The Wright Brothers and Their Flyer
By Robert J. Tanner Jr., ALPHA teacher at Carlton Palmore Elementary School
Summary:
This is an interdisciplinary lesson concerning the history of the Wright Brothers and their quest to fly.
There are two stories offered about the brothers, one which tells about them in story format narrated by an
owl, and the other which is more informative in nature. The story proceeds through the early years of the
brothers and describes their childhood. The reader is shown how they went from repairing objects to
repairing bicycles. This activity led them to selling, then building their own bicycles. Finally they became
interested in gliders, which led them to wanting to build their own glider. The story leads the reader to the
next step of designing their flyer and how they solved the control problems, which perplexed others during
their time. The biggest control problem they had was solved through changing the shape of the wings or a
concept they called wing-warping. Finally, the story describes the events leading up to and of that incredible
day at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in December of 1903 when their flyer, now complete with an engine, lifted
off the ground and became the first heavier-than-air craft to actually fly. A Teacher’s edition of the story is
also included containing guided discussion questions.
Supplementary Lessons:
Included with this lesson are activities which may by used for science, language arts, social studies,
geography, and mathematics. There is a two page listing of events concerning the development of
aeronautics in Florida from 1906 through World War II. This is intended to show the use of Florida by the
government for military training because of its climate. It is also intended to give the reader an idea of the
development of aircraft facilities in Florida. Lessons in science describe the forces that act upon an aircraft,
while a lesson in both mathematics and Florida geography have the students plan a flight throughout Florida.
Also included are activities for building a model of the Wright Brothers’ Flyer from card stock and toothpicks,
plus a logic puzzle about famous aviation pioneers.
Objectives:
Social Studies through Language Arts: The student will be able to:
Define the vocabulary terms (knowledge)
Give examples from the story to support a statement (comprehension)
Predict outcomes of the story (application)
Analyze the character traits of the young Wright Brothers (analysis)
Compare the methods used by the Wright Brothers for inventing the airplane to methods used in
preparing a science project (evaluation)
(SS.A 2.3.2, 2.3.3, 3.2.1) (LA.A 1.2.3, 1.2.4, 2.2.1, 2.2.5, 2.2.7)
Florida History: The student will create a timeline of important events in Florida aviation.
(SS.A 2.3.2, 2.3.3, 6.2.2, 6.2.4)
Science:
Lesson 1: The student will be able to:
Identify and explain the forces which affect flight
Predict how these force will affect an aircraft
(SC.C. 2.3.1, 2.3.7)
Lesson 2: The student will be able to:
Identify different parts of an aircraft
Explain how the different surfaces of the aircraft allow for control
(SC.C 2.3.1, 2.3.7)
Lesson 3: The student will:
Construct a paper aircraft which allows movement of control surfaces
Predict the outcome of the movement of the different control surfaces
Test his or her hypothesis with the model aircraft
(SC.H 1.2.5, 2.2.1, 3.2.2)
Art: The student will build a model from a pattern. (VA.A 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.2.4)
Geography: The student will locate selected cities in Florida on a map.
Math:
The student will:
calculate the mileage between selected cities
calculate fuel used per each leg of travel
Logic Puzzle: The student will find a solution to the problem, using a matrix from the given clues.
U.S. History Event or Time Period:
Late 1800s and early 1900s
Early Florida Aviation lesson takes place from 1906 to present day
Grade Level:
4th through 6th grades (may be adapted for middle school)
3rd Grade if using the Ollie Owl story only
Materials Needed:
Language Arts: copies of the Ollie Owl Story or copies of the Wright Brothers handout, evaluation
Florida History: copies of the Florida Aviation History
Science:
Lesson 1: 2 by 10 inch paper, 6 feet of string, tape, balloons, straw, poster board, books of different
weights, transparency
Lesson 2: transparencies 1 & 2
Lesson 3: paper airplane patterns, scissors, paper clips
Geography: maps of Florida (sample included)
Mathematics: rulers, calculators for the younger grades
Art (Model building activity): toothpicks, Styrofoam, pattern and instructions
Problem Solving Activity: logic puzzle
Lesson Time:
Varies dependent upon how much of the lesson is used:
Language Arts:
Read the story and take the evaluation: 45 minutes
Vocabulary review and Guided discussion: 60 minutes
Florida History: 30 minutes
Science: Lesson 1: 60 minutes; lesson 2: 30 minutes; lesson 3 45 minutes
Geography: 30 minutes
Mathematics: to be used in conjunction with the geography lesson
Art: 60 minutes
Logic Puzzle: 30 minutes
Lesson Procedures:
To take full advantage of this packet, this lesson should be taught at the same time as a theme, however the
selected lessons could be taught separately.
Social Studies used in Language Arts:
“The Wright Brothers and Their Flying Machine” as told by Oliver H. Owl (Handout)
Vocabulary: industrious, profit, partnership, sole proprietor, glider, hypothesis, elevator, wind tunnel,
propellers, persistent, blustery, revved, irregardless
Identifications: Abner Doubleday, Otto Lilienthal, Orville & Wilbur Wright, Dayton, Kitty Hawk, Flyer
1. Introduction: Ask “Who were the first to fly?” The answer: the first animal that fell off a cliff. But is this
really flying? Not really. Think about a flying squirrel. Does it really fly? No, it controls its glide, but it can’t run
and jump into the air a fly away. Probably the first to fly was an insect who developed some sort of wings. I
wonder how it must have felt to be so much different than the others. Then came birds. Simple animals have
been able to do something that sophisticated and intelligent man could not. The question of “why birds, who
hadn’t any schooling, were so much better at flight than man?”, has troubled man for many years. How to get
a heavier than air object to actually fly? Then after centuries of theory and experimentation two brothers
arrived at the answer.
Activities:
2. The students will read Oliver Owl’s story about the Wright Brothers in class and take the evaluation.
3. The students will determine what each vocabulary word means using the context clues. The students will
determine the actual meanings of the words by using a dictionary.
4. Reread he story in class using the guided discussion from the Teacher’s Edition of the story.
5. Have the students retake the evaluation
6. For a follow-up activity using technology, assign each student one of the following to give an oral report to
the class: Abner Doubleday, John Dunlop, Otto Lilienthal, Louis Bleriot, Charles Yeager, Amelia
Earhart, Thomas Selfridge, Eddie Rickenbacker, Jacquelin Cochran. Use the internet to find the
information. Try GOOGLE, followed by the name. Besides other things Rickenbacker was involved
with aviation development in Florida and Cochran was a famous pilot who was born in Florida.
Florida History: Early aviation in Florida (suggested for the later grades)
1. The students should read the selection and summarize the important events.
2. The students will create a timeline of the major aviation events in Florida history.
Geography and Mathematics:
Design a flight plan from Lakeland to Pensacola. Use an airways chart or a roadmap
connecting through Miami, Orlando, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Tallahassee, to Pensacola.
Given a fictitious usage of fuel like 9 gallons per hour, and an average speed of 120 miles per hour, (include
fuel for climb and descent with points on the map indicating where these start and end). Figure out how
much fuel will be used on the trip. Fuel may be changed depending upon the ability of the students. Use
decimals like 8.4 gallons per hour if studying decimals. Find out how much fuel is used and how much it
would cost. Again, use a simple figure like $3 per gallon or, if learning decimals, use something like $ 2.84 a
gallon. Use your own figures for this mathematical problem dependent upon the abilities of your students.
Science:
Use the individual lesson plans for the procedures. They are quite extensive. Lessons 1 and 3 are extremely
hands-on, however, lesson 1 could also be used as a teacher demonstration. Don’t forget to make the
transparencies as they help in the explanations.
Lesson 1: Forces affecting Flight (gravity, lift, drag, thrust)
Lesson 2: Control surfaces for yawl, pitch, roll and their affect upon an aircraft.
Lesson 3: Create a paper airplane to use as a model to determine how the different forces act upon
an airplane.
Logic Problem:
Use the logic problem grid to solve the puzzle. Find out who studied which aircraft. Students should have
all the information they need but could be allowed to use an outside source (books or internet) to solve the
puzzle.
