Book Report: Air Power

Air Power:  The Men, Machines, and Ideas that Revolutionized War, From Kitty Hawk to Iraq

Air Power

By Stephen Budiansky

I first became aware of Stephen Budiansky in the days of the History Channel.   He was a color commentator in the productions about air power history.  I wrote down his name and found this book by him not at the library but where I had to buy it.  It was well worth the effort, expense and is a lasting standout gem in my library.

The beginning of flight was covered in detail.  The Wright brothers were careful researchers in a day where the newspaper was almost a primary source for facts.  The United States Mail was a means to obtain information.  It was awkwardly slow work by today’s standards.

The Wright brothers owned a shop in Dayton, Ohio where they built and sold bicycles.  In doing so, they had at hand the tools needed to build kites and later the fliers.  They had more time to work on their hobby, flying,  in the cold months when people then as now seldom ride their bicycles.  They could experiment and read to enlighten themselves.  They used bicycle spokes, hacksaw blades and other “at hand” things to build their wind tunnels where they researched the optimum air foils for the wings of the kites and the flier which followed.

As time progressed, they needed a good location, with a steady wind and no obstructions at which to test the kite.  They wrote to the US weather service which recommended Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  They went in December when they could be away from the shop.  In those days there were not busses as we know them. There might have been a train, or stage coach upon which they travelled.  It took several days each way.  They tried their constructed kite and returned to Dayton.

The brothers, Orville and Wilber, lived at the time in history when people were interested in learning to fly.  The brothers got ahead of others in the effort.  Budiansky names their competitors and describes their efforts.  One German, Otto Lilienthal, had made some 2,000 successful glides.  In August 9, 1896 when his glider stalled and plummeted 50 feet to the ground fracturing his spine.  He died the next day.

The brothers did some ground breaking things, no pun intended, which put them far ahead of others.  They could control their craft in the three axis, roll, yaw and pitch.  They designed the propeller as a wing in rotation rather than as rotating paddles.  Their invention holds up well to today’s standards of efficiency for a propeller.  They could not find an engine light enough to power their plane so they built one.  They obtained the control of roll by deforming the wing slightly which was an empty rectangular construction.  They controlled yaw with a vertical stabilizer and pitch with the horizontal stabilizer.

Finally, the flier flew under power on Dec. 17, 1903 and was piloted by Orville.  The brothers offered the plane to the AAF for $100,000.  They tried to sell it several other times, each to no avail, and then stored it away while the rest of the world was catching up.  In 1909 the US Army bought the “Wright Military” flier for $30,000.  It would accommodate two passengers seated side by side instead of one prone.

 

Wright 1909 Military Flier

The next era of development was from then to the beginning of The Great War.  See you next time.