of the previous Heinkel model.

Then the development of jet aircraft was picked up by Japan and Great Britain.

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Thus, jet aircraft appeared in the midst of the Second World War. They have serious combat victories on their account, however, the losses among them are also very high. First of all, this is due to the fact that the pilots simply did not have time to complete a full-fledged training in managing a fundamentally new aircraft. From the moment of the first successful flight to the advent of jet aircraft, only 30 years passed, during which there was a big breakthrough in aviation.

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Classmates

American inventors, aircraft designers and pilots Wilber and Orville Wright entered the history of aviation as brothers who were the first to fly on an aircraft they built. They loved each other dearly and always worked together. As kids, they joined a kite club. Soon their snakes became the best. Enterprising young Americans have achieved such skill that they even began to sell their first "flying machines" - kites - to other guys. Child's play has grown into a passion for the idea of ​​human flight in a controlled machine heavier than air.

December 17 is considered the birthday of aviation. It was on this day in 1903 that an airplane piloted by Orville Wright took off. The aircraft stayed in the air for 12 seconds and, having overcome 40 m, fell to the ground.

The French believe that the palm should be awarded to Clement Ader, whose aircraft in 1890 took off the ground by 20 cm. Gustav Whitehead, a German by birth, made the first flight in the United States. New Zealanders proudly remember Richard Pearse, who in March 1903 flew 135 m in a bamboo and canvas monoplane and crashed into a fence (which once again confirms how important the control system of an aircraft is).

Speaking in Chicago in September 1901 to members of the Western Society of Engineers, Wilber Wright declared that the most difficult thing to control an aircraft after it had taken off the ground. The pilot cannot immediately master the art of piloting, and he needs some time to learn how to fly. The Wright brothers carefully studied the experience of the German engineer Otto Lilienthal, the most experienced pilot of his time, who made thousands of flights on gliders of his own design. But they understood that the control systems of a motorized aircraft and a glider are different, and flight stability is achieved by changing the position of the wingtips.

Everything before December 17, 1903 is the prehistory of aviation, which began a thousand years before our era with the first Chinese kites. According to ancient chronicles, in 206 BC. these kites lifted Chinese scouts into the air. One and a half thousand years later, Marco Polo saw with his own eyes in the Celestial Empire that such flights were not fiction. In Europe, they basically didn’t go up, but jumped down, building wings for themselves. The first person to survive was Oliver, an English Benedictine monk, in 1010, who jumped from Malmesbury Abbey and landed 125 paces away, breaking his legs. Other "flights" ended more tragically. Leonardo da Vinci created drawings of an aircraft that we would call a hang glider. But the design remained on paper. And in 1783, the history of aeronautics, but not aviation, began with the hot air balloon of the Montgolfier brothers. Here the palm belongs to the Wright brothers.

Wilbur and Orville were born in 1867 and 1871, respectively, to a family of six children. One day, my father brought home a toy with wings that, with the help of a twisted elastic band, rose into the air. Orville recalled that she simply fascinated them with her brother.

Most of the time the family lived in Dayton, Ohio. When Wilbur was already finishing school, a misfortune happened to him: while playing hockey, he was hit in the mouth with a stick. The wound was not severe, but gave complications. As a result, the boy fell into a depression that lasted three years. There was no question of continuing education. By this time, Orville had graduated from high school, but he also refused to go to college. Together with his school friend, he began to print advertisements, postcards to order, and even published several short-lived newspapers. Orville talked Wilbur into the business.

The brothers were very friendly. Wilbur recalls that they “played together, worked together and eventually thought. We have always discussed our thoughts and ideas together, so everything that has been done in our lives has been the result of conversations, suggestions and discussions that we had among ourselves.” Both never married.

Working with printing presses, the brothers showed a fair amount of ingenuity, constantly inventing various devices from improvised materials. Once a visiting printer from Chicago, having familiarized himself with their machines, said: “They really work, but it’s completely incomprehensible how.”

