Posted: 3:12 am
July 9, 2008
Written and illustrated by Brian Floca
STORY SO FAR: Wilbur Wright's growing interest in flying machines has led him to write the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. A response arrives a week later.
STORY SO FAR: Wilbur Wright has decided that the three things needed to build a flying machine are: wings that will create lift, a light and powerful engine, and a way to control the machine in the air. The first two problems Wilbur considers solved. To solve the third, he has been studying birds.
CHAPTER FIVE
Control
July 1899
"Let's go," Orville said.
"I'm thinking," said Wilbur.
The brothers were in their workshop, surrounded by all the bits and pieces of bicycle anatomy: wheels, chains, gears, and frames. Both brothers wore blue aprons, and both held paintbrushes. They had been painting bicycle frames all morning.
"Think less," Orv said. "Paint more."
"I'm thinking," Wilbur said, "that birds are a little like windmills."
Orville looked up. "I've painted five frames and you've painted three," he said, "because birds are like windmills?"
"How does a bird keep its balance in the air?" Wilbur asked. "Say that a bird is gliding in a steady wind. Not flapping, just gliding. Now, say the direction of the wind changes. It forces the bird to roll right. How does the bird restore its balance?"
"When I finish this frame it's going to be six to three."
"They move the tips of their wings," Wilbur said, "so that the wingtips meet the air at different angles. A bird being rolled right raises the tip on its right wing, and lowers the tip on its left wing. Then the right wing creates more lift than the left wing. So the right wing rises. The left wing drops. And the bird rolls left. In other words, it turns–"
Orville saw where Wilbur was going. "I get it," he said. "It turns like a windmill spins."
"Exactly," said Wilbur.
Orville stopped painting. "But what about the idea of building a machine that doesn't roll? That can't roll, that has stability? Wouldn't a machine like that be easier to control?"
Wilbur shook his head. "That's an argument that some people make," he said. "But those people are thinking too much about the ways that vehicles move on the ground. Those people can't imagine why you would want a machine in the air to roll, simply because there's almost no machine on the ground that rolls."
"Almost?"
Wilbur asked, "What's the most unstable vehicle you can think of?"
Orville paused. He shrugged. He waved his paintbrush in a circle, as if to take in the whole room. "The bicycle."
