The Wright Brothers
From the American Kitefliers Association :
Every school child learns that Wilbur and Orville Wright are credited with the invention (in 1903) of the airplane. What most school children don’t realize is that the Wright brothers were also skilled in kite flying. It was their years of kite flying that directly led to the invention of the airplane.
The early experiments of the Wright brothers involved studying buzzards and other birds, and flying kites. At this same time, Lawrence Hargrave was devising the first box kite in Australia. Hargrave had weather studies and possible military purposes in mind while experimenting with box kite designs. As soon as the Wright Brothers saw and flew a Hargrave box, they knew what shape their manned flying machine should take.
Orville and Wilbur flew Hargrave kites as gliders at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This is where the first manned flights would occur several years later. One day while flying box kites at Kitty Hawk, the brothers discovered that the kites provided enough lift to be able to lift a man off the ground.
In August of 1899, they built a biplane kite, also known as a warping kite. They discovered that by varying the position of the four lines attached near the kite’s extremities, they could simulate the twisting of the wings of a soaring bird. This they called wing-warping lateral control; a method that was to characterize Wright’s airplane for years to come.
The Wright’s version of an aircraft had an important difference from that of Hargrave and others of that period who were looking for a safe, stable flight. Wilbur and Orville were looking for an unstable craft that could be controlled by steering. They achieved the ability to steer with the invention of their wing-warping lateral control. In 1900, they built their “No. 1 Glider”, which they principally flew as a kite.
In 1903, after many months of trials, the gas-powered “Wright Flyer” flew and became the world’s first manned flying machine.
Alexander Graham Bell also produced a manned flying machine. In 1908, five years after the Wright Brother’s maiden flight, Bell was the first to fly the skies over Canada. Bell’s aircraft was also a biplane design. In fact, during the first decade of the Twentieth Century, Bell’s experiments received so much more notoriety than those of the Wright Brothers that many people believed that Alexander Graham Bell rather than the Wright Brothers invented the airplane.
It was due to the experiments by Bell and the Wright Brothers using human riders, that the big breakthroughs in powered flight occurred.
BOOKS:
Taking Flight: The Story of the Wright Brothers (Ready to Read)
by Stephen Krensky
Illustrated by Larry Day
Reading level: Ages 4-8First Flight: The Story of Tom Tate and the Wright Brothers
An “I Can Read” Chapter book
By George Shea
Illustrated by Don Bolognese
Reading level: Ages 8-12The Wright Brothers: Pioneers of American Aviation (Landmark Books)
By Quentin Reynolds
Reading level: Ages 8-14How We Invented the Airplane: An Illustrated History
by Orville Wright
Introduction and commentary by Fred C. Kelly
Additional text by Alan Weissman
Published by Holiday House
ISBN: 082341082X; Reissue edition (April 1994)Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane
by Russell Freedman
With original photographs by Wilbur and Orville Wright
Reading level: Ages 8-14They Never Gave Up: Adventures in Early Aviation
Michael Wilkey
Reading level: 8-14
Victoria, BC: Orca, 1997.
ISBN 1-55143-077-0The Wright Brothers: The Birth of Modern Aviation (Giants of Science)
by Anna Sproule
Blackbirch Marketing 1999 ISBN: 1567113281
Reading level: Ages 9-12Miracle At Kitty Hawk: The Letters Of Wilbur & Orville Wright
by Fred C. Kelly (Ed.) 1996
Originally published in 1943On Great White Wings: The Wright Brothers and the Race for Flight
by Fred E. C. Culick and Spencer Dunmore
Hyperion Books, 2001
ISBN: 0-7868-6686-1The Bishop’s Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright (biography)
By Tom Crouch
Norton & Company, 1989Visions of a Flying Machine: The Wright Brothers and the Process of Invention (Smithsonian History of Aviation Series)
by Peter L. Jakab, Tom CrouchPicture History of Early Aviation: 1903-1913
By Joshua Stoff
ISBN: 0486288366
Carefully researched text and over 250 photographs introduce such early pioneers of flight as Otto Lilienthal, Samuel Langley, Octave Chanute, Louis Bleriot, the Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss and many others.
VIDEOS:
This is America Charlie Brown: The Wright Bothers at Kitty Hawk (age 8-11)
1988 Color 24 minutes
For more info, discussion questions and teaching notes see:
www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/ …Wright Stuff-Wright Brothers & the Invention of the Airplane(1996)
Narrated by Garrison Keillor
Format: Color, Black & White, NTSC
HiFi Sound, 60 minutesA&E Biography: Wilbur & Orville Wright: Dreams of Flying
Format: Color and Black&White
NTSC
Vocabulary list, discussion questions and extended activities: www.aande.com/ …Wright Brothers Controversy (The History Channel)
History’s Mysteries
VHS Video
50 min.
KITS: (assembly required)
Wright Flyer Squadron Kite, by Coast Kites, Inc.
5 foot wingspan.
Flies as a glider or a kite
$ 23.95 at www.flightmodels.comWright Flyer Brass Sculpture
Brass Model Kit
Requires a modeling knife, tweezers and glue to assemble your own museum quality display piece. Pilot figure and bicycle included.
6½” wingspan when complete.
$ 120.00 at www.historicaviation.comWright Flyer
1/5 scale model kit
$ 1995.00 at www.historicaviation.com
POSTERS:
Miracle in the Sand Dunes
Stan Stokes.
Aviation Art
This tribute to the Wright Brothers depicts their first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 16″x 11½” signed and numbered limited edition print. www.historicaviation.comPrintable posters and bookmarks (Adobe .pdf format) wright.nasa.gov
INTERNET WEB SITES:
www.centennialofflight.gov
sections for kids, educators, contains simulations, movies, image files lots of great infowright.nasa.gov
another great site includes lesson plans for K-12, videos, images, printable posters, bookmarks (pdf files)invention.psychology.msstate.edu/ …
Collection of 301 photographs – Library of Congress
www.yellowairplane.com/ …
resources and web links – offers an annotated list of books and videos, including approximate age/reading levels
TEACHERS:
Lesson plans
www.yale.org/ …A skit for elementary and middle school children, written by Sandra J. Campbell, FAA
www.faa.gov/ …Mock interview with Orville and Wilbur:
quest.nasa.gov/ …
Be sure to check these other online resources:
www.first-to-fly.com (celebrating the centennial of flight)
www.wright-house.com/ …
www.hfmgv.org/ …
www.pbs.org/wgbh/ …
statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/ …
www.wright-b-flyer.org/