Then came a new hobby - bicycles. By 1892 they had their own shop and workshop. The bicycle boom in the United States was in full swing: monsters with a huge, taller than human front wheel were replaced by the familiar bicycle with wheels of the same diameter - a safe car that began to be in huge demand.

The brothers successfully invented their own models, which they traded until 1907. According to historians, it was the bicycle business that was the turning point in the development of Wilbur and Orville as inventors of aeronautical machines. After all, there is something in common between a bicycle and an airplane - the need to maintain balance, control movement.

A new sharp turn in life happened when the book of the German inventor Otto Lilienthal "Air flight as the basis for aeronautics" fell into the hands of the brothers. Lilienthal designed gliders, on which he made more than 2 thousand flights, and began to design an aircraft with a 2.5 horsepower engine. If he had not died during the next flight in a glider in August 1896, perhaps the Wright brothers would not have taken priority in creating an aircraft.

After reading the book Lilienthal, which became their desktop, Wilbur and Orville began to collect all available literature on apparatuses heavier than air and asked the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to send them links to all available English language work on this topic. After studying them, they concluded: "The issue of maintaining balance has been an insurmountable obstacle in all serious attempts to solve the problem of human flight in the air." The answer to this question, in their opinion, was in the creation of a system for controlling the apparatus along three axes by means of cables, and a person must be able to constantly control the rotary, inclined and rotational movements of the apparatus parts.

With this conviction, they set about creating their first glider, on which they were to learn to fly. The brothers did not have an engineering education, but they understood that it was impossible to do without calculations, and they took up textbooks. Based on Lilienthal's work, they were able to calculate that if they wanted to lift a large glider into the air, they needed a head-on wind speed of about 30 kilometers per hour. The brothers asked the US Weather Bureau for a list of the windiest areas in the country. As expected, Chicago, which the Americans call the Windy City, turned out to be the most suitable. But they wanted to work away from onlookers and journalists.

Sixth on the Weather Bureau's list was Kitty Hawk. In those days, it was a godforsaken fishing village on one of the islands that stretched along the coast of North Carolina in a narrow chain of almost 290 kilometers. Today, this chain of Outer Banks is a favorite vacation spot for Americans who come to sunbathe on ocean beaches. And about 250 years ago, when the settlement of the islands began, they were notorious. Near Kitty Hawk, for example, there is the village of Nags Head - Nag's Head. According to legend, pirates settled there, who robbed ships that came to the shores of America. At night, in bad weather, the pirates put lanterns around the neck of the horses and let them along the coast. The sailors mistook the lights for lighthouses and sent their ships directly to the coastal rocks. The rest is a matter of technique. It may be legend, but the Wright brothers' museum shop in Kill Devil Hills, and everywhere in North Carolina, still sell maps of the Outer Banks coastline showing hundreds of shipwrecks.

Kill Devil Hills is located between Kitty Hawk and Nags Head, and the name of the place in translation means Kill the Devil Hills. There are high sand dunes, reaching 30 meters. Since 1900, Wilbur and Orville have been constantly running between Dayton and Kill Devil Hills, building and testing aircraft in their bicycle shop.

First, they launch the glider like a tethered kite, and once again they are convinced that the problem of automatic stability has not been completely solved by Shaniut, there is still work to be done.

Wilbur and Orville Wright start building gliders of their own design. They are building a biplane glider with a wingspan of 12 meters, and Professor Shanyut is invited to test it, who willingly responded and helped them with his experience and knowledge.

The brothers began by gliding over the hills. "It was the only way to study the equilibrium conditions," they say.

The glider of the Wright brothers differed significantly from the gliders of Lilienthal and Chanute. They used horizontal depth rudders, placed forward of the wing on special rods, and behind the poles arranged vertical plates that acted as rudders. To maintain lateral balance, the Wright brothers first used the method of warping the trailing edge at the ends of the wings. With the help of levers and special rods at one end of the wing, the edge deviated, at the request of the pilot, either up or down, while at the other end of the wing, the bend occurred in the opposite direction. This helped to correct rolls.

