99 years of flight

[tarp]

You know I didn't notice anyone talking about our anniversary. 99 years ago at 10:30 in the morning, the Wright Brothers did a pretty impressive thing.

Now we move 50+ folks through the sky at a time, drink coffee in pressurized cabins, worry about our jobs and complain about PFT and Freedom Air. The folks in the back still think we launch off roller skates, use bicycle gears to turn things and believe that we are the same daredevils that lifted off the beach.

Pretty cool to think that 100 years ago, we'd all be qualified to drive a horse and buggy, these words that I've typed out would be written with a fountain pen and I could only afford to share the letter with one person at a time and it would take 4-5 days for the news to reach them.

There was no TV, no air conditioning, no refridgeration to speak of, no computers and no telephone. There was minimal electrical service, some automobiles and railroads and steamships were the preferred long distance travel method. No Starbucks, No Microsoft, No Wal-mart, No Aerosmith. No idea that there would be four major wars in the century that would require the new airplane to be put to practical use.

9/17/2003 is 100 years of powered flight - wow.

 

[avbug]

99 years of powered flight with internal combustion engines...but the wrights certainly weren't the first to fly, or to fly with power. In our own patriotic egoism, we just celebrate it that way. History sees it a little differently. More importantly, powered controlled flight...that was the wright brothers contribution. Man had been flying for many years prior to that.

More significantly, 99 years later, and we still can't get a decent in-flight meal. We've put a man on the moon, but still can't get a vacum pump that lasts longer than two sticks of spearmint gum. We can fly an airplane for 20 hours on a tank of gas...but can't hold the bladder more than two or three. Some advancement.

 

[bobbysamd]

Pilot shortage

And, lest we forget. There has never been a pilot shortage. There were two Wright Brothers and only one pilot job available for the Wright Flyer!!

 

[avbug]

Double staffing, to ensure adequate crew rest.

 

[bobbysamd]

No pilot unions in 1903

No contract because of no pilots unions.

Not to open another can of worms, but weren't the first pilot unions organized among airmail pilots in 1928-'29? ALPA, of course, in 1931.

No scope clause for the Wright Flyer. No P-F-T, either.

 

[bobbysamd]

Airline food

Originally posted by avbug
More significantly, 99 years later, and we still can't get a decent in-flight meal . . . .

Airline food is proof positive of the business' cyclical nature.

I actually have had good airline food. Thirty years ago, while I was in college (and before deregulation!), I flew standby on United quite a bit. I actually had some decent meals. One time, on a nearly empty DC-8 flight, the flight must have been undercatered or something. So, instead of getting a regular hot meal, the FAs prepared for me what they called a "standby meal," julienne strips of turkey and ham, etc. on a bed of lettuce. It was good. Sure wouldn't get anything like that these days.

 

[LR25]

Best part of that flight was that you were on a DC-8.

I usually go to Sun'N'Fun every year, I wonder if there will be a good cerimony or something for the 100 year aniversary?

Anybody hear anything?

 

[pilotyip]

To Avbug

To Avbug, What do you mean they were not the first, do you count Langley's crash in the river as the first?, or some guy that luckily did not kill himself in a glider as first. The Wrights were the first to master the control of flight through moveable surfaces and almost every pilot flying in the world today can trace their flight instruction heritage back to their work. They predicted through their work, the power, the distance, the wing area needed, it was not a lucky guess, Oh I forgot you must be from the Smithsonian Society, they did not believe the Rights were first either, until 1947, and that is why the Wrights had their airplane on display in London, England until 1948.

 

[TXCAP4228]

Re: To Avbug

The Wrights were the first to master the control of flight through moveable surfaces and almost every pilot flying in the world today can trace their flight instruction heritage back to their work.

The Wright Brothers did not use moveable surfaces to control their aircraft. They used what they called "wing warping". A minor discrepancy, but significant.

I think the Wrights were the first:
1) Powered
2) Heavier than air
3) Controlled

AVBUG - I am curious to know who you will say was successful before the Wrights. Chanute and some others flew controlled gliders, but that's not powered....

I can't believe part of this thread got back to (sorry bobbysamd) P-F-* and scope!

