The 1899 Kite

What Came Before?

The Wrights’ curiosity led them to study the work of many brilliant pioneers and early flying machines. The Wrights acknowledged the work of their predecessors often, giving credit to those they admired and who had inspired their own progress. Their highest praise went to those who approached flight scientifically. Absorbing the lessons of the past was the Wrights first critical step in their discoveries. The 1899 kite both borrows and departs from their aeronautical ancestors.

Sir George Cayley: Sir George Cayley was mentioned by Wilbur Wright in the first sentence of his first letter to the Smithsonian in 1899, the year the kite was built and flown. Writing almost 30 years later, Orville said of the eccentric English baron, “To my mind, Sir George Cayley was the first of the important pioneers.”

That the Wrights recognized Cayley is a testament to his unprecedented scientific approach to flight. Cayley was the first to describe, in clear, reasoned language, the essential problems of flight. In his revolutionary article “On Aerial Navigation” published in 1809 and 1810, Cayley stated “The whole problem is confined within these limits–to make a surface support a given weight by the application of power to the resistance of air.”

Cayley’s work consisted of years of careful observation and measurements of birds and bird flight, experimentation with whirling arms, and actual practice with fixed-wing glider models and full-sized, man-carrying machines. Like most of their other predecessors, the Wrights ultimately used little of Cayley’s results, relying instead on their own data and experience. But Cayley’s approach set a precedent for careful scientific study which they always acknowledged.

Cayley’s groundbreaking experiments were the basis for most of the serious experimenters of the 19th century.

Alphonse Pénaud: Like Sir Cayley, Alphonse Pénaud was mentioned in Wilbur’s first letter to the Smithsonian requesting information about flight. His name is mentioned frequently in the Wrights’ papers, often with reference to the “Pénaud tail”. Orville called him “one of the greatest minds to wrestle with the problem of flight” (McFarland, p. 1153). Although the Wrights used almost none of his actual work in their experiments, his visionary work proved the possibility of controlled, powered flying machines.

In 1880, known mostly for his flying toys rather than as a brilliant inventor, Pénaud killed himself at the age of 30. Nine years before, he had created what he called the “planophore”, a rubber-band powered monoplane with an adjustable center of gravity, tapered wings set at a dihedral angle, and rear-mounted pusher propeller. It was the first stable heavier-than-air machine that could fly. He had also built and flown ornithopters and helicopters, one of which was given to the Wrights as children in 1878.

Octave Chaunute: The closest thing the Wrights had to a mentor, Chanute was both an inspiration and a sounding board for the Wrights’ ideas and investigations. After Octave Chanute died in November 1910, Wilbur Wright wrote, “If he had not lived, the entire history of progress of flying machines would have been other than it has been…”(McFarland, p.1013). Wilbur spoke from great personal experience. He had written to Chanute in 1899 about his“affliction with the belief that flight is possible to man,” and Chanute responded with information and advice and seemingly limitless patience, encouraged the Wrights in their efforts, and perhaps most importantly, took them seriously. He was a sounding board for their work for the remainder of his life.

As an accomplished civil engineer, Chanute brought considerable authority and experience to the problem of designing a flying machine. In 1896, he designed and flew a biplane glider whose wings were held together with a wire bracing structure which he had borrowed from the design of railroad bridges. Known as the “Pratt Truss”, it held together the glider’s lightweight framework with considerable strength. Although the Wrights adapted the design to their system of control, the 1896 glider is the direct ancestor of the 1899 kite.

Samuel Pierpont Langely: Typically cast as a competitor of the Wrights, Langley in fact was an important inspiration to the Wrights, who always held him and his pilot, Charles Manly, in high regard.

In November 1910, Wilbur reflected on the work of Samuel Pierpont Langley in a letter to Octave Chanute: “When scientists considered it discreditable to work in the field of aeronautics he possessed both the discernment to discover possibilities there and the moral courage to subject himself to the ridicule of the public and the apologies of his friends… his accounts of the troubles he had encountered and overcome put us on our guard and enabled us to entirely avoid some of the worst of them… we have always found a study of his writings very profitable, especially at a time when we were trying to find out what the real sticking points of flying were.” (McFarland, p.737)

Wilbur’s admiration for Langley was genuine. Despite a controversy which surrounded Langley and the Wrights for over 25 years, the Wrights always held his work in high regard, and his character with the utmost respect. Like the Wrights, Langley had not gone to college, yet was one of the most respected scientists in the country, having developed a significant body of research in astronomy and as an effective Secretary of the Smithsonian.

Langley achieved his goal of demonstrating the possibility of powered flight. His aerodromes remain outstanding examples of ingenuity and craftsmanship, as is the engine created for his Grand Aerodrome and modified by Charles Manly, his assistant and pilot. Although his methods in his flying experiments relied greatly on trial-and-error, his thorough and accurate documentation of his work was of incalculable value to the Wrights. It is ironic that in this, the Wrights did not follow his lead.