The Wright Brothers, Flight Test and NASA A Centennial of Flight Story 1903 - 2003

1
The Wright Brothers,Flight Test
andNASAA Centennial of Flight Story1903 -
2003
2
The Wright Brothers

• Orville and Wilbur
• Dayton, Ohio
• Wright Cycle Company
• Brain synchronicity
• Systematic in their experimental approach

3
The Wright Brothers

• Read the research
• Talked with colleagues
• Determined problems to be solved
• Delineated a process for solving problems safely

4
The Wright Brothers

• Problems to be solved
• Balance during flight a way to safely control
  the airplanes motion
• An engine to move it through the air
• Wings needed to lift an airplane into the air

5
The Wright Brothers

• Problem
• Balance during flight a way to safely
  control the airplanes motion

6
The Wright Brothers

• Balance Solutions
• Horizontal rudder
• Wingwarping
• Hip cradle

7
The Wright Brothers

• Problem
• An engine to move it through the air
• Lightweight
• Minimal vibration
• Powerful enough to turn the propellers

8
The Wright Brothers

• Engine Solutions
• Small, powerful, gas engine
• Powered 2 propellers

9
The Wright Brothers

• Problem
• Wings needed to lift airplane into the air
• Determine the length-to-width ratio
• Proper amount of camber
• Most efficient angle of attack
• The center of pressure

10
The Wright Brothers

• Wing Solutions
• Throw out previous tables and theories
• Devise a better method of testing wings
• Use new test results to design a better wing

11
Wright Brothers

• The Wright Brothers Results
• A set of highly accurate tables that predicted in
  advance the performance of an aircrafts wings
• Changes in their aircraft design
• Biggest glider yet
• Longer wings
• Narrower wings
• Tail section

12
Flight Test

• What is Flight Test?

13
Flight Test

• Early Flight Test Pilots
• Tower Jumpers
• Oliver of Malmesbury
• Giovanni Dante
• Marquis de Bocqueville

14
Flight Test

• Flight Test Pilots who were Contemporaries of the
  Wright Brothers

• Cayley
• Otto Lilienthal
• Octave Chanute and his young test pilots

15
Flight Test

• Flight Test Pilots who were Contemporaries of the
  Wright Brothers
• Lawrence Hargrave
• Percy Pilcher
• Professor John

16
Flight Test

• Wright Brothers as Flight Test Pilots
• Early tests used kite models
• Performed in Dayton, Ohio

17
Flight Test

• Wright Brothers as Flight Test Pilots
• Birds helped flight test
• Gave idea for wing-warping
• Tested first on bi-winged kite

18
Flight Test

• Wright Brothers as Flight Test Pilots
• Needed location for piloted flight tests
• Researched for best place
• US National Weather Service
• Outer Banks of North Carolina

19
Flight Test

• Wright Brothers as Flight Test Pilots
• 1901 - 1902
• Tested gliders
• First flown pilotless (like kites)
• Then piloted

20
Flight Test

• Wright Brothers as Flight Test Pilots
• 1903
• Flight testing power-driven aircraft
• Ran ground tests on engine first
• Made changes based upon ground tests
• Then successfully flight tested

21
Flight Test

• Later Flight Test Pilots
• Hanna Reitsch
• Charles Lindberg

22
Flight Test

• Flight Test progresses

23
Flight Test

• NACA
• National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

24
Flight Test

• NACA grows
• Wind tunnel complex built at Ames
• Tunnels get larger
• Airspeeds get faster
• Testing becomes more specialized

25
Flight Test

• Muroc

• Early flight tests
• Chalmers Goodlin
• Chuck Yeager

26
NASA

• NACA evolves into NASA

27
NASA

• Ames Research Center

• Early Flight Test
• Wind Tunnels
• Kuiper
• XV-15
• Present testing
• Rotorcraft
• Computer simulations

28
NASA

• Dryden Flight Research Center

• Early Flight Test
• Scott Crossfield
• X-15
• Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
• Present testing
• ERAST
• Hyper-X

29
NASA

• Flight Test in the Future