Naturally, the hanging position of the pilot, as it was on the gliders of Lilienthal and Chanute, was no longer suitable here, and the Wright brothers were located, lying on the lower wing. Leaning on their elbows, they could move the control levers. But in connection with this, a new question arose: how to scatter and land? The inventors adapted light skids from below under the wing, on which the glider landed, like on skis. And the takeoff was even simpler: the pilot lay down in his seat, took control levers in his hands, and two assistants lifted the glider by the ends of the wings, ran with it against the wind and, feeling how the lifting force balances the force of gravity, strongly pushed the glider down the hill.

During September and October 1902, Wilbur and Orville Wright made about a thousand flights with their glider. The length of some of them reached two hundred meters.

Thanks to the improved control, the pilots were now not afraid of even very strong winds.

“Having received accurate data for our calculations,” they write, “and having achieved an equilibrium sufficiently stable both in wind and in a calm atmosphere, we found it possible to start building an apparatus with a motor.”

The experience of building gliders was the best fit for Wilbur and Orville Wright when working on the first aircraft. In fact, it was the same biplane glider, only slightly larger and more durable. And a gasoline engine with a capacity of 12 horsepower and weighing about 100 kilograms was installed on the lower wing. Nearby was a cradle for the pilot with rudders. The motor developed 1400 revolutions per minute and, with the help of chain drives, rotated two pushing propellers with a diameter of 2.6 meters, located symmetrically behind the wings.

Both the gasoline engine and the propellers were made by the brothers themselves. The motor, however, was still far from perfect and rather heavy, but still better than a steam engine with its enormous weight and meager power. A lot of work had to be done on the propellers. The Wright brothers did many experiments until they finally found the right sizes for them. They made very important conclusions, which aircraft designers still use today, namely, that for each aircraft and engine, the propeller must be calculated separately.

With the same thoughtfulness and thoroughness, the Wright brothers built every detail, every node of the structure. Finally everything was ready.

The morning of December 17, 1903 was overcast and cold. A gusty wind from the ocean whistled dejectedly through the crevices of the plank shed where Wilbur and Orville were finishing the final preparations for their winged machine. Having had a quick bite, the brothers threw open the wide doors of the barn. Far away, beyond the sandy spit of the beach, the surf roared restlessly, the wind whirled the sand. The first desire was to close the doors and warm up by the brazier, because the wind was exasperating with might and main. However, the brothers wanted to quickly test their creation, and the cheerful merry fellow Orville, looking at the eldest, Wilbur, read consent in his eyes. Then he pulled the cord, and a small flag was raised on a high pole over the barn. It was a prearranged signal.

In the distance, on a sand dune where a small rescue station was located, they waved in response, and the brothers, without waiting for the helpers to arrive, pulled their airplane out of the barn.

Five people came up from the rescue station and volunteered to help. Young sailors and old sea wolves, bored by winter idleness, examined the winged wonder with curiosity, holding it tighter in gusts of wind.

Next to the shed was a wooden tower, from which Wilbur and Orville laid a wooden rail, about forty meters long, strictly against the wind. The assistants did not immediately realize what it was for. But then the brothers hoisted onto the rail a two-wheeled cart on bicycle hubs, on which the airplane was installed. Then Wilbur and his assistants lifted a rather heavy load suspended on a block to the top of the tower, and then from it, again through blocks, he led a rope to the cart. The most ingenious of the sailors realized that all this device resembled a catapult and was necessary for take-off: after all, the plane had no wheels, and for landing, as on previous gliders, only wooden skids were adapted from below.

The brothers stopped near the plane. Wilbur's pocket watch showed ten thirty in the morning. Everyone wanted to fly first. Reasonable and calm, Wilbur took out a coin and briefly asked:
- Heads or tails?
- Eagle! Orville exclaimed impatiently.