ART:
Using the patterns, cut Styrofoam, such as in the small trays from the lunchroom, to fit the pattern and
use toothpicks to build a Wright Flyer.
The Wright Brothers
and
Their Flying Machine
By
Oliver H. Owl
The Youngsters
Hey, who’s making that confounded racket? Well, come on in and close the door behind you. You look
puzzled! Don’t be. I’m up here in the rafters. That’s right, up here. Still can’t see me? Look to the left, in the
corner. There, see me now? That’s right, I’m the little fellow standing up here on a beam, trying to get some
sleep. You looked shocked! What’s the matter? Haven’t you ever seen a talking owl before? A lot of us
animals can talk you know. All you have to do is to listen. That’s the trouble with humans, always too busy to
learn from the more intelligent species, always believing that they know everything and can’t learn from
animals. Well, here’s a story about just that, learning from animals. My name is Oliver H. Owl. You can call
me Ollie, and do I have a story to tell you. So, pull up a chair, relax, and I’ll tell you about two humans who
did learn from the animals, Orville Wright and his brother Wilbur.
We have to go back in time to 1871, not too long after the unpleasantness between the North and the
South to discover Milton and Susan Wright waiting for another animal, a stork. Finally, a fourth son, who they
would call Orville, came into their lives. He was born loaded with curiosity, always tinkering, couldn’t keep his
hands off things. Orville was four years younger than brother Wilbur, but the two grew up with uncanny
mechanical abilities. You might think that they got that naturally from their father, the Bishop of Dayton’s
United Brethren Church, but you would be wrong. Although Bishop Wright had a rather good sized workshop
full of different tools in his home, actually most believe the boys inherited their mechanical talent from their
mother, Susan. She used to help her father design and build carriages when she was younger, and her
creative trait seemed to be passed along to her two youngest boys. They seemed to be always fixing things
and that was a good thing too, because the way they tore things apart to find out what made them tick, a lot
of things needed fixing.
Their curiosity was insatiable. One of their favorite toys was something they called a “bat”. No, not a
baseball bat, although General Abner Doubleday was introducing the game right about the same time the
boys were growing up. This “bat” was something very strange. It flew. It consisted of two sticks made from
bamboo connected to two other bamboo sticks which were horizontal at each end. These end sticks had
paper bird-like wings attached. In between was a rubber band which could be twisted really tight. When it
was let go, the wings whirled, quickly turning, and the toy soared into the air all the way up to the ceiling.
There it would bump, just like a June Bug, releasing all of its stored up energy, before falling to the ground
again. The best way to describe it would be something like a helicopter of today. The boys loved it. They took
it apart and put it together again. They even built more on their own, changing the design to see how they
could improve upon it. You would think that this curiosity would lead them into the toy business because they
were always creating new toys to play with, and in a way it did, but not the type of toy you’re thinking of.
Orville was in the 8th grade when he decided he wanted to be a newspaper reporter. With a fellow
classmate, Orville planned to distribute a newspaper throughout the school and the two spent a lot of time
collecting all of the important newsworthy events. Then came the big day, the paper went on sale, for the first
and last time. Although Orville and Ed thought their news was interesting, their classmates apparently didn’t,
and with no one wanting to buy their paper, they decided that their first issue would also be their last.
However, all was not lost, because they found that they could use their printing press in another way. They
started to print materials for local businesses, and I might add, at a decent profit. Ed grew tired of the print
business so Orville bought out his share and became sole proprietor. This lasted for a short period before
older brother Wilbur became interested in what Orville was doing and convinced him that he needed help
with his venture so the two brothers formed a partnership that would last a lifetime.
In the late 1800s there weren’t as many colleges as there are today. There was a good reason for that,
not that many people went to college. In fact more than 50 percent of all the people in the United States were
farmers and stayed close to home. Both Orville and his older brother Wilbur were expected to go to college
like their two older brothers but for different reasons neither ever did. When older brother Wilbur was
seventeen he received a wicked hit in the face with a hockey stick and lost some front teeth. At that point he
dropped out of school and helped his father with his ministry. It was about that time when Orville was
pushing forward with his printing work and that Sarah became sick with Tuberculosis. Wilbur helped around
the house with his sick mother until 1889 when she passed away from her illness. Orville, on the other hand,
probably didn’t see where college would help him with his tinkering and inventing. Orville left school too as
he was making a pretty good living with his printing business. So the boys never did go to college. They
probably just didn’t see the need for it. In fact the only person who graduated from college in the Wright
family was their younger sister, Katharine, but the brothers found other ways to increase their education.
Orville was the more industrious of the two, and Wilbur let him take the lead in their ventures. They were
growing up at a time that the world was starting to move, and they were determined that they were going to
be a part of it. Indeed they would.
The Bicycle Boys
Something new was developing, a personal mode of transportation different from a horse. This was the
strangest looking thing. It had a seat that resembled a small saddle that rose above two wheels powered by
turning pedals with your feet. It was called a bicycle and this fad was sweeping the country, Dayton included.
The bicycle had been around for awhile, having been invented in 1818 as a scooter in which the rider could
sit down and push the vehicle with his or her feet. The first pedaled bikes appeared in 1839 but riding was
very uncomfortable because the wheels were made of wood. In fact riding was so uncomfortable, people
called these contraptions “boneshakers”. Finally, in 1888 a Scotsman named John Dunlop invented
something that was to change the transportation industry, inflatable rubber tires. Imagine that, with the
addition of the softer rubber, a cushioning effect was created and riding a bicycle became more pleasurable.
The bicycle industry was on the move, in more ways than one. In that year alone, over 40,000 bicycles were
sold in the United States. Pretty soon, however, these bicycles started to break down and needed repair and
who better to do this job than those great fixers themselves, the Wright brothers. Friends and neighbors
started bringing their broken bikes over for repair which got the boys thinking about a side business to their
printing jobs.
They called their business the Wright Cycle Exchange. Besides selling and repairing bicycles, the
brothers published two local newspapers with their printing press. Then, in a bold move in 1896, Orville and
Wilbur decided to produce their own bicycles. Soon they had a shop full of these two wheeled contraptions
which they had built and business was rolling, no pun intended. Business was so good that soon they
decided to shut down their printing business completely to make and repair bicycles full time. Things were
going great, until Orville came down with a disease called typhoid. Back then it was a deadly disease in
which nearly 1 of every 4 people who became ill, died. Orville had a pretty bad temperature for quite a while,
but with a lot of attention from caring friends, he gradually became well again, having conquered the disease.
It was back to full time at the bicycle shop again. They had quite a nice living going for themselves but then,
curiosity got the better of them again, and their interests were to take off in yet another direction.
The Flying Man
One day Wilbur read about a man in Germany who created a set of wings which he could float down a
hillside. “Would you look at this Orville? There’s a man in Germany who thinks he can fly like a bird,” Wilbur
pointed out to his brother. “Now if that doesn’t that beat all. That might be something I’d like to try.”
The man’s name was Otto Lilienthal and his “glider” was in reality birdlike wings on a frame. He was
another bright human who studied birds to see why they could fly. He even published a book in 1889 called
Birdflight as the Basis of the Act of Flying in which he stated that one of the most important things about a
wing is that it had to be cambered or curved. Lilienthal built gliders in his backyard, and then carried them up
to the mountains north of his home in Berlin, Germany. After that he would launch himself off of the hill and
soar to a height away from the ground ever falling or gliding down the slope to the bottom. He controlled his
movements by kicking his legs from side to side thus controlling where he wanted to descend. Lilienthal was
famous throughout Europe and the United States as well, and was known as the “flying man”.
The Birdmen
Both brothers decided that they would like to try this and set about studying how things flew. As good
inventors they researched all of the available information they could find about flying. They even sent to the
Smithsonian Institute for any information they had about flight. They studied the experiments of Lilienthal and
others who had built “gliders” and they came to the conclusion that the best things to study were those that
had been flying a long time, so they spent a lot of their time studying birds. Orville and Wilbur traveled all
around watching how birds took-off and how they landed. They also spent hours and hours watching what
birds did while they were in the air. Importantly, the two brothers prepared endless copies of notes. They
read all they could find about the movement of birds and how their wings were constructed and moved. They
were like real ornithologists. Now, these two were intelligent humans that knew that they could learn from a
superior species. After all, birds had been flying for a long time and humans could only dream of the freedom
of flight. Many of the local townspeople thought these birdmen were crazy.
