American Exceptionalism

In light of increasing corruption and incompetence, we need to remember who we are.

Photo by History in HD on Unsplash

THE FIRST powered controlled flight in history near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina Dec. 17, 1903, at the Kill Devil Hills dunes. Courtesy of two bicycle mechanics from Dayton Ohio, Wilbur and Orville Wright. Orville is flying the plane.

America had exceptional individuals even before it became the United States. It historically has led the world in innovation, scientific developments, discoveries, inventions, medicines, and on and on.

U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Steven Tucker

The F-22 Raptor is combination of stealth, super cruise, maneuverability, and integrated avionics, coupled with improved supportability, represents an exponential leap in warfighting capabilities. The Raptor performs both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions allowing full realization of operational concepts vital to the 21st century Air Force.

The F-22, a critical component of the Global Strike Task Force, is designed to project air dominance, rapidly and at great distances and defeat threats attempting to deny access to our nation's Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps. The F-22 cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter aircraft.

The F-22 Raptor is the premier fighter jet in the world, even considering that it first flew in 1997 and was put into operation back in 2005. It allegedly has a radar signature the size of a marble. It flies at 1482mph+ without even using its afterburners! It is so advanced none have been sold or exported even to our allies.

People fly millions of miles per year on commercial air liners, and on their own private jets and planes.

All these incredible feats of engineering and technology are all possible because two determined brothers created a heavier than air, self-powered craft that actually flew 119 years ago this December.

To put that in perspective from an engineer’s point of view, Martin Ottaway:

“Only when one puts the pieces together, step by step, does that become apparent:

• Man has been completely unsuccessfully trying to fly for centuries

• The US government is paying academics large sums to develop airplanes

• Two brother bicycle shop owners curiously follow efforts at human flight

• Somehow they are bitten by the flight bug and they decide to do their own experiments

• They realize they need a good site for testing kites and set up a test camp about 700 miles from home

• They build and ship man sized kites and gliders, test them and realize they have a long way to go

• After their 1901 test season Wilbur says: “Not within a thousand years will man ever fly”

• Meanwhile they decide to go completely back to basics and develop their own basic data rather than rely on published data

• They work the numbers

• They build new theoretical models

• They develop methods for flight control

• They build gorgeous gliders from scratch and test them again

• In 1902 they know that it is now down to finding the right power source

• With crucial help of their own shop mechanic, Charlie Taylor, they build their own engine that beats all power to weight ratios of their time

• They build a much larger airplane that is truly clever in all its details

• They design and build two beautiful propellers

• They ship the whole thing back to their test site

• And in 1903 they fly.

It is simply a stupendously awesome engineering feat. These men were not college trained engineers, but they were very smart, self funded, never confused, an excellent team and living proof that great engineering is not related to college degrees, but rather to a cold eyed iron will to succeed at difficult problems.

No, they were not engineers. Because of circumstances, they didn't even complete high school. They were printers who later became bicycle mechanics that became obsessed with flying.

Timeline:

1899:

Letter the Wright brothers wrote to the Smithsonian Institution on May 30, 1899, asking for information about flight. (Page 1 of 2) Credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives

In the letter, Wilbur said he believed human flight was possible and requested all the information on the subject. They were shocked to find that despite people wanting to fly for centuries, no real attempts were made till 1800 and after. During the 1800s, finally a group of formally trained people interested in flight had gathered enough aeronautic knowledge that they were actually progressing toward human flight. The brothers combined what they read with their concept of “wing warping” to create a five-foot kite, their first aeronautical project.

1900:

The Wright brothers studied all the aeronautical information available to develop their own designs:

Illustrations and descriptions courtesy of National Air and Space Museum:

Elevator

Otto Lilienthal tried to keep up with the center of pressure’s continual movement by constantly shifting his body weight, which adjusted the center of gravity. The Wrights felt were impractical and dangerous. Instead, they controlled the movement of the center of pressure aerodynamically, by mounting a movable horizontal surface, called an elevator, in front of the wings. Pressure on the elevator would counteract the upward or downward pitching of the airplane due to the changing position of the center of pressure.