The coin soared into the air and fell back into his palm. Eagle!

Thirty-two-year-old Orville jumped up like a boy and habitually climbed onto the plane. Wilbur helped start the engine, and while it warmed up, Orville lay down beside the roaring engine in the pilot's cradle and adjusted himself once more to the controls.

The elder Wilbur moved to the edge of the wing, held it in a horizontal position, feeling how, with an increase in engine speed, the trembling from the car was transmitted to him.

Finally, Orville raised his hand in the pilot's seat - the signal "Ready to fly." Then the older brother pressed the brake lever. The load on the tower broke from the stopper, the blocks creaked. The airplane, together with the trolley, started off and, picking up speed, rushed forward along the rail. Wilbur, after running a few steps, released his wing and froze in place. The sailors, too, followed the takeoff with intense attention, and suddenly saw how the airplane broke away from the cart and soared into the air. He flew uncertainly, like a barely fledged chick that fell out of the nest, then soaring three or four meters up, then descending to the very ground. But he flew!

And from the consciousness of this miracle, one of the young sailors could not stand it and shouted: "Hurray!"

But then the airplane pecked with its nose and sank down on its runners on the sand. Wilbur clicked the stopwatch and glanced at the dial. The flight lasted twelve seconds. Only twelve seconds!

“... True, for a very short time,” the Wright brothers wrote, “if you compare it with the flight of birds, but this was the first time in world history when a car carrying a person rose own strength into the air, in free flight passed a certain horizontal distance, not reducing its speed in the least, and finally descended to the ground without damage.

And although the "known distance" was only thirty-odd meters, it was from him that the victorious path of flying vehicles heavier than air began.

Now it was Wilbur's turn. He flew a little longer and a little further. The brothers seemed to compete with each other. In the third flight, Orville already felt the effectiveness of control.

“When I flew about the same distance as Wilbur, a strong gust of wind struck from the left side, which raised the left wing and threw the car sharply to the right. I immediately turned the handle to land the car, and then started working with the tail rudder. when the left wing touched the ground first, proving that lateral control on this machine is much more efficient than on previous ones."

In the fourth flight, Wilbur was in the air for 59 seconds and flew a distance of about three hundred meters.

The Wright brothers measured this distance in steps and were satisfied. Rescue station workers who witnessed this historical event rejoiced with the brothers. They helped drag the car back to the start. And while Orville and Wilbur shared their impressions, a strong gust of wind suddenly came up from the ocean. He picked up the airplane, circled it above the ground and threw it on the sand. All attempts to keep the car were in vain.

From the airplane in an instant there was only a pile of debris. The sky seemed to take revenge on people for the fact that they dared to invade its limits.

But the Wright brothers were stubborn. Having dragged the wreckage of the car into the barn, they immediately began to discuss the project of a new, more advanced airplane.

Wilbur and Orville decided to leave Kill Devil Hills and return to Dayton. A pasture ten miles from their home was chosen to continue the work. By that time they became famous all over the world. People came to see the tests, paid a lot of money to find out from neighboring farmers when the next flight would take place. And the brothers were seriously afraid that competitors would be able to copy their model before their creation was patented. It was decided to stop flying until better times. In October 1905, the plane was driven into a hangar, and for two and a half years the Wright brothers did not fly.

All this time they were negotiating with the US War Department and even a number of European governments, trying to find a client to conclude a contract to build a commercial aircraft. Again, they took to the air only in 1908. Demonstration flights were carried out in France and Germany, and only later it was possible to agree on demonstrating the capabilities of the aircraft to American military officials. The signal corps of the US Army set a condition: a contract for the production and sale of aircraft will be signed if the device can stay in the air for about an hour, and there must be a passenger on board. The first flight ended in disaster: the plane crashed on a field in Fort Myer, Virginia. Orville was injured and his passenger was killed. And only a year later, Orville returned to Fort Myer to demonstrate the capabilities of the new model, which exceeded all expectations. The contract was signed, and the brothers created the Wright Company Corporation. Its headquarters were in New York, and the plant was in Dayton.