 

[pilotyip]

moveable

the rudder and forward elevator were moveable

 

[avbug]

I am not a member of the Smithsonian. However, the only reason the Smithsonian received the Wright Flyer from Orville was a conspiratorial agreement to name Wilbur and Orville as the "Fathers of Powered Flight."

The two brothers had sought this recognition in competition with Samual Langley, who was recognized by the Smithsonian as the Father of Flight. Jelousy and pride motivated their efforts, which were tantamount to blackmail. Their effort and the subsequent agreement in 1948, has come to be known as the Smithsonian Conspiracy.

More importantly, the agreement included overlooking other competing interests or names, which may have held equal or greater notariety.

Among those who hold credibility and evidence as having made these achievements at earlier dates are Richard Pearse, Preston Watson, and Gustav Whitehead.

Much of the details of Whiteheads activities were hype, and these accounts have hurt the credibility of his actual efforts. Preston Watson was not seeking the notariety that the Wrights sought. Neither was Dr. Richard Pearse.

The notariety that the wrights got was largely their own efforts at publicity. Their efforts became quite sincere in direct competition with Curtiss, which became a very bitter fued. Recognition for their efforts was intended to garner them better support, funding, and sales for their products...which never did match up to Curtiss' efforts or products in sales or success.

The wrights were not the first to use moveable control surfaces, nor the first to conduct powered flight. They were reputed to be the first to conduct sustained controlled powered flight using an internal combustion engine, but this isn't entirely accurate, either. In fact, they weren't the first to conduct sustained powered controlled flight with an internal combustion engine in the United States (this having already been done in Germany), though we'd certainly like to think so.

nevertheless, it's the legend that people love, and the legend that will always endure. heck, it's already on the coins, so it must be accurate.

The wrights were important pioneers, but weren't technically or accurately the "first." it's important to note that the wrights didn't contribute much in the way of new material. Rather, they built on the works of others, as builders, inventors, and scientists have done for millenia. Their efforts at describing these achievements as their own were largely self-promoting, and didn't truly represent the facts.

 

[bobbysamd]

Powered flight

I recall reading many, many years ago that there was a powered flight around 1850 or so, but it was unmanned. I do not recall the type of engine; I don't believe that internal combustion engines came along until 1870 or so.

 

[Toploader]

Ok, Avbug, I'll bite here.

If the Wright brothers were not the first to fly with an internal combustion engine, who was?

 

[pilotyip]

Avbug is full of himself

according to what I have read, you have no idea of what your talking about

 

[avbug]

Here we have another brightspark who can't address the issue, so he attacks avbug instead. Avbug is full of himself? Wherein have I spoken of myself. I have spoken of the subject at hand, and intelligently addressed commentary made in a professional manner.

I have attacked no one, and have provided names as references. You can do the research yourself. I am not a historian (though I can see clearly that pilotyip is), and don't claim to be.

I am not full of my self, but thanks for your deep and abiding interest.

Now, if you haven't anything worth saying, why not just keep your trap shut?

 

[pilotyip]

Attack the Wrights, that is an outrage

besides an LDA w GS is a NPA

 

[avbug]

Ah, it's a personal issue. You're related to the wrights, then?

An LDA approach with glideslope a precision approach, regardless of how it may be arranged in your opspecs.

 

[Eagleflip]

So Bug, who in Germany made a controlled, powered flight prior to the Wrights? This is news to me...was it manned?

Always learning!

 

[CatcherintheSky]

From the Smithsonian

I think this spells it out pretty clearly.
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On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the 1903 Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. It flew forward without losing speed and landed at a point as high as that from which it started.

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The wright brothers were amazing innovators and despite any conspiracy theories they have contributed to not only to the birth of heavier than air flight but still manage to boggle NASA scientists at how they gathered such accurate aerodynamic data with primitive wind tunnels.

They were the first to understand center of pressure, which at the time was thought to move forward with an increase in pitch.

I admire them for dedicating thier lives to do what up until that time was thought to be foolish and impossible.

They deserve all recognition and more. If you have information to prove otherwise please feel free to present it here.

 

[inline]

Any aviation historian worth his/her salt will tell you that the Wrights were the first to fly an airplane in sustained and controlled flight. The other claimants of first flight were johnny-come-latelys with no credible evidence.