Canard configuration

An elevator mounted in front of the wings is known as a canard configuration. A canard lessens the violent reaction that generally occurs when an aircraft with a rear-mounted elevator stalls or loses lift. This type of stall cost Otto Lilienthal his life. With a canard, the aircraft settles more gently after a stall, a characteristic that saved the lives of Wilbur and Orville on several occasions.

Wing profile

Designing the shape of the wing profile, or airfoil, was also important. Others had already determined that curved wings generated more lift than flat ones. Most had used a perfect arc, with the high point of the curve in the middle. The Wrights placed the high point of the curve much closer to the wing’s leading edge and made the depth of curvature fairly shallow. They believed this would reduce the movement of the center of pressure, making the aircraft more stable and easier to control.

Using this information, they created and flew their 1900 glider

Reproduction of the 1900 glider courtesy Wright brothets.org

How did the Wright brothers pick Kitty Hawk, North Carolina?

In August of 1900, Wilbur and Orville Wright had completed and tested some flying models and were ready to build a man-carrying glider. Examining records of mean wind velocities from around the country, they found that according to the Weather Bureau a place called Kitty Hawk, in North Carolina, had strong, steady winds. They did a bit more research and found that it also had bare hills, made of nice soft sand, the better to crash-land into. Writing ahead to the Kitty Hawk Weather Station, they received assurances that the strength of the wind and the nature of the land answered their requirements. Captain Bill Tate, a prominent Kitty Hawker, wrote, “If you decide to try your machine here & come, I will take pleasure in doing all I can for your convenience & success & pleasure, & assure you you will find a hospitable people when you co among us.”

1901:

The 1901 glider with Wilbur flying it.

The established lift calculations published by John Smeaton, an engineer who determined the value of this coefficient was 0.005 in 1759, from his study of windmills, were accepted by the experts for 150 years afterward. The Wright brothers built their 1901 glider following it. They also used other established data from Otto Lilienthal. Over several hundred flights, they got the glider to fly up to 400 ft. However, the controls were much less responsive than the 1900 glider, a great disappointment.

The Wrights decided to disregard all existing data regarding flight and compile their own. They designed and built an instrumented wind tunnel and systematically tested some 200 widely different shaped airfoils of different configurations to develop their own aerodynamic data far beyond the Lilienthal table.

Wright brothers 1901 wind tunnel courtesy National Museum of the United States Air Force

They discovered the established lift calculations were wrong. (They figured out they were actually .003.) By December, from their own data they perfected their glider.

1902:

Courtesy Wright brothers.org

The Wright glider was the first aircraft with three axis control

The Wright brothers made many changes to their 1902 glider like adding a single rudder and longer and narrower wings. Minus a propulsion system, it was actually the first fully functional airplane. Originally flying it as a kite, as they had the others, then taking turns learning how to operate it as a glider.

1903:

The brothers needed an engine to meet their power and weight requirements. They contacted dozens of engine manufacturers yet got responses from only ten. No one could meet their requirements or at a reasonable price because tooling for just one engine would be cost prohibitive. With their mechanic, Charles Taylor, they designed and built their own. It was a four-cylinder four stroke water cooled 12hp gasoline engine that weighed 170 lbs. It was 92% aluminum with 8% copper to strengthen the aluminum. A cast iron engine would have weighed twice as much. It beat all power and weight ratios of engines at the time. With a gear box and bicycle chain drive that powered the two counter rotating propellers, another innovation of theirs still used.

Computer generated image courtesy NASA

Of course, the flyer had to be redesigned for the extra weight. The 170 lb. engine slightly right with the pilot estimated weight if 145 lb. slightly left made the right wing 10 inches longer.

On December 14, 1903, Wilbur won a coin toss and was to be the pilot. Because of the sensitive elevator control it nose-dived into the sand after only 3 1/2 seconds. Even though, the power of the engine and responsiveness of the controls proved the design. Wilbur wrote home, “There is no question of final success.”