Unfortunately, in August of 1896 Otto Lilienthal died when he was unable to control his glider’s flight. He
had launched himself off a hill and soared away from the hillside about 50 feet from the ground, lost control
of his glider and crashed. His demise was caused by a huge problem with balance that gliders had when
they dipped to one side or the other. This was something the brothers needed to solve to obtain controlled
flight. They worked on a solution to this for four years and finally believed that they had the answer. One day
Orville announced, “Wilbur, have you noticed that birds change the way their wings are shaped to allow them
to remain steady in the air. I think that is where we need to concentrate our efforts.” This was something that
we birds have known about for years. By flapping our wings, we can flex and change the shape to suit our
purpose and right ourselves when our wings dip or rise. Wilbur and Orville observed the birds doing this, but
their problem was how to convert bird movement to an airplane wing.
Wing-warping.
Orville was generally the problem solver of the two. But this time, it was Wilbur who stumbled across it
and with a cardboard box. As he was lifting a box with some articles in it from the shelf, he lost control as he
had his right hand at one corner of the bottom and his left at the opposite corner. Because he didn’t carry it
balanced in the middle, the box twisted, one side went one way while the other went in the opposite
direction. He noticed that when he squeezed the corner of a cardboard box, the other side was affected as
well. Again, as one side went up, the other went down. “Hey Orville, I think I might have our answer.” The
brothers decided that their glider would have two wings, shaped similar to a box, and this box shape would
be the basis needed to counteract the control problems. They would call this design, wing-warping. Today,
airplanes actually increase and decrease the area of wings with different types of something called flaps. We
birds just do this naturally.
Another thing that set these two apart from all the others was again given to them by us birds. By
spending hours observing birds in flight they found that when birds turn, they roll. Okay, for you land lovers
down there, that means that when we turn one wing comes up, while the other goes down. When we turn,
our entire body goes the same way. This is natural and even humans do it. Think about riding your bicycle.
When you want to turn, you lean into the turn. This made great sense to our cyclists. When you want to turn,
you just can’t turn the handlebars, you have to lean into the turn. All of the other airplane inventors at the
time designed aircraft that kept horizontal and didn’t roll into the turn, something no intelligent bird would ever
do. But the Wright brothers watched and learned. They were sure that they had the answer to controlled
flight.
Kitty Hawk
They needed a place to test out their hypothesis, one that had a steady, but not too strong, wind. The
United States Weather Bureau sent them the answer, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. There the wind blew in
from the ocean at an average of 18 miles per hour and the sand could be used as a runway for the glider. So
in the fall of 1900 the Wright brothers left Dayton, Ohio and traveled to Kitty Hawk ready to build their first
glider. They traveled in the relative comfort of a train while I managed to sneak into the baggage car.
Once on that remote island off North Carolina, Wilbur and Orville set about to prove their theories of flight.
First they had to make themselves a temporary home. The two brothers pitched a tent on the dunes to be
near their glider. Then they built a crude structure of light wood and covered it with cloth. They used wires
and rods to reinforce the wings, but were careful not to add too much weight. The craft was about 52 feet
long with the wings being approximately 17 feet in width. It was a bit strange to the eyes of anyone having
knowledge of the aircraft of today, because it didn’t have a tail. Instead it had something that resembled a
footstool in the front. This “footstool” was actually a device that contained a moveable section called an
elevator to keep the glider from tipping too far forward or aft, and they incorporated the wing-warping control
idea into their glider, to solve that unsolvable control problem. The Wright brothers’ glider could do this by the
pilot pulling certain wires to change the angle of the wings contracting and expanding to keep balance in
flight just like those of a bird. The pilot did this with his hips through a cradle or harness while lying on the
lower wing. No one flew the glider at first. Instead they used it like a kite, allowing the wind to take it aloft and
they held it in place with ropes attached to the struts between the wings. In this way the boys could practice
their wing-warping to determine what maneuvers needed to be done to control the glider and keep it
horizontal.
One morning, in early October, Wilbur gathered in the courage to try it. He climbed on board and lay
down on the lower wing, put himself in the wing-warping cradle and grabbed a hold of the elevator controls.
Orville and the local postmaster, Bill Tate let out the ropes of the glider while Wilbur rose into the air, higher
and higher. Instead of being able to test out maneuvers, Wilbur found himself reacting to the violent
movement of the glider, up and down, with wings dipping left and right. Wilbur decided that he couldn’t
adequately control the glider and stopped the experiment fearing for his life. He concluded that wouldn’t risk
his life again until he understood the controls better, which is just what he spent the next few weeks doing,
testing out everything he possibly could. That was probably a wise choice for a human.
Finally, before returning back to Dayton, Wilbur decided to try it again, but this time without the guide
ropes. The two brothers slowly carried their craft to the top of a sand dune. With Orville holding up a wing,
the post master holding the other wing, Wilbur took his place lying on the lower wing and wrapped himself in
the wing-warp cradle so that he could move the wings by twisting his hips. The two men began to run down
the sand dune into the wind and suddenly the wind took hold of the craft and up it went. It flew for about 300
feet, about the same length as a football field, before it came back down. It was short, but it was a success.
All too soon it was time to return to Dayton to study what had been done and prepare for the next year’s
experiments. On October 23rd, the two brothers climbed aboard the ferry that would take them to the
mainland to catch the train for Ohio leaving behind their 1900 glider in the sand dunes. Now I didn’t see it
myself, but I heard later that the Post Master’s wife turned the wing fabric into dresses for her daughters.
Imagine that!
The next summer, Orville and Wilbur returned to the sand dunes of Kill Devil Hills just south of Kitty Hawk.
This time however, they built a shed for themselves and their glider which was twice a large as the earlier
one. This summer could also have been called the summer of relentless mosquitoes as they were
everywhere, and the boys had mosquito bites covering them from head to foot. The new glider made a few
good glides over 300 feet staying in the air 19 seconds, but the brothers were unimpressed with the
performance and it seemed even more difficult to control. In fact, when Wilbur tried to turn the glider one day,
he crashed into the sand. The brothers left earlier than they had planned that summer feeling very dejected.
This caught even me by surprise and somehow I missed the ferry ride to the mainland, so it was a good thing
that I had a good sense of direction.
Creating Wind
By the time I made it back to Dayton, the brothers had built a wind tunnel to create their own wind for
their experiments. It was like a big box with a fan at one end and open at the other to allow the wind to
escape. The fan blew the air through the box at a constant speed and the tunnel was designed so that the
brothers could place models of their gliders in it to determine how different shaped wings and other designs
would react without actually flying the full sized glider. Their tunnel was about six feet long by two feet wide.
The ceiling was a glass panel so that the brothers could observe what was happening to their little replicas.
By using the wind tunnel they could experiment right at their bicycle shop instead of moving to the sand
dunes of Kitty Hawk. Down right smart of those boys, don’t you think?
They were so disappointed with the results of their experiments of that last summer that Orville and
Wilbur tested almost two hundred different wing designs. At the end came up with a glider much different
than the one they flew the summer before. The new and improved glider of 1902 even had a tail on it with
something else new. Orville decided that they should be able to move the tail in coordination with their wingwarping. The boys really learned an awful lot through their experiments with the wind tunnel.
That next summer after they traveled back to Kitty Hawk Orville started to take a more active part in
piloting the glider. By the fall of 1902 the two brothers had made more than a thousand flights in their glider
over those North Carolina sand dunes sometimes gliding over 600 feet. But now their dreams had gone
beyond creating a controllable glider. They dreamed of flying like birds. To do this they needed an engine to
take the place of the wind. They would have to build one themselves as no one had ever done that before,
and a year later when Orville and Wilbur again left Dayton for Kitty Hawk they had constructed two engines
complete with propellers to power their glider. But after building the craft and testing the motors, they found
that the propeller shafts had cracked which indicated they were not strong enough. Orville returned to Dayton
to make the new shafts and it wasn’t until December that Orville returned with the new and stronger propeller
shafts. Now came a tough decision. Who would be the first pilot?
