Wright Flyer.

[Troy Newman]

Watch the History channels stuff on it...The Utah State guys improved the original...and they found a major CG problem with the pilot laying down the wing....So they moved him ahead of the wing...Solved the pitchy problems....They also made major changes to the plane like air foils and materials...and a Harley engine with 65hp. 

They flew it a bunch and were making normal flights with it...including turns and so on. Actually flying around and buzzing the field. I think I they said over 200 flights on the plane....It had some failures early on but seems to be a cool replica. The Grad student in charge wanted to improve upon the Wrights work and make a better plane....

The idea was to not do what had already been done...It was build on the work already done. That is what Wilbur and Orvil did...The trashed the 1903 plane after the 4th flight and the wind damage and went home to build the a better version with what they learned in about 90 secs of flying the 1903 plane.

Cool stuff.

I'm a Aero freak and I love this stuff. I have watched the shows 3-4 times and will continue. These might be ones I actually spend the $30 on and purchase from the History channel.



TN

From: Henderson,Eric 
  To: discussion at nsrca.org 
  Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 7:48 PM
  Subject: RE: Wright Flyer.


  I don't seem to be provoking the responses that I was looking for. (I have no issue with the achievement or the replication).

  What I am really interested in the ways to get the plane to fly better and if anyone saw it as a CG issue? I thought that the collective knowledge pool in this list might have some ideas on fixing the flyability issue.

  Regards,

  Eric.


  -----Original Message-----
  From: discussion-request at nsrca.org [mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org]On Behalf Of Rcmaster199 at aol.com
  Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 7:40 PM
  To: discussion at nsrca.org
  Subject: Re: Wright Flyer.


  In a message dated 12/18/2003 10:00:06 AM Eastern Standard Time, Eric.Henderson at gartner.com writes:



    Subj:Wright Flyer. 
    Date:12/18/2003 10:00:06 AM Eastern Standard Time
    From:Eric.Henderson at gartner.com
    Reply-to:discussion at nsrca.org
    To:discussion at nsrca.org
    Sent from the Internet 



    I have been avidly following the progress of the Wright Flyer replica. It's driving me nuts watching them try to fly it. (Is there an aeronautical engineer on the project? - looks a lot like pilots and carpenters)


    From where I sit, admittedly in my arm chair, the thing looks, acts and flies very TAIL HEAVY! 

    The engines are behind the CG on the wings. There's almost nothing up front to bring the CG to a decent stable point. Am I off base here?

    Also I have meddled with models of the plane a little. Wing warping that goes only goes down induces worse wash-in at the slowest of speeds and is pretty nasty in the model. Instead of lifting the wing it drags it back making the plane turn adversely to the intended input. I know that they were trying to fly an exact replica so they went with everything as true to history as possible, but it is frustrating watching it struggle.

    Any thoughts,

    Regards,

    Eric.




  ALL THE MORE REASON TO MARVEL AT THE ORIGINAL ACCOMPLISHMENT

  mattk 
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