The Wright Brothers calculated that their plane would fly—before it ever flew—using reasoning that took no account whatsoever of their aircraft’s similarity to a bird. They did look at birds (and I have looked at neuroscience) but the final calculations did not mention birds (I am fairly confident in asserting). A working airplane does not fly because it has wings “just like a bird”.
Actually the wright brother’s central innovation and the centerpiece of the later aviation patent wars—wing warping based flight control—was literally directly copied from birds. It involved just about zero aerodynamics calculations. Moreover their process didn’t involve much “calculation” in general; they downloaded a library of existing flyer designs from the smithsonian and then developed a wind tunnel to test said designs at high throughput before selecting a few for full-scale physical prototypes. Their process was light on formal theory and heavy on experimentation.
This is a good corrective, and also very compatible with “similarity to birds is not what gave the Wright brothers confidence that their plane would fly”.
At the time the wright brothers entered the race there were many successful glider designs already, and it was fairly obvious to many that one could build a powered flyer by attaching an engine to a glider. The two key challenges were thrust to weight ratio and control. Overcoming the first obstacle was mostly a matter of timing due to exploit the rapid improvements in IC engines, while nobody really had good ideas for control yet. Competitors were exploring everything from “sky railroads” (airplanes on fixed flight tracks with zero control) to the obvious naval ship-like pure rudder control (which doesn’t work well).
So the wright brothers already had confidence their plane would fly before even entering the race, if by “fly” we only mean in the weak aerodynamic sense of “it’s possible to stay aloft”. But for true powered controlled flight—it is exactly similarity to birds that gave them confidence as avian flight control is literally the source of their key innovation.
But for true powered controlled flight—it is exactly similarity to birds that gave them confidence as avian flight control is literally the source of their key innovation.
Why do you think the confidence came from this and not from the fact that
they downloaded a library of existing flyer designs from the smithsonian and then developed a wind tunnel to test said designs at high throughput before selecting a few for full-scale physical prototypes.
I said for “true powered controlled fllight”, which nobody had yet achieved. The existing flyer designs that worked were gliders. From the sources I’ve seen (wikipedia, top google hits etc), they used the wind tunnel primarily to gather test data on the aerodynamics of flyer designs in general but mainly wings and later propellers. Wing warping isn’t mentioned in conjunction with wind tunnel testing.
Actually the wright brother’s central innovation and the centerpiece of the later aviation patent wars—wing warping based flight control—was literally directly copied from birds. It involved just about zero aerodynamics calculations. Moreover their process didn’t involve much “calculation” in general; they downloaded a library of existing flyer designs from the smithsonian and then developed a wind tunnel to test said designs at high throughput before selecting a few for full-scale physical prototypes. Their process was light on formal theory and heavy on experimentation.
This is a good corrective, and also very compatible with “similarity to birds is not what gave the Wright brothers confidence that their plane would fly”.
At the time the wright brothers entered the race there were many successful glider designs already, and it was fairly obvious to many that one could build a powered flyer by attaching an engine to a glider. The two key challenges were thrust to weight ratio and control. Overcoming the first obstacle was mostly a matter of timing due to exploit the rapid improvements in IC engines, while nobody really had good ideas for control yet. Competitors were exploring everything from “sky railroads” (airplanes on fixed flight tracks with zero control) to the obvious naval ship-like pure rudder control (which doesn’t work well).
So the wright brothers already had confidence their plane would fly before even entering the race, if by “fly” we only mean in the weak aerodynamic sense of “it’s possible to stay aloft”. But for true powered controlled flight—it is exactly similarity to birds that gave them confidence as avian flight control is literally the source of their key innovation.
Why do you think the confidence came from this and not from the fact that
?
I said for “true powered controlled fllight”, which nobody had yet achieved. The existing flyer designs that worked were gliders. From the sources I’ve seen (wikipedia, top google hits etc), they used the wind tunnel primarily to gather test data on the aerodynamics of flyer designs in general but mainly wings and later propellers. Wing warping isn’t mentioned in conjunction with wind tunnel testing.
gotcha, thanks!