Heads or Tails?
The two brothers walked away from the assembled witnesses and decided to flip a coin. They would
alternate flights with the winner getting the first chance. High in the air went the coin, and when it came to
rest Wilbur had won. Slowly Orville, Wilbur, and seven others carried the more than six hundred pound craft
up the sand dune. With Wilbur at the controls, lying on the lower wing and with Orville and a second man,
each holding one of the wings, they started to rush down the dune. The craft caught some wind beneath its
wings and started to lift up. Suddenly it nosed back to the ground. The craft was airborne for about 3
seconds before it stalled, but was that considered flight? The brothers said no. Unfortunately, one of the
landing skids broke and the frame needed some repair, but the Wright brothers were persistent and with
help carried the craft back to their Kitty Hawk work shed. Orville decided to return to Dayton to make the
repairs while Wilbur stayed behind with the glider. I stayed with Wilbur and kept busy looking for mice to
satisfy my hunger. Finally Orville returned with the repaired frame and skid.
The Flight
It was a cold Friday morning, December the 17th, 1903. The repairs had been made but the normally mild
winds were increasingly becoming stronger as winter approached. Perhaps the wind was too much for the
little craft but the decision had to be made as soon the blustery winter weather would make any more
attempts impossible in 1903. The two brothers agreed it was time to do it, but not from the top of the sand
dune. It was agreed that the drastic change in the wings angle may have caused the craft to stall. The boys
dragged wooden beams into place in front of the craft. These were to give the plane something to slide upon
until it lifted up into the air. This time it was Orville’s turn to climb into the hip harness and lie on the wing. At
approximately ten thirty, Orville started the engines, then revved them up. The plane started to move
increasing in speed. Ten, twenty, thirty feet down the track, then suddenly, the Wright Brother’s Flyer lifted
off the ground and climbed to a height of 3 feet above the ground. The whole flight lasted only twelve
seconds, but it was flight, actual controlled flight. Orville had become the first pilot of a heavier than air craft.
The Wright brothers flew three more flights that day with their Flyer. The longest was 852 feet with the time in
the air being 59 seconds. Then as they were carrying the plane back to its starting point a gust of wind
flipped it over several times with Wilbur still in the hip harness. He was lifted out unharmed but the Flyer was
destroyed. Although it was sad to lose the Flyer, history had been made. The Wright brothers had done it.
A Final Thought
In viewing their accomplishment that day compared with the aircraft of today, it doesn’t seem like much,
but they had accomplished what no one else had done before. It’s easy to imagine today what an
accomplishment that was, but at the same time, it’s difficult to realize just how hard accomplishing that goal
really was. For centuries it had been the dream of inventors all over the globe and different designs had been
tried, all ending with failure. They themselves had been told countless times that their ideas would never
work, and they were just wasting time and money. However, they pursued their dream regardless of what
others’ said. They took the ideas from others that had worked and they made careful observations of things
that actually flew, studied their movements and tested their theories. They learned from their own mistakes
as well as the mistakes of others. They also observed things that actually flew, from gliders to birds and
applied the principals that appeared to work. Lastly, they didn’t quit. If something didn’t work, they tried
something new, and tried again, and again until they achieved the results they wanted. The two bicycle
manufacturers actually did what so many had unsuccessfully tried, flown like birds. They had ushered in the
age of manned flight. The world would never be the same again or my middle name isn’t Hoot.
The Wright Brothers
and
Their Flying Machine
By
Oliver H. Owl
(Teachers’ Edition with Guided Questions)
The Youngsters
Hey, who’s making that confounded racket? Well, come on in and close the door behind you. You look
puzzled! Don’t be. I’m up here in the rafters. That’s right, up here. Still can’t see me? Look to the left, in the
corner. There, see me now? That’s right, I’m the little fellow standing up here on a beam, trying to get some
sleep. You looked shocked! What’s the matter? Haven’t you ever seen a talking owl before? A lot of us
animals can talk you know. All you have to do is to listen. That’s the trouble with humans, always too busy to
learn from the more intelligent species, always believing that they know everything and can’t learn from
animals. Well, here’s a story about just that, learning from animals. My name is Oliver H. Owl. You can call
me Ollie, and do I have a story to tell you. So, pull up a chair, relax, and I’ll tell you about two humans who
did learn from the animals, Orville Wright and his brother Wilbur.
We have to go back in time to 1871, not too long after the unpleasantness between the North and the
South to discover Milton and Susan Wright waiting for another animal, a stork. Finally, a fourth son, who they
would call Orville, came into their lives. He was born loaded with curiosity, always tinkering, couldn’t keep his
hands off things. Orville was four years younger than brother Wilbur, but the two grew up with uncanny
mechanical abilities. You might think that they got that naturally from their father, the Bishop of Dayton’s
United Brethren Church, but you would be wrong. Although Bishop Wright had a rather good sized workshop
full of different tools in his home, actually most believe the boys inherited their mechanical talent from their
mother, Susan. She used to help her father design and build carriages when she was younger, and her
creative trait seemed to be passed along to her two youngest boys. They seemed to be always fixing things
and that was a good thing too, because the way they tore things apart to find out what made them tick, a lot
of things needed fixing.
Their curiosity was insatiable. One of their favorite toys was something they called a “bat”. No, not a
baseball bat, although General Abner Doubleday was introducing the game right about the same time the
boys were growing up. This “bat” was something very strange. It flew. It consisted of two sticks made from
bamboo connected to two other bamboo sticks which were horizontal at each end. These end sticks had
paper bird-like wings attached. In between was a rubber band which could be twisted really tight. When it
was let go, the wings whirled, quickly turning, and the toy soared into the air all the way up to the ceiling.
There it would bump, just like a June Bug, releasing all of its stored up energy, before falling to the ground
again. The best way to describe it would be something like a helicopter of today. The boys loved it. They took
it apart and put it together again. They even built more on their own, changing the design to see how they
could improve upon it. You would think that this curiosity would lead them into the toy business because they
were always creating new toys to play with, and in a way it did, but not the type of toy you’re thinking of.
( Prediction: What type of toy might this be? An airplane. How might an airplane be thought of as a
toy? In the early years and even still today it was used a s recreation and for sport such as barnstorming
and to an extent thrill rides.)
Orville was in the 8th grade when he decided he wanted to be a newspaper reporter. With a fellow
classmate, Orville planned to distribute a newspaper throughout the school and the two spent a lot of time
collecting all of the important newsworthy events. Then came the big day, the paper went on sale, for the first
and last time. Although Orville and Ed thought their news was interesting, their classmates apparently didn’t,
and with no one wanting to buy their paper, they decided that their first issue would also be their last.
However, all was not lost, because they found that they could use their printing press in another way. They
started to print materials for local businesses, and I might add, at a decent profit. Ed grew tired of the print
business so Orville bought out his share and became sole proprietor. This lasted for a short period before
older brother Wilbur became interested in what Orville was doing and convinced him that he needed help
with his venture so the two brothers formed a partnership that would last a lifetime.
( What’s the difference between a sole proprietor and a partnership? A sole proprietor involves one
owned while a partnership involves two)
In the late 1800s there weren’t as many colleges as there are today. There was a good reason for that,
not that many people went to college. In fact more than 50 percent of all the people in the United States were
farmers and stayed close to home. Both Orville and his older brother Wilbur were expected to go to college
like their two older brothers but for different reasons neither ever did. When older brother Wilbur was
seventeen he received a wicked hit in the face with a hockey stick and lost some front teeth. At that point he
dropped out of school and helped his father with his ministry. It was about that time when Orville was
pushing forward with his printing work and that Sarah became sick with Tuberculosis. Wilbur helped around
the house with his sick mother until 1889 when she passed away from her illness. Orville, on the other hand,
probably didn’t see where college would help him with his tinkering and inventing. Orville left school too as
he was making a pretty good living with his printing business. So the boys never did go to college. They
probably just didn’t see the need for it. In fact the only person who graduated from college in the Wright
family was their younger sister, Katharine, but the brothers found other ways to increase their education.
