Wright Flyer reenactment

[bobbysamd]

Wright Brothers re-enactment

I think the idea was to recreate the original flight using the same technology the Wright brothers had available, not to do "better".

I agree with Chunk, it shows how amazing a feat it was 100 years ago.

I second Chunk. It proves that the Wrights had a good reason to select Kitty Hawk over other locations.

There's probably a way to research National Weather Service records to find out the winds on December 17, 1903. The winds must have been far stronger that day than yesterday.

 

[AV8OR]

Tought the result was too bad as well. Maybe they'll try again later though.

Greatest disappointment though.....that when Pres. Bush was mentioning all of the heros of aviation that were pesent, he metioned everybody but Scott Crossfield. As far as I'm concerned he is as big a hero of that era as those other steelly eyed jet age pilots mentioned. A mistake in my estimation, especially since he was one of the major contributors to the project.

 

[enigma]

It wasn't the exact airplane, actually. The original airplane doesn't exist, as it was flown at Kill Devil Hills. That airplane was heavily modified by Wilbur at a later date. The exact nuances of the airplane that flew 100 years ago is a mystery. Drawings are available in rudimentary form of later Flyers, but not the 1903 in it's form at the time.

This agrees with what I have read. The original Flyer was destroyed by a wind gust and was modified upon the rebuild. It was subsequently damaged and more modifications were made during those repairs. After Wilbur died, Orville attempted to put it back to original sometime around the occasion of the Flyers exhibition in London, but a lot of time had passed since the original build date and even Orville wasn't sure if his restoration is authentic.

Interestingly enough, Ken Hydes "Wright Experience" Flyer is probably more authentic than the original which is currently displayed at the NASM since the NASM flyer was restored from Orville's memory and Hydes Flyer used ever bit of discernable data that $1.2 million could acquire. I understand that the recreators scanned ever known picture into a computer and used a powerful program to match the dimensions between images, and then used those dimensions to develop the best possible set of blueprints.

Recreating the engine was apparently even more of a challenge since it was built by eyeball. The prints that do exist for the engine do not produce a workable engine if followed to the specified dimensions.

cheers,
enigma

 

[Slim]

I've seen Ken Hyde's work before. That work includes a Jenny he flew to Oshkosh. That flight received front page coverage in USA Today. His wife drove to Oshkosh faster than he could fly.

The Discovery Channel had a two-hour production covering Ken's activities, as well as others, in this project.

The airplane did fly. However, the weather prevented flight yesterday. My father, a retired aeronautical engineer, pointed out conditions, as documented by the Wright brothers in 1903, showed higher winds and cooler temperatures. While disappointed, I'm not surprised the airplane didn't fly yesterday.