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| 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.
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| Wright 1909 Military Flier |
The next era of development was from then to the beginning
of The Great War. See you next time.
