Abstract
MR. ORVILLE WRIGHT celebrates his seventieth birthday on August 19. It was he who, together with his late brother, Wilbur, first flew a heavier–than–air machine on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and, also with his brother, invented the system of control used in flying machines to–day. The first flight lasted only twelve seconds, but further experiment and trials resulted in the development of an aeroplane which established a new record on September 12, 1908, by remaining in the air for seventy–five minutes. The Wright brothers began their investigations on kites and gliders in 1900. Then they introduced two improvements: (1) the elevator for steering the machine in a vertical plane, which, though now usually attached to the tail, was placed by them in front of the main planes; (2) flexing of the rear edge of the main planes so as to vary the lift on either or both, thus maintaining balance. A petrol motor–driven screw was added in 1903.
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Mr. Orville Wright. Nature 148, 191 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148191b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148191b0