Orville was the more industrious of the two, and Wilbur let him take the lead in their ventures. They were
growing up at a time that the world was starting to move, and they were determined that they were going to
be a part of it. Indeed they would.
The Bicycle Boys
Something new was developing, a personal mode of transportation different from a horse. This was the
strangest looking thing. It had a seat that resembled a small saddle that rose above two wheels powered by
turning pedals with your feet. It was called a bicycle and this fad was sweeping the country, Dayton included.
The bicycle had been around for awhile, having been invented in 1818 as a scooter in which the rider could
sit down and push the vehicle with his or her feet. The first pedaled bikes appeared in 1839 but riding was
very uncomfortable because the wheels were made of wood.
(Why do you think the early bicycles were so uncomfortable? There was nothing to cushion any shock
from the bumps of the roads. Rubber allowed a little give and with the addition of air between the road and
the bicycle with inflatable tires, the ride became a lot smoother.)
In fact riding was so uncomfortable, people
called these contraptions “boneshakers”. Finally, in 1888 a Scotsman named John Dunlop invented
something that was to change the transportation industry, inflatable rubber tires. Imagine that, with the
addition of the softer rubber, a cushioning effect was created and riding a bicycle became more pleasurable.
The bicycle industry was on the move, in more ways than one. In that year alone, over 40,000 bicycles were
sold in the United States. Pretty soon, however, these bicycles started to break down and needed repair and
who better to do this job than those great fixers themselves, the Wright brothers. Friends and neighbors
started bringing their broken bikes over for repair which got the boys thinking about a side business to their
printing jobs.
They called their business the Wright Cycle Exchange. Besides selling and repairing bicycles, the
brothers published two local newspapers with their printing press. Then, in a bold move in 1896, Orville and
Wilbur decided to produce their own bicycles. Soon they had a shop full of these two wheeled contraptions
which they had built and business was rolling, no pun intended. Business was so good that soon they
decided to shut down their printing business completely to make and repair bicycles full time. Things were
going great, until Orville came down with a disease called typhoid. Back then it was a deadly disease in
which nearly 1 of every 4 people who became ill, died. Orville had a pretty bad temperature for quite a while,
but with a lot of attention from caring friends, he gradually became well again, having conquered the disease.
It was back to full time at the bicycle shop again. They had quite a nice living going for themselves but then,
curiosity got the better of them again, and their interests were to take off in yet another direction.
(Does anyone know anybody who had a disease in which that person might have died? Explain how
they conquered it. Various responses)
The Flying Man
One day Wilbur read about a man in Germany who created a set of wings which he could float down a
hillside. “Would you look at this Orville? There’s a man in Germany who thinks he can fly like a bird,” Wilbur
pointed out to his brother. “Now if that doesn’t that beat all. That might be something I’d like to try.”
(On what continent is Germany? Europe. Have someone point to Europe, then Germany on a map.)
The man’s name was Otto Lilienthal and his “glider” was in reality birdlike wings on a frame. He was
another bright human who studied birds to see why they could fly. He even published a book in 1889 called
Birdflight as the Basis of the Act of Flying in which he stated that one of the most important things about a
wing is that it had to be cambered or curved. Lilienthal built gliders in his backyard, and then carried them up
to the mountains north of his home in Berlin, Germany. After that he would launch himself off of the hill and
soar to a height away from the ground ever falling or gliding down the slope to the bottom. He controlled his
movements by kicking his legs from side to side thus controlling where he wanted to descend. Lilienthal was
famous throughout Europe and the United States as well, and was known as the “flying man”.
(What character traits do you think a man would have to have to jump off a mountain like he did?
Adventurous, risk taking, living on the edge, curious, thrill seeker).
The Birdmen
Both brothers decided that they would like to try this and set about studying how things flew. As good
inventors they researched all of the available information they could find about flying. They even sent to the
Smithsonian Institute for any information they had about flight. They studied the experiments of Lilienthal and
others who had built “gliders” and they came to the conclusion that the best things to study were those that
had been flying a long time, so they spent a lot of their time studying birds. Orville and Wilbur traveled all
around watching how birds took-off and how they landed. They also spent hours and hours watching what
birds did while they were in the air. Importantly, the two brothers prepared endless copies of notes. They
read all they could find about the movement of birds and how their wings were constructed and moved. They
were like real ornithologists.
(What do you think an ornithologist does for a living? An individual who studies birds.)
Now, these two were intelligent humans that knew that they could learn from a
superior species. After all, birds had been flying for a long time and humans could only dream of the freedom
of flight. Many of the local townspeople thought these birdmen were crazy.
Unfortunately, in August of 1896 Otto Lilienthal died when he was unable to control his glider’s flight. He
had launched himself off a hill and soared away from the hillside about 50 feet from the ground, lost control
of his glider and crashed. His demise was caused by a huge problem with balance that gliders had when
they dipped to one side or the other. This was something the brothers needed to solve to obtain controlled
flight. They worked on a solution to this for four years and finally believed that they had the answer. One day
Orville announced, “Wilbur, have you noticed that birds change the way their wings are shaped to allow them
to remain steady in the air. I think that is where we need to concentrate our efforts.” This was something that
we birds have known about for years. By flapping our wings, we can flex and change the shape to suit our
purpose and right ourselves when our wings dip or rise. Wilbur and Orville observed the birds doing this, but
their problem was how to convert bird movement to an airplane wing.
Wing-warping.
Orville was generally the problem solver of the two. But this time, it was Wilbur who stumbled across it
and with a cardboard box. As he was lifting a box with some articles in it from the shelf, he lost control as he
had his right hand at one corner of the bottom and his left at the opposite corner. Because he didn’t carry it
balanced in the middle, the box twisted, one side went one way while the other went in the opposite
direction. He noticed that when he squeezed the corner of a cardboard box, the other side was affected as
well. Again, as one side went up, the other went down. “Hey Orville, I think I might have our answer.” The
brothers decided that their glider would have two wings, shaped similar to a box, and this box shape would
be the basis needed to counteract the control problems. They would call this design, wing-warping. Today,
airplanes actually increase and decrease the area of wings with different types of something called flaps. We
birds just do this naturally.
Another thing that set these two apart from all the others was again given to them by us birds. By
spending hours observing birds in flight they found that when birds turn, they roll. Okay, for you land lovers
down there, that means that when we turn one wing comes up, while the other goes down. When we turn,
our entire body goes the same way. This is natural and even humans do it. Think about riding your bicycle.
When you want to turn, you lean into the turn. This made great sense to our cyclists. When you want to turn,
you just can’t turn the handlebars, you have to lean into the turn. All of the other airplane inventors at the
time designed aircraft that kept horizontal and didn’t roll into the turn, something no intelligent bird would ever
do. But the Wright brothers watched and learned. They were sure that they had the answer to controlled
flight.
Kitty Hawk
They needed a place to test out their hypothesis, one that had a steady, but not too strong, wind. The
United States Weather Bureau sent them the answer, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. There the wind blew in
from the ocean at an average of 18 miles per hour and the sand could be used as a runway for the glider. So
in the fall of 1900 the Wright brothers left Dayton, Ohio and traveled to Kitty Hawk ready to build their first
glider. They traveled in the relative comfort of a train while I managed to sneak into the baggage car.
Once on that remote island off North Carolina, Wilbur and Orville set about to prove their theories of flight.
First they had to make themselves a temporary home. The two brothers pitched a tent on the dunes to be
near their glider. Then they built a crude structure of light wood and covered it with cloth. They used wires
and rods to reinforce the wings, but were careful not to add too much weight. The craft was about 52 feet
long with the wings being approximately 17 feet in width. It was a bit strange to the eyes of anyone having
knowledge of the aircraft of today, because it didn’t have a tail. Instead it had something that resembled a
footstool in the front. This “footstool” was actually a device that contained a moveable section called an
elevator to keep the glider from tipping too far forward or aft, and they incorporated the wing-warping control
idea into their glider, to solve that unsolvable control problem. The Wright brothers’ glider could do this by the
pilot pulling certain wires to change the angle of the wings contracting and expanding to keep balance in
flight just like those of a bird. The pilot did this with his hips through a cradle or harness while lying on the
lower wing. No one flew the glider at first. Instead they used it like a kite, allowing the wind to take it aloft and
they held it in place with ropes attached to the struts between the wings. In this way the boys could practice
their wing-warping to determine what maneuvers needed to be done to control the glider and keep it
horizontal.
