Wright Flyer

Man had always dreamed of flying in the sky like birds, so did the Wright Brothers. As we all know they are responsible for making a machine – the wright flyer - which, what we today know as an aircraft. But before the Wright Brothers made their marvelous invention in 1903, their were several attempts made towards developing a stable, controlled and true “flying machines”.

History tells that many centuries before, attempts were made to fulfill man’s dream of flying. The attempts and progress made are as follows:-

1. In 9th century, a Muslim Berber inventor Abbas Ibn Firnas made an attempt at flight using a set of wings, making it like a glider.

2. In 1783, Pilatre de Rozier of France made an attempt in a free-flying balloon, in which he traveled 9km in 25 minutes.

3. On 1 December 1783 La Charlière piloted by Jacques Charles and Nicolas-Louis Robert made the first manned hydrogen balloon flight.

4. In 1868, John Stringfellow flew a powered monoplane model a few dozen feet at an exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London in 1868.

5. George Cayley of England made a first well-documented flight which was actually a glide. He also made first scientific studies on aerodynamic forces and discovered the four aerodynamic forces of flight – weight, lift, drag, thrust. Modern planes are designed & based on his discoveries, thus he is sometimes known as “Father of Aviation”.

6. In 1856, Jean-Marie Le Bris of France was the first to fly higher than his point of departure, by having his glider pulled by a horse on a beach, against the wind.

7. Jan Wnek of Poland, made several controlled flights in his glider during 1866.

8. Félix du Temple de la Croix had a first take-off of a manned and powered aircraft, from a downsloped ramp, resulting in a brief hop a few feet above the ground in 1874, France.

9. The same year, i.e. in 1874, Victor Tatin, a French inventor made a first airplane to lift itself under its own power, by a compressed-air engine. The Aeroplane was an unmanned plane.

10. Alexander Feodorovich Mozhaiski of Russian empire made a first powered hop by a manned multi steam engine which had a fixed-wing, it traveled 20–30 meters, from a downsloped ramp.

11. On October 9, 1890 Clement Ader of France made the first manned, powered, heavier-than-air flight of a significant distance of 50m but failed to achieve altitude in his Ader Eole.

12. In 1891, Otto Lilienthal of Germany became the first person to make controlled untethered glides repeatedly and the first to be photographed flying a heavier-than-air machine. He is also known as “Glider King”.

13. In 1894, Lawrence Hargrave of Australia linked four of his kites together, added a sling seat, and flew it 16 feet. By this he demonstrated that a stable and safe flying machine can be made.

14. In 1895, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade of India designed an unmanned aircraft Marutsakthi based on Vedic technology, it took off and flew to a height of 1500 feet before a large audience.

15. On May 6, 1896 Samuel Pierpont Langley of United States achieved the first sustained by a heavier-than-air powered, unmanned aircraft driven by a stem engine.

16. Octave Chanute of United States designed first rectangular wing strut-braced biplane hang glider in 1896. This design strongly influenced the Wright Brothers.

17. In 1899, Gustave Whitehead of United States flew a steam-powered monoplane almost a mile and crashed into a three-story building.

In 19th Century many more attempts were made before the wright brothers made their attempt, few were successful and many were not. But none of the flights were completely stable or fully controlled or met the heavier-than-air flight criteria or they were unmanned.

So what made the Wright Flyer successful?

In 1902, Wright Brothers completed the development of a three-axis control system with the incorporation of a movable rudder connected to the wing warping control in their glider. They made several controlled gliding flights in their 1902 glider. The three-axis control system is still used on modern aircraft’s.

And on 17th December, 1903 Wright Brothers flew their first controlled, powered, sustained heavier than air flight, in Wright Flyer, thus achieving man’s dream to fly in the sky freely!

Read these articles :-

World War I Aircraft
How to Be a Good Conversationalist
My Dream Interpretation – How it Started
The Bright Side of Life

A week earlier I had an idea to write down my dreams but then again I thought they are just dreams! generated by our thinking and what we have seen & heard earlier. So I dropped the idea, but 2 days earlier I had a horrible and weird dream, which actually made me scream. I woke up and began thinking & I came up to a conclusion that I haven’t thought, seen or heard about that in recent past that came into my dream and I began seriously thinking on noting down them. I also wanted to know what are my dream interpretation, what do they actually mean. It took me 2 days to finally decide that I am going to note them down. But that dream got fade and I cant remember exactly the same. So I forgot about that and concentrated on today’s dream.

A rough drawing

Six planes and a Man

Today I actually had a dream about planes. Their were exactly six planes of that type, those were marvelous and incredible planes. Add to it they were nuclear powered which made them deadly. One person approached me to look after these planes as they were rare and precious. He was saying that he will become “protector” of my planes. For a second I laughed and he said, ‘Sir, please take it seriously, these planes are extraordinary and you need to protect them from any kind of theft or anything like that. These are precious piece of art & engineering, and only six of them are made which make them rare.’ He was trying hard to convince me.

I said, you are going to protect them means what? so you will harm or even kill anyone who dares to touch them?

He replied, Yes.

I asked him why? life is more valuable than those planes.

He said, but their are only six of them and besides the one who is going to steal them or harm them will have no good intentions, as they are nuclear powered. So I don’t care even it takes me to kill somebody.

I looked at him and just kept looking at him. He sounded like he was a commando. I was going to reply with my final answer but the alarm rang and my dream broke.

The 6:24 am alarm woke me up. I always have 3 alarms continuously to get me out of sleep. As you must have figured out, its right that I am very sleepy person.

Now you must be thinking why three alarms? Isn’t the snooze option available? The thing is that when I take my cell phone in hand to switch off the alarm, I also have a habit of switching off the snooze function completely. Sleep is very dear to me, but today was different. I woke and started thinking about this dream.

My interpretation on today’s dream

I came up to a conclusion that it must be related to something that I am fearing to lose, so I need someone to protect that “thing”.

Anyways today’s dream was different altogether, what do you think? Is my dream interpretation correct?

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Read these articles :-

Before the Wright Brothers
World War I Aircraft
How to Be a Good Conversationalist
The Bright Side of Life

You would like to read how it started, hope we have a good journey.