From 1910 to 1915, the Wright Company designed 12 different types aircraft. Orville estimated that their plant produced approximately 100 cars. However, at first things were not going well, so I had to look for other ways to make money. The brothers organized a flying school for everyone, and also began to train French and American military pilots. In parallel, they decided to create a group of pilots who were supposed to perform demonstration flights. Wilbur and Orville hoped that selling tickets to spectacles that could be held all over the country would bring good profits. However, this business lasted only two years: it had to be abandoned when two of the six pilots of the group died in accidents.

From the moment the company was founded, the brothers began to face intense competition, including from European aircraft manufacturers. Wilbur and Orville filed numerous lawsuits against American and foreign designers and pilots, who, in their opinion, violated their copyrights, protected by a number of patents. Now the time has come for the brethren to take up international law, in which they have not been very successful. So, in Germany, the courts decided not in favor of the Wrights. In France, the case dragged on until 1917, when the brothers' patents expired.

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First flight of the Flyer 1 December 17, 1903, piloted by Orville, Wilbur on the ground.
Photo of John T. Daniels from the Kill Devil Hills Lifesaving Station,
used Orville's camera on a tripod

110 years ago, on December 17, 1903, in the Kitty Hawk Valley, on a Flyer aircraft designed and built by the Wright brothers, the world's first flight was made, in which an aircraft with a person took to the air under engine power, flew forward, and landed on the spot with a height equal to the height of the take-off point.
The Wright brothers made two flights, each from ground level with a headwind of 43 km/h.
The first flight was made by Orville, he flew 36.5 meters in 12 seconds, this flight was recorded in a famous photograph. The next two flights were about 52 and 60 meters long, made by Wilber and Orville, respectively.
Their height was only about 3 meters above ground level...

What was the fate of the Wright brothers?

Wilber Wright

Wilber contracted typhoid fever and died at the age of 45 at the Wright home on May 30, 1912. And younger brother Orville inherited the presidency Wright company after Wilber's death. Sharing Wilber's aversion to business but not his business acumen, Orville sold the company in 1915.
Orville made his last flight as a pilot in 1918. He went out of business and became an aviation official, serving on various official boards and committees, including the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, NASA's predecessor...

Orville Wright

April 19, 1944 the second copy of the new aircraft Lockheed Constellation, piloted by Howard Hughes and TWA Airline President Jack Fry, flew the route from Burbank to Washington in 6 hours and 57 minutes. On the way back, the plane landed at Wright Airfield, after which Orville made his last flight, more than 40 years after the historic first takeoff. Maybe he was even allowed to sit at the helm?
Orville noted that the wingspan of the Constellation was greater than the distance of its first flight...

Orville Wright died in 1948 after a myocardial infarction, having lived a life from the dawn of aviation to the dawn of the supersonic era. Both brothers are buried in the family plot in Dayton Cemetery, Ohio.

He lay in bed, and the wind blew through the window, touched his ears and half-open lips, and whispered something to him in his sleep. It seemed that it was the wind of time that blew from the Delphic caves to tell him everything that should be said about yesterday, today and tomorrow. Somewhere in the depths of his being, voices sometimes sounded - one, two or ten, or perhaps the whole human race spoke it, but the words that escaped his lips were the same:

Look, look, we won!

For in a dream, he, they, many at once, suddenly rushed up and flew. A warm, caressing sea of ​​air stretched beneath him, and he swam, wondering and disbelieving.

Look, look! Victory!

But he did not at all ask the whole world to marvel at him; he only greedily, with his whole being, looked, drank, inhaled, felt this air, and the wind, and the rising moon. All alone he floated in the sky. The earth no longer held him down with its weight.

But wait, he thought, wait!

Tonight - what kind of night is this?

Of course, it's eve. Tomorrow will be the first time a rocket will fly to the moon. Outside the walls of this room, in the midst of the desert scorched by the Sun, a rocket is waiting for me a hundred paces from here.