One morning, in early October, Wilbur gathered in the courage to try it. He climbed on board and lay
down on the lower wing, put himself in the wing-warping cradle and grabbed a hold of the elevator controls.
Orville and the local postmaster, Bill Tate let out the ropes of the glider while Wilbur rose into the air, higher
and higher. Instead of being able to test out maneuvers, Wilbur found himself reacting to the violent
movement of the glider, up and down, with wings dipping left and right. Wilbur decided that he couldn’t
adequately control the glider and stopped the experiment fearing for his life. He concluded that wouldn’t risk
his life again until he understood the controls better, which is just what he spent the next few weeks doing,
testing out everything he possibly could. That was probably a wise choice for a human.
Finally, before returning back to Dayton, Wilbur decided to try it again, but this time without the guide
ropes. The two brothers slowly carried their craft to the top of a sand dune. With Orville holding up a wing,
the post master holding the other wing, Wilbur took his place lying on the lower wing and wrapped himself in
the wing-warp cradle so that he could move the wings by twisting his hips. The two men began to run down
the sand dune into the wind and suddenly the wind took hold of the craft and up it went. It flew for about 300
feet, about the same length as a football field, before it came back down. It was short, but it was a success.
All too soon it was time to return to Dayton to study what had been done and prepare for the next year’s
experiments. On October 23rd, the two brothers climbed aboard the ferry that would take them to the
mainland to catch the train for Ohio leaving behind their 1900 glider in the sand dunes. Now I didn’t see it
myself, but I heard later that the Post Master’s wife turned the wing fabric into dresses for her daughters.
Imagine that!
The next summer, Orville and Wilbur returned to the sand dunes of Kill Devil Hills just south of Kitty Hawk.
This time however, they built a shed for themselves and their glider which was twice a large as the earlier
one. This summer could also have been called the summer of relentless mosquitoes as they were
everywhere, and the boys had mosquito bites covering them from head to foot. The new glider made a few
good glides over 300 feet staying in the air 19 seconds, but the brothers were unimpressed with the
performance and it seemed even more difficult to control. In fact, when Wilbur tried to turn the glider one day,
he crashed into the sand. The brothers left earlier than they had planned that summer feeling very dejected.
This caught even me by surprise and somehow I missed the ferry ride to the mainland, so it was a good thing
that I had a good sense of direction.
Creating Wind
By the time I made it back to Dayton, the brothers had built a wind tunnel to create their own wind for
their experiments. It was like a big box with a fan at one end and open at the other to allow the wind to
escape. The fan blew the air through the box at a constant speed and the tunnel was designed so that the
brothers could place models of their gliders in it to determine how different shaped wings and other designs
would react without actually flying the full sized glider. Their tunnel was about six feet long by two feet wide.
The ceiling was a glass panel so that the brothers could observe what was happening to their little replicas.
By using the wind tunnel they could experiment right at their bicycle shop instead of moving to the sand
dunes of Kitty Hawk. Down right smart of those boys, don’t you think?
They were so disappointed with the results of their experiments of that last summer that Orville and
Wilbur tested almost two hundred different wing designs. At the end came up with a glider much different
than the one they flew the summer before. The new and improved glider of 1902 even had a tail on it with
something else new. Orville decided that they should be able to move the tail in coordination with their wingwarping. The boys really learned an awful lot through their experiments with the wind tunnel.
(How did what the Wright Brothers do with their experiments differ from that of Lilienthal ? The
Brothers used models as much as they could to save on expenses and for safety reasons. The Wright
Brothers appeared to have been more methodic in their approaches to flight.)
That next summer after they traveled back to Kitty Hawk Orville started to take a more active part in
piloting the glider. By the fall of 1902 the two brothers had made more than a thousand flights in their glider
over those North Carolina sand dunes sometimes gliding over 600 feet. But now their dreams had gone
beyond creating a controllable glider. They dreamed of flying like birds. To do this they needed an engine to
take the place of the wind. They would have to build one themselves as no one had ever done that before,
and a year later when Orville and Wilbur again left Dayton for Kitty Hawk they had constructed two engines
complete with propellers to power their glider. But after building the craft and testing the motors, they found
that the propeller shafts had cracked which indicated they were not strong enough. Orville returned to Dayton
to make the new shafts and it wasn’t until December that Orville returned with the new and stronger propeller
shafts. Now came a tough decision. Who would be the first pilot?
Heads or Tails?
The two brothers walked away from the assembled witnesses and decided to flip a coin. They would
alternate flights with the winner getting the first chance. High in the air went the coin, and when it came to
rest Wilbur had won. Slowly Orville, Wilbur, and seven others carried the more than six hundred pound craft
up the sand dune. With Wilbur at the controls, lying on the lower wing and with Orville and a second man,
each holding one of the wings, they started to rush down the dune. The craft caught some wind beneath its
wings and started to lift up. Suddenly it nosed back to the ground. The craft was airborne for about 3
seconds before it stalled, but was that considered flight? The brothers said no. Unfortunately, one of the
landing skids broke and the frame needed some repair, but the Wright brothers were persistent and with
help carried the craft back to their Kitty Hawk work shed. Orville decided to return to Dayton to make the
repairs while Wilbur stayed behind with the glider. I stayed with Wilbur and kept busy looking for mice to
satisfy my hunger. Finally Orville returned with the repaired frame and skid.
The Flight
It was a cold Friday morning, December the 17th, 1903. The repairs had been made but the normally mild
winds were increasingly becoming stronger as winter approached. Perhaps the wind was too much for the
little craft but the decision had to be made as soon the blustery winter weather would make any more
attempts impossible in 1903.
(How might the increased wind affect the “Flyer”? The wind might be too strong for the controls and the
Flyer might crash.)
The two brothers agreed it was time to do it, but not from the top of the sand
dune. It was agreed that the drastic change in the wings angle may have caused the craft to stall. The boys
dragged wooden beams into place in front of the craft. These were to give the plane something to slide upon
until it lifted up into the air. This time it was Orville’s turn to climb into the hip harness and lie on the wing. At
approximately ten thirty, Orville started the engines, then revved them up. The plane started to move
increasing in speed. Ten, twenty, thirty feet down the track, then suddenly, the Wright Brother’s Flyer lifted
off the ground and climbed to a height of 3 feet above the ground. The whole flight lasted only twelve
seconds, but it was flight, actual controlled flight. Orville had become the first pilot of a heavier than air craft.
The Wright brothers flew three more flights that day with their Flyer. The longest was 852 feet with the time in
the air being 59 seconds. Then as they were carrying the plane back to its starting point a gust of wind
flipped it over several times with Wilbur still in the hip harness. He was lifted out unharmed but the Flyer was
destroyed. Although it was sad to lose the Flyer, history had been made. The Wright brothers had done it.
A Final Thought
In viewing their accomplishment that day compared with the aircraft of today, it doesn’t seem like much,
but they had accomplished what no one else had done before. It’s easy to imagine today what an
accomplishment that was, but at the same time, it’s difficult to realize just how hard accomplishing that goal
really was. For centuries it had been the dream of inventors all over the globe and different designs had been
tried, all ending with failure. They, themselves had been told countless times that their ideas would never
work, they were just wasting time and money. However, they pursued their dream irregardless of what
others’ said. They took the ideas from others that had worked and they made careful observations of things
that actually flew, studied their movements and tested their theories. They learned from their own mistakes
as well as the mistakes of others. They also observed things that actually flew, from gliders to birds and
applied the principals that appeared to work. Lastly, they didn’t quit. If something didn’t work, they tried
something new, and tried again, and again until they achieved the results they wanted. The two bicycle
manufacturers actually did what so many had unsuccessfully tried, flown like birds. They had ushered in the
age of manned flight. The world would never be the same again or my middle name isn’t Hoot.