• The Flyer was repaired and ready for flight on December 17. With freezing temperatures and a 27-mile-per-hour wind, at 10:35 a.m., the Flyer lifted off the launching rail with Orville at the controls.

• The overly sensitive elevator control caused the Flyer to dart up and down as it sailed slowly over the sand, coming to rest with a thud 120 feet from where it had taken off. The flight was short—only 12 seconds—but it was a true flight, nevertheless. A human had flown.

• The Wright brothers made three more flights that day. On the second, Wilbur traveled 175 feet in a similar up-and-down course. On the third, Orville covered a little more than 200 feet in 15 seconds.

• With Wilbur back at the controls, the Flyer made its final and most significant flight. After another erratic start, Wilbur steadied the airplane for an impressive 852-foot trip in 59 seconds, definitively demonstrating that the Wright Flyer was capable of sustained, controlled flight.

Between 1899 and 1905, the Wright brothers conducted a program of aeronautical research and experimentation that led to the first successful powered airplane in 1903 and a refined, practical flying machine two years later. All successful airplanes since then have incorporated the basic design elements of the 1903 Wright Flyer.

The genius of Wilbur and Orville lay not only in the singular act of getting a flying machine into the air, but also in the approach they evolved and employed to create the technology of flight. Their method of evaluating data gathered by testing an aircraft in flight, then refining the design based on those results, remains an essential tool in aerospace research and development.

Monument at the highest point at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, where Wilbur and Orville achieved powered human flight for the first time in history.

Photo by Andrew B on Unsplash

In commemoration of the conquest of the air by the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright. Conceived by Genius. Achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith.

Wilbur and Orville went from identifying their objective in 1899 to doing something no humans had ever done before in an astonishing four years! By the fall of 1905, they had a perfected plane with the longest flight being 39 1/2 minutes covering 24 1/2 miles. Not too shabby for two bicycle mechanics who didn't even have high school diplomas! They didn't fly for 2 1/2 years after that patenting their invention and seeking buyers.

Strangely, their home paper, the “Dayton Journal” refused to print the story regarding Wilbur’s telegram about their success because “they didn’t think it newsworthy”.

I am sure you have many personal challenges in your life. We certainly have national challenges. It's time to reach inside ourselves and do the remarkable again! After all, we're Americans! Americans don't take crap from anyone, especially American traitors trying to destroy us!

For example, are you aware that in less than 25 days, we will nationally run out of diesel fuel, which means ALL ship, train and truck traffic stops, the way EVERYTHING is delivered in this country? Thanks to Biden's “Green Energy Objective”, we went from energy independence and export to BEGGING the Saudis and Venezuelans to sell us oil! Begging the Saudis not to jack the price till after the midterm elections!

Suggested action list:

• Ask your Congressman and Senators why they are not addressing this national security issue. They ought to be as outraged as you are!

• VOTE! The early month or months voting, not having the disastrous candidates’ debate till days before the election scam is apparently working in several races. Fetterman failing miserably in a late debate while about 700,000 votes, mostly Democrat, have already been cast in Pennsylvania. The only way to overcome this chicanery, (Michigan Republican Governor candidate Tudor Dixon has opening statement interrupted by commercial during debate), is to vote in such massive numbers this strategy is nullified by voters with a clear picture of the candidates.

• Become a poll watcher. Make sure ALL the votes counted are valid. Don't let them put you on the other side of the building or count votes behind curtains or barriers as was done in the 2020 election. And haunt your polling places so truckloads of votes don't show up at 3am in the morning as in the 2020 election.

To end, I will allow the premier purveyor of fake news, the New York Times, to remind how it has historically kept the title:

In 1903, The New York Times predicted manned flight would take between 1 and 10 million years to achieve, in an article titled “Flying Machines Which Do Not Fly.” The piece ended: “To the ordinary man, it would seem as if effort might be employed more profitably.”

Nine weeks later, the Wright brothers proved them wrong!