Full, right? Is there a rocket there?

"Wait a minute!" he thought, and twitched, and, tightly closing his eyelids, sweating, he turned to the wall and whispered furiously. "It must be for sure! First of all, who are you?"

Who am I? he thought. What is my name?

Jedediah Prentice, born 1938, graduated from college in 1959, qualified to fly a rocket in 1965. Jedediah Prentice... Jedediah Prentice...

The wind picked up his name and carried him away! With a cry, the sleeper tried to hold him back.

Then he calmed down and waited for the wind to return his name. He waited a long time, but there was silence, a thousand times his heart beat loudly - and only then did he feel some movement in the air.

The sky opened up like a delicate blue flower. In the distance, the Aegean Sea swayed white fans of foam over the purple waves of the surf.

In the rustling of the waves crashing on the shore, he heard his name.

And again in a whisper, light as breath:

Someone shook him by the shoulder - it was his father who called him, wanted to pull him out of the night. And he, still a boy, lay curled up facing the window, outside the window one could see the shore below and the bottomless sky, and the first morning breeze stirred the golden feathers fastened with amber wax that lay near his child's bed. The golden wings seemed to come to life in the hands of the father, and when the son looked at these wings and then out the window, at the cliff, he felt that the first feathers sprout on his shoulders, trembling, sprout.

How's the wind, father?

Enough for me, but too weak for you.

Don't worry, father. Now the wings seem clumsy, but my bones will strengthen the feathers, my blood will revive the wax.

And from my blood too, and from my bones, do not forget: every person gives his children his flesh, and they must treat it carefully and wisely. Promise not to go too high, Icarus. The heat of the sun can melt your wings, son, but your fiery heart can destroy them. Be careful!

And they took out magnificent golden wings towards the morning, and the wings rustled, whispered his name, and perhaps something else - someone's name took off, spun, floated in the air like a feather.

Montgolfier.

His palms touched the burning rope, the bright quilted fabric, each thread heated and burned like summer. He tossed bundles of wool and straw into the hot-breathing flames.

Montgolfier.

He looked up - high above his head it swelled, and swayed in the wind, and soared, as if caught by the waves of the ocean. a huge silvery pear filled with a shimmering current of heated air rising above the fire. Silently, like a slumbering deity, this light shell leaned over the fields of France, and everything straightens out, expands, filled with hot air, and will soon break free. And with her, his thought and the thought of his brother will ascend into the blue quiet expanses and float, silent, serene, among the cloudy expanses in which still untamed lightning sleeps. There, in the abyss not marked on any map, in the abyss, where neither bird song nor human cry will reach, this ball will find peace. Perhaps, in this voyage, he, Montgolfier, and with him all people will hear the incomprehensible breath of God and the solemn tread of eternity.

He sighed, stirred, and the crowd stirred, on which the shadow of a heated balloon fell.

All is ready, all is well.

Good. His lips twitched in his sleep. Good. Rustle, rustle, tremble, takeoff. Good.

From her father's hands the toy rushed to the ceiling, whirled, caught by a whirlwind, which she herself raised, and hung in the air, and she and her brother did not take their eyes off her, and she fluttered over her head, and rustled, and rustled, and whispered their names.

And whisper: wind, heaven, clouds, open spaces, wings, flight.

Wilbur? Orville? Wait, how is that?

He sighs in his sleep.

A toy helicopter buzzes, hits the ceiling - an eagle noisy with its wings, a raven, a sparrow, a robin, a hawk. An eagle rustling its wings, a raven rustling its wings, and finally the wind flies into their hands, breathed out of the summer that has not yet arrived - the last time the hawk rustling its wings trembles and freezes.

In his sleep he smiled.

He rushed into the Aegean sky, clouds remained far below.

He felt a huge balloon swaying, as if drunk, ready to surrender to the power of the wind.

