A BIT OF HISTORY
©2020 SARAH BECKER
Cargo Dragon approaching the ISS
Image courtesy SpaceX.com
I
n 1901 American scientist, astronomer, and mathematician Simon Newcomb [1835-1909] “predicted that man would never fly.” Said Newcomb in 1903: “The desire to fly like a bird is inborn in our race, and we can no more be expected to abandon the idea than the ancient mathematician could have been expected to give up the problem of squaring the circle…The example of the bird does not prove that man can fly.” Two years later the Wright brothers, Orville [1871-1948] and Wilbur especially [18671912] flew a gasoline-powered heavier-than-air machine over Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Successfully for 59 seconds. The brothers’ 1903 ascent marked the beginning of aerial navigation. In May 2020 Space X, entrepreneur Elon Musk’s private venture sent two veteran NASA astronauts— Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley—to the International Space Station [ISS] aboard its “gum-dropped shaped” Crew Dragon spaceship. Space-X’s 29-story, reusable launch rocket is affectionately known as Falcon-9. NASA’s program goal: to restore American access to space using commercial partners. NASA astronauts Behnken and Hurley remained aboard the ISS for 65 days; until their August 2, 19-hour journey home. The Crew Dragon’s splash down in the Gulf of Mexico was NASA’s first splash down landing in 45 years. “Since before the space shuttle was retired, NASA has been contracting with private companies to develop
Old Town Crier
From The Wright Brothers to
Wright Flyer I, built in 1903, front view. This machine was the Wright brothers’ first powered aircraft. The airplane sported two 8 foot wooden propellers driven by a purpose-built 12 horsepower engine.
Rare Historical Photos
spacecraft capable of supplying the station with cargo and, at some point in the future, new crews,” former NASAISS astronaut Scott Kelly wrote in 2017. “The most successful private company so far has been Space Exploration Technologies, better known as Space X, which produces the Dragon spacecraft.” Musk’s “bird” indeed can fly! Like the Wright brothers’ airplanes before. The related principles of space flight and atmospheric flight “are not difficult at all,” right? The study of “these two miracles of modern engineering” is a lesson in physics, technology and history. “The Wright brothers’ 1903 Flyer 1 [gifted in 1948] will be the brightest gem in the Smithsonian’s collection of aircraft,” The Washington Post reported. “It will hang in an honored spot alongside Charles Lindbergh’s [1927] ‘Spirit of St. Louis.’” The Wrights 1909 military plane was also acknowledged. “The Wright brothers’ interest in planes began in childhood when their father brought home a toy with a
propeller wound up by rubber bands and wings of bamboo and tissue paper,” The Post continued. “It fascinated the boys, who were of mechanical and inventive minds, and they experimented in building others.” The mechanically inclined brothers formed the Wright Cycle Shop in 1892. The Wrights 1903 airplane was constructed in the rear of the Ohio Shop; then shipped, in sections, to North Carolina for trial. Until 1903, the Wright brothers had tested only gliders. Wilbur Wright felt flight would fail until such time as man could sustain wings; install a motor and properly control the “bird” in flight. He was the first inventor to equate control inputs—pitch, roll and yaw—with motion. Wing warping was Wilbur Wright’s solution to airplane control. Twisting the wing surface, he concluded, changed the wing’s position relative to oncoming wind. Such changes in position enabled directional changes. Wright tested his theory by twisting an empty bicycle tube box with the ends
removed. Until the airplane, hot air balloons provided the only means of human flight. Joseph Michel and Jacques Montgolfier invented the hot air balloon in 1783. The Archimedes’ principle is the secret to the balloon’s lift-carrying power. Said General Washington in 1784: “I have only newspaper Accts of the Air Balloons, to which I do not know what credence to give; as the tales related of them are marvelous, & lead us to expect that our friends at Paris, in a little time, will come flying thro’ the air instead of ploughing ocean to get to America.” The Wright brothers perfected their flying machine in 1905, but did not begin public demonstrations until a patent was issued in 1908. The U.S. Army agreed to purchase the Wrights’ flying machine for $25,000 provided it could carry two men and enough fuel to complete a 40 miles per hour, 125-mile flight. Military test flights began at Arlington’s, then the County of Alexandria’s Fort Myer in June 1909. On July 2, 1909, the
Alexandria Gazette observed: “Orville Wright late yesterday encircled the Fort Myer drill grounds in his aeroplane in three successful flights. In his last attempt he remained aloft for a few seconds more than nine minutes.” The nation’s first speed trial, also its first cross country flight occurred on July 30, 1909. Orville Wright successfully flew his machine ten-miles from Fort Myer to Old Town Alexandria’s Shooter’s Hill. The average flight speed was 42-miles per hour, more than the Army’s contractual minimum of 40-miles per hour. Wright’s speedy flight earned the team a $5,000 bonus. “The truth of the saying, ‘All things come to those who wait,’ was made apparent to Alexandrians at sunset yesterday when [Wright’s] biplane made an aerial run from the parade grounds at Fort Myer as far as the Southern and Washington Railway tracks south of the reservoir of the Alexandria Water Company,” the Alexandria Gazette reported on July 31, 1909. “The engine worked perfectly. The greatest height reached was probably 400 feet above the gully at Four Mile Run.” The biplane rounded the test marker on Shooter’s Hill and returned to Fort Myer in 14 minutes and 42 seconds. The Wright brothers remained involved with flight until Wilbur’s untimely death in 1912 at age 45. The brothers’ achievements were commemorated in 1932 with the placement of a 60 feet granite statue on North Carolina’s Kill Devil Hill. A BIT OF HISTORY > PAGE 10
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