(Compare the steps of the scientific method to what Orville and Orville did. Discover a problem, Do
Research, Devise a hypothesis based upon the research, Develop an experiment to test the hypothesis,
Collect Data, Draw a conclusion)
(How would the world have been different if the Wright Brothers decided to quit after their first glider
crashed? Others were working on the solutions to the problem of flight and eventually someone would have
solved it).
(Suppose everybody quit? Answers will vary)
Wright Brothers and Their Flyer Evaluation
Name ___________________________
Date ___________________
Answer questions 1 through 9. Base your answers on Oliver Owl’s story. (#1-7 7 points each)
1. _____ During what approximate time frame does this story take place?
A.
B.
C.
D.
mid 1800s
1870 – 1905
1900 – 1925
mid 1900s
2. _____ Why was Orville not bothered by not being able to go to college?
A.
B.
C.
D.
no courses were offered on aviation
Orville wanted to invent things
Orville didn’t like writing essays
It was not a wise choice
3. _____ An ornithologist:
A.
B.
C.
D.
is a dentist who straightens teeth.
designs airplanes.
is an eye doctor
is a person who studies birds.
4. _____ Wilbur arrived at the idea of wing-warping by:
A. mishandling a cardboard box.
B. reading books.
C. watching birds fly.
D. reading articles by Otto Lilienthal.
5. _____ How would you describe Wilbur’s reaction to the strong winds of Kitty Hawk when he first tested
his “glider”?
A.
B.
C.
D.
irrational
courageous
cautious
risky
6. _____ Why did the Brothers attempt to fly their propeller driven aircraft in the increased winds on
December 17, 1903?
A.
B.
C.
D.
They believed there wasn’t any problem.
They believed the increased winds would help provide the desired lift.
They wanted the challenge presented by the increased winds.
The winds would probably get worse and they would have to wait another year.
Essays 7, 8, and 9 are worth 20 points each.
7. Choose one word from the following that best describes the Wright Brothers as youths: Lazy, Curious,
Dangerous
Support your choice with details from the story.
8. The Wright Brothers were persistent. Using examples from the story, explain why this is true.
9. Explain how the scientific method used for your science project and the way that the Wright Brothers built
their “Flyer” are similar. Use examples from the story.
A Condensed History of Aviation in Florida
Soon after the Wright brothers proved that flying was possible, Florida was visited by itinerant aviators
and their fragile flying machines. Because many early aircraft flew without windshields, Florida’s warm
climate was perfect for early aviation. In 1910 there were ready made airports of pasture land and beaches
waiting to be used to advance the cause of aviation. Just as the Wright Brothers used the beach at Kitty
Hawk, Charles K. Hamilton became the first to use a Florida beach when he was hoisted aloft in a glider at
Ormand Beach on January 12, 1906. In 1910, Lincoln Beachey made the first heavier than air flight in Florida
while at the Orange County Fair in Orlando.
Soon other sites in Florida became popular as well as this fledgling industry got off the ground. By mid
January 1917 Miami Beach was home to the Curtiss Flying School and Earl Dodge opened a flying school
near Jacksonville. With the United States entering World War I, many of these civilian fields were taken over
by the United States Government for military training. Florida was selected for training bases because of its
relatively flat terrain and favorable weather. The Marine Corps established a school at Miami in March of
1918 and on July 13th of that same year, the 1st Aviation Force shipped out to France. Arcadia became home
to two of the Army’s training facilities, Dorr Field and Carlstrom Field. Initially troops were housed in canvas
tents, but these later were replaced by crude wooden barracks. The Army also took over Earl Dodge’s flying
school and operated it as an auxiliary of Camp Johnston using it for small scale pilot training.
Naval Aviation also grew during this time. During the war, training facilities were opened up at Fort
Jefferson and Key West, but Pensacola Navy Yard, established in 1826, was the first Naval Aviation unit in
1914. At the beginning of 1917 before the U.S. entered the war, there were 58 officers and 431 enlisted men
stationed at Pensacola Naval Air Station. When the U.S. entered World War I more than 100 buildings were
constructed. Flight training operations commenced and training lasted from dawn to dusk. By the end of the
war on Nov.11, 1918, over 58,000 flight hours had been logged and over 1,000 pilots had received their
wings.
Florida had only a few airports in 1919. Ten years later, cities such as Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville,
Orlando, Pensacola, and St. Petersburg had airports, although the actual runways could have been
classified as dirt strips. Smaller towns generally had airfields which could have been used for emergency
landings. These smaller operations usually didn’t have any beacons, hangars, or runways. They were in
reality, pastures complete with cattle. During the twenties and early thirties all that changed with the growth
of aviation and construction of facilities. By 1936 one aviation publication described Florida as having the
most highly developed system of airports and runways of any State. The Florida Airport Directory listed 134
usable airports, but the quality of facilities varied considerably. Tampa’s Drew Field opened on February 22,
1928.
Besides a growing number of airfields, the number of licensed pilots had increased as well. There were
several thousand compared to 56 in 1928. Flight training curriculum and licensing requirements for private
pilots became more rigorous. Aircraft which sold for five thousand dollars before World War I could be
bought for a few hundred dollars shortly after the war. More important for the growth of Florida, pioneers of
the airline industry helped to develop Florida as a tourist destination. These people included Eddie
Rickenbacker and a few others who founded Florida Airways on November 3, 1925. They initiated service
between Miami, Ft. Myers, Tampa, Jacksonville, Atlanta, and Macon. Jacksonville soon became a stop-over
place on the route from New York City to Miami. Miami called itself the Air Hub of the Americas with many
flights leaving there for destinations in Latin America.
As the years moved past the twenties, the world changed politically. The settlement of the first World War
was not a good one and it was only a matter of time before more problems came about. The countries in
Europe became embroiled once again in a major conflict. At the beginning of the forties, the United States
started preparing its servicemen for war. Operations at the Pensacola Naval Air Station which has slowed
down after the war with the decreased need for pilots sped up again. Over 28,000 Naval aviators, including
4,000 British pilots, received their wings at Pensacola during that period. In fact, so many pilots married
Pensacola girls that the town became known as “The Mother-in-Law of Naval Aviation”. In June of 1985, the
Navy pinned its last wings on the last graduating class of Pensacola Naval Air Station. However the base still
remains and its legacy is recorded in history as the Naval Air Museum opened on the grounds of the Station
in 1985.
The army chose Florida for training locations a well. In September of 1941 the U.S. Army Air Corps
established a pilot training school in Lakeland. Aviators completed the first of three flying phases at that
school. Albert I. Lodwick’s flying school in Avon Park was also opened for the same reason. Both places
successfully trained thousands of pilots. As more and more men were needed, more aviation sites were
opened by the government. Today, Florida is home to several major Air Force Bases, such as Eglin AFB
located at Fort Walton Beach, Tyndall AFB at Panama City, MacDill AFB at Tampa, Patrick AFB on Cape
Canaveral, and Homestead AFB at Homestead. Florida had indeed proven its worthiness for military training
bases.
Historically Florida has provided many firsts for the record books, and has produced more airlines than
perhaps any other state. The world’s first commercial airline began right here in Florida. The St. PetersburgTampa Airboat Line made its first flight on June 1st, 1914. Chalk Airways, which started operations in 1919,
was the world’s first international airlines. Also, on June 1, 1926, Florida Airways provided the first daily air
passenger service in the United States, operated over a Federal Airmail contract route. Jacqueline Cochran,
the first woman to break the sound barrier, was born near Pensacola about 1912. At the time of her death in
1980, she held more speed, altitude, and distance records than any other pilot, man or woman. In addition,
National Airlines, Florida Airways, Air Florida, Eastern Airlines, and Pan American World Airways were all
founded in Florida.
Florida provides a climate perfect for year round activities and vacations, remains a popular tourist
destination today as it did in the past, and Florida’s airports are second to none. In fact, Tampa International
Airport has been recognized as the best airport in the United States. The weather continues to be ideal for
aviation training. In fact, Florida ranks second (only to Arizona) with the number of potential flying days.
Military training facilities have also made significant contributions to Florida since 1914, by providing jobs to
thousands of employees, bringing government contracts, and millions of dollars into the State. America’s
entry into the space program was initiated at Cape Canaveral, and still handles the launches and primary
recoveries of the space shuttles. Florida has had a significant role in the development of aviation, and
likewise, aviation has played an important role in the development of Florida.
Information for this handout was from the walls of the Sun ‘n Fun Air Museum. This is a great place to visit
complete with a lot more information, especially about the Tuskegee Airmen, air racing, and a quantity of
information about Howard Hughes. There are also many aircraft inside the museum to observe.
Answers to Oliver Owl’s Story
1. B
2. B
3. C
4. A
5. C
6. D
7. Answer may include: always tinkered, always fixing things, took the “bat” apart, put it back together, and
built their own; repaired, then built own bicycles.
8. answers could include that:
1. Orville’s newspaper idea failed but he continued with his printing press to make advertisements.
2. spent hours watching birds, determined that their wings had to change shape, then were
persistent in finding that shape. Even after their ideas didn’t create the desired effect, made
a wind tunnel and tested over 200 different designs.
3. The Brothers flew over 1,000 times in their gliders before trying to put an engine on it.
9. Answers should include the steps in the scientific process: problem, research, hypothesis, devise an
experiment to test the hypothesis, collect data, draw conclusions. Examples of this can be found
within the story.
Answers to the Logic Puzzle:
Jenny: The Flyer, Kitty Hawk, N C, Dec. 17, 1903, 1st fight 120 feet in 12 seconds,
Biplane, Orville Wright
Joseph: Spirit of St. Louis, Charles Lindberg, 1st to solo across the Atlantic, 1927
Sally: Flying Laboratory, Amelia Earhart attempted to be the 1st pilot to fly around the
world at the equator, July 1937, July 2 message for help
John: Chuck Yeager, 1947 1st to break the sound barrier.
Sam: Friendship 7, John Glenn, 1962
Science: Lesson 1 The Four Forces upon Flight, Lift, Thrust, Drag, Gravity
Grade Level: 3rd-5th Grade
Materials Needed: (A) 2 inch by 10 inch piece of paper; (B) 6 feet of string, tape, balloons, straw
(C) poster board or Science Project Show board; D) books of different weights, pencil (E) transparency
Objectives:
The student will be able to:
Identify and explain the forces which affect flight
Predict how these force will affect an aircraft
Introduction:
1. Ask the class if anyone knows what makes an airplane fly. Solicit responses, then using the transparency
showing the four force which act upon an aircraft during flight, discuss those forces. Do the hands-on
activities to reinforce learning.
A. Lift:
Do the activity demonstrating lift.
B. Thrust:
Do the activity demonstrating thrust.
C. Drag:
Do the activity demonstrating drag.
D. Gravity:
Do the activity demonstrating gravity.
Activities: Use the transparency to explain the following:
A. Lift: Predict what will happen when you blow over the top of a piece of paper. Hold the
strip of paper with two hands just below your lower lip. Blow over the paper. Record your observations.
B. Thrust:
1. Predict what will happen when a balloon filled with air is released. Release the balloon and record the
results.
2. Pull string through a straw and tie the two ends of the string to two chairs. The string should be taught by
moving the chairs apart to tighten the string. Blow up a balloon half way and tape it to the straw. Move the
balloon to one of the chairs and let it go. Record how far it traveled. Repeat the activity, this time with a
balloon with twice as much air. Predict how far it will travel and repeat the experiment. Record how far it
traveled.
Discussion: The flight pattern produced by thrust may be random (activity 1) or it may be controlled (activity
2). Ask why controlled thrust is desired over random thrust.
C. Drag: (What effect does streamlining have upon objects?) Have the students run a pre-set distance, then
have each hold a piece of poster board or science board in front of them as they run the same distance.
Have them record their observations. Which was easier? Have them determine why a designer might wish to
make it easier for a plane to fly through the air. If you wanted to reduce drag, what type of design might the
designer want? Test your hypothesis by creating an experiment to determine the results?
D. Gravity: (Do heavier objects fall faster then lighter ones?) Make a prediction as to which books of
different weights will fall to the ground quickest. Drop the books from an equal height. Record your
observations. To test your results again, drop two different objects such as a pencil and a book. Record your
observations. Discuss the findings.
Transparency #1 to demonstrate four forces of Flight
Science: Lesson 2
Objectives:
The student will be able to:
Identify different parts of an aircraft
Explain how the different surfaces of the aircraft allow for control
Materials: Transparency of Aircraft Control Surfaces
Vocabulary: Axis, Yawl, Roll, Pitch, Camber, Aileron, Elevator, Rudder, Flaps, Cockpit, Fuselage, Vertical
Stabilizer, Horizontal Stabilizer
Introduction: Using a model of an airplane, ask the students what makes an airplane turn, climb, descend, do
a loop, and roll? Demonstrate each maneuver with the model airplane as you ask the question. If anyone
answers for any direction, start with that control surface and go from there if not, cover the following:
A. Pitch:
B. Yawl:
C. Roll:
Using the transparencies #2 and 3, explain how the different parts of an aircraft react to the forces upon
them. An airplane model may also help in this. Pilots talk with their hands, you might need to talk with an
aircraft model to explain the direction the aircraft will go. The transparencies should be self-explanatory
however.
Transparency # 2
Transparency #3
Science: Lesson 3
Objectives:
The student will:
Construct a paper aircraft which allows movement of control surfaces
Predict the outcome of the movement of the different control surfaces
Test his or her hypothesis with the model aircraft
Introduction: Reinforce the lesson about control surfaces by physically demonstrating how these forces act
upon an aircraft in flight. Tell the students that we want to do a lesson using the scientific method. Tell them
that the problem concerns control surfaces of an airplane. Ask how we might lend support to any hypothesis
that we have? Discuss.
1. Activity: Construct a paper airplane with ailerons, elevator, and rudder to demonstrate how control
surfaces will affect the flight of an airplane Distribute the paper airplane and slowly and carefully instruct how
to build it. Build one along with them to reinforce their learning.
2. After the aircraft is built, use the scientific method to predict how the control surface will affect the aircraft.
All control surfaces need to be flush with the aircraft (neutral) except the control surface that is being tested..
Before each flight, have the students hypothesize what will happen. After the flight record the results. The
students must get into the habit of carefully observing and recording all that happens.
3. After all of the control surfaces have been tested individually, have them fold one aileron up and the other
down. Hypothesize what might happen, then test it. Record the observations, then explain that this is what
really happens on an airplane as the ailerons work in pairs.
4. Concluding Activity: Try different combinations to determine the limitations of their aircraft. Let them
conduct experiments to determine who has built the craft which flies the longest distance, the best loop, the
best aileron roll, the best landing, etc.
.
Science Lesson #3 Handout
Instructions for Making a Controllable Paper Airplane
Pattern for Constructing a Wright Flyer
This map of Florida may be used for the Flight Planning Activity. Larger ones would
probably be better. Any map will do, as long as it has a scale. Road mileage will not
do because airplanes should fly more of a direct route than roads will take you.
Resources:
Books:
1. Busby, Peter. First to Fly. Scholastic Madison Press,
Toronto, Ontario, 2002.
2. Ickler, Linda M. “Kitty Hawk – 1903. pgs. 177-184,
Thirty Plays for Classroom Reading, Durrell and Crossley
editors, Boston Publishers 1964.
3. You Can Soar (1997 KIDSNET), pages 22-26
4. “Wright Brothers”. P251-257, Short Stories of Famous Men in History,
Noble and Noble Publishers, Inc. 1953
5. “Wilbur and Orville Wright, Pioneers in Aviation”, pg. 223-229,
Great Names in Our Country’s History, Laidlaw Brothers
Publishers, River Forest Illinois, 1961.
Pamphlets:
1. “Airplanes!”, AOPA, Frederick, MD, November 2002
2. “Forces of Flight” (Teachers’ Handbook Grades 5-8).
Boeing 2003.
3. “Learning to Fly: The Wright Brothers’ Adventure”, National Aeronautics
and Space Administration
4. “Social Studies in Flight, Celebrating the Centennial of
Powered Flight”, U.S. Air Force Pamphlet
5. Sun ‘n Fun Teachers’ Workshop, summer 2005
6. Sun ‘n Fun Air Museum
Videos:
The Magic of Flight, Macgillvray Freeman Films 