Wright Kite

Posted by John Crandall Sep 11, 2006

By contacting the National Weather service (or its 1903 equivalent) Orville and Wilbur Wright found out that it was the site most likely to produce consistently high winds. In these winds they could test their plane as a kite, borrowing a page from Lawrence Hargrave in Australia.

They originally planned manned kite experiments, but conditions forced them to rig ropes to the controls and fly it like an unmanned kite most of the time.

From these experiments they learned to control their plane in changing wind conditions, make it turn, and do other things no aeroplane had done before.

Coupled with their wind tunnel experiemnts these experiments helped them devise the proper wing shape, and discover errors in the scientific data that would have remained undiscovered without real world testing.

Kill Devil Hill was the place that offered both constantly high winds and an elevation to launch their manned test flights without a kite tether. Their kite experiments gave them confidence in their ability to control the plane in free flight, and made testing in such extreme conditions safe.

Theirs is a wonderful story of two men motivated to attempt something utterly new, and applying all their skills and knowledge to solving an unsolved problem.