He felt the rustling of the sands - they would save him if he fell, an inept chick, on the soft dunes of the Atlantic coast. The slats and bracing of the light frame rang like harp strings, and he, too, was taken by the melody.

Behind the walls of the room, he feels, a rocket ready for launch is gliding along the hot desert surface, its fiery wings are still folded, it still holds back its fiery breath, but soon three billion people will speak with its voice. Soon he will wake up and slowly head towards the rocket.

And stand on the edge of a cliff.

Stand in the cool shade of a heated balloon.

Stand on the shore, under the whirlwind of sand that beats on the hawk wings of the Kitty Hawk.

And pull on the boyish shoulders and arms, to the very tips of the fingers, golden wings, fastened with golden wax.

For the last time it touches a thin, firmly sewn shell - it contains the breath of people, a hot sigh of amazement and fright, with it their dreams will ascend into the sky.

With a spark, he will awaken the gasoline engine to life.

And, standing over the abyss, he will give his father a hand for happiness - may flexible wings be obedient to him in flight!

And then he swings his arms and jumps.

He will cut the ropes and give freedom to a huge balloon.

Start the engine, lift the airplane into the air.

And, by pressing a button, it will ignite the rocket fuel.

And all together, with a leap, a jerk, rapidly ascending, smoothly gliding, tearing, cutting, penetrating the air, turning their faces to the Sun, the Moon and the stars, they will rush over the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, over fields, deserts, villages and cities; in the silence of gas, in the rustle of feathers, in the ringing and trembling of a light frame tightly covered with fabric, in a roar reminiscent of a volcanic eruption, in a muffled hasty roar; an impulse, a moment of shock, hesitation, and then - all higher, stubbornly, irresistibly, freely, miraculously, and everyone will laugh and shout their name at the top of their voices. Or other names - those who have not yet been born, or those who have died long ago, those who were picked up and carried away by the wind that intoxicates like wine, or the salty sea wind, or the silent wind, captivated in a balloon, or the wind, born of a chemical flame. . And everyone feels how wings sprout from the flesh, and open behind their shoulders, and make noise, sparkling with bright plumage. And each one leaves behind him the echo of flight, and the echo, picked up by all the winds, again and again runs around the globe, and at other times their sons and sons of sons will hear it, listening in a dream to the disturbing midnight sky.

Up and up, up, up! Spring flood, summer stream, endless river of wings!

The bell rang softly.

Now, - he whispered, - now I will wake up. One more minute...

The Aegean Sea glided away outside the window; the sands of the Atlantic coast, the plains of France turned into the desert of New Mexico. In the room, near his child's bed, feathers fastened with golden wax did not stir. Outside the window, a silvery pear filled with a hot wind does not sway, a butterfly car with tight membranous wings does not chime in the wind. There, outside the window, only a rocket - a dream ready to ignite - is waiting for one touch of his hand to take off.

In the last moment of sleep, someone asked his name.

He answered calmly what he heard all these hours, starting from midnight:

Icarus Montgolfier Wright.

He repeated it slowly, clearly - let the one who asked memorize the order, and not mix it up, and write down everything to the last implausible letter.

Icarus Montgolfier Wright.

Born - nine hundred years before the birth of Christ. elementary school graduated in Paris in 1783. High School, College - Kitty Hawk, 1903. He graduated from the course of the Earth, transferred to the Moon with God's help this day, August 1, 1970. He died and was buried, if he was lucky, on Mars, in the summer of 1999 AD. Now you can wake up.

A few minutes later he was walking across a deserted airfield and suddenly he heard someone calling, calling out again and again.

He couldn't tell if there was someone behind him or if no one was there. Whether one voice called or many voices, young or old, near or far, whether the call grew or subsided, whispered or loudly repeated all three of his glorious new names - this he did not know either. And didn't look back.

For the wind was picking up - and he let the wind gather strength, and pick him up, and carry him further, through the desert, to the very rocket that was waiting for him there ahead.
R. Bradbury