The Wrights\u2019 original glider was designed from experience, calculations, and experiment. Building the reproduction glider means following a trail of clues and looking for undiscovered details. All that remains of the original 1902 glider is a fragment of a wingtip\u2014the rest disintegrated into the sand. The Wright Experience used a lot of clues from the Wrights\u2019 notes, detailed photographs, models, and computer-aided design to put together the 1902 puzzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US Army drafted a set of plans for the glider in 1934, and Orville made some notations on them some thirty-two years after the glider was built. While these plans provide the fundamental framework of the aircraft, they are of limited value in producing an accurate reproduction of the glider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like all the Wright gliders, there are no original plans, so building a reproduction requires detailed study of the Wrights\u2019 notes and letters about the machine. In the case of the 1902 glider, Orville and Wilbur both noted the machine\u2019s basic dimensions, weight, and other details of its construction. These notes are the only primary accurate source of information about the glider\u2019s design.<\/p>\n\n\n
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The photographs taken by the Wrights during the 1902 and 1903 gliding seasons are the most important original source of information about the glider. The Library of Congress has made high-resolution scans of the Wrights\u2019 original glass plate images available to the public. From these images, new details of the glider have been seen with unprecedented clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using known measurements of major components of the glider, accurate measurements of the complete machine can be made from the photographs, verifying the accuracy of the existing plans or correcting earlier errors. For example, bracing wires from the aft wing spar to the rudder which are visible in the pictures are not recorded on the 1934 plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scale models made of wood and digital models made of calculations\u2014these indispensable tools are used to compare the accuracy of the reproduction glider with the photographs of the machine. They yield many surprises.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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1902-Glider-Ribs<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nHow was the 1902 Glider built? The Wright brothers manufactured the glider\u2019s components in Dayton, but assembled and tested the machine in Kitty Hawk. Only then would they know if it worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the many changes from the 1901 glider was a vertical tail added at the rear of the 1902 glider. Its purpose was to correct a strange behavior of the 1901 glider: when the Wrights turned it to the left or right, it would start the turn, but then skid in the opposite direction! The Wrights had accidentally discovered the third axis of control: yaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rudder started as a double-vaned, fixed attachment. While it clearly helped in turning the machine, a new problem arose, which the Wrights called \u201cwell digging\u201d. In a turn, the glider would bank, with one wing higher and one lower. The problem was that it would then skid toward the lower wing.<\/p>\n\n\n
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1902-Glider-2<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nOrville deduced that making the rudder moveable would correct the problem. Wilbur took it further and attached it to the wing warping mechanism. A new single-vane, moveable rudder was attached. The solution worked, and the Wrights had the first fully controllable aircraft ever built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final change was to keep the rudder moveable, but return it to its double-vaned configuration. This provided more control, and with this machine, the Wrights completed over a thousand glides in preparation for the historic flights of 1903.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RibsHip Cradle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe hip cradle is held in place by two metal bands which pivot and allow the cradle to be moved to the right or left, pulling on the cables of the wing warping mechanism and rudder assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wing Warping Pulley<\/strong>Single-Vane Rear Rudder<\/strong>Sewing the FabricAttaching the Fabric<\/strong>Airframe<\/strong>Finishing the WingsFinal Assembly\n
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1902-Glider-Final-Assembly<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nThe 1902 Glider finally gave the Wrights what they had wanted all along\u2014time in the air. Join the Wright Experience<\/a> pilots as they learn first hand how to fly the machine. Like the brothers a century ago, the Wright Experience pilots must learn how to fly the 1902 glider. The glider was first tested in a wind tunnel to determine its flight characteristics experimentally. From this data, a flight simulator was built to give the pilots an initial feel for the aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Wrights rarely described the thrill of flying. For them, it was all science. The \u201cart\u201d lay in performance: measurements of the wind speed, glide angles, distances, and duration in the air. Their success was in truly understanding the essence of flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Wright brothers measured many of the flights of the 1902 glider, taking data for time, wind speed, distance covered, and the slope of the sand dune. From these measurements, they could calculate the airspeed (wind speed + ground speed, which is distance\/time) of the glider, the lift-to-drag ratio, and other aspects of the glider\u2019s performance. It is not known whether or not they compared this data with the predicted performance of the glider, but the results convinced them that they could build successful flying machines from the data they had recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n
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1902-Glider-Scale-Model<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nIn June 2002, wind tunnel tests on the reproduction glider were carried out at the NASA\/Langley Full Scale Wind Tunnel, operated by Old Dominion University. The tunnel tests confirmed the performance of the glider as reported by the Wrights, and enabled engineers to better measure its characteristics: its lift-to-drag ratio, best lift-to-drag speed, sink rate, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like the brothers a century ago, the Wright Experience pilots must learn how to fly the 1902 glider. The glider was first tested in a wind tunnel to determine its flight characteristics experimentally. From this data, a flight simulator was built to give the pilots an initial feel for the aircraft.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
The pilots are now practicing flying the glider under the supervision of Scott Crossfield using a new method which gives them exactly what the Wrights were looking for: space, seclusion, and plenty of chances to fly. Our reproduction aircraft was tested at the NASA\/Langley Full Scale Wind Tunnel in 2002. It was flown on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 2002 and 2003 as part of pilot training for the 1903 Flyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our 1902 Glider Reproduction and Pilot Training Sponsored by Northrop Grumman<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wright brothers\u2019 next airplane design were the gliders of 1902. These machines were one of the most direct results of the 1899 kite. Indeed, many of the tests on these machines were in flying the glider as a kite, so that the Wrights could make accurate measurements of the gliders\u2019 performances under known conditions. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightexperience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1068"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightexperience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightexperience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightexperience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightexperience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1068"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightexperience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1234,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightexperience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1068\/revisions\/1234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightexperience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}