We thought that if some method could be found by
which it would be possible to practice by the hour instead of by
the second, there would be a hope of advancing the solution of a
very difficult problem."
The brothers found that winds of the velocity they desired for
their experiments were common on the coast of North Carolina.
They pitched their camp at Kitty Hawk in October, 1900, and made
a brief and successful trial of their gliding machine. Next year,
they returned with a much larger machine; and in 1902 they
continued their experiments with a model still further improved
from their first design. Having tested their theories and become
convinced that they were definitely on the right track, they were
no longer satisfied merely to glide. They set about constructing
a power machine. Here a new problem met them. They had decided on
two screw propellers rotating in opposite directions on the
principle of wings in flight; but the proper diameter, pitch, and
area of blade were not easily arrived at.
On December 17, 1903, the first Wright biplane was ready to
navigate the air and made four brief successful flights.
Subsequent flights in 1904 demonstrated that the problem of
equilibrium had not been fully solved; but the experiments of
1905 banished this difficulty.
The responsibility which the Wrights placed upon the aviator for
maintaining his equilibrium, and the tailless design of their
machine, caused much headshaking among foreign flying men when
Wilbur Wright appeared at the great aviation meet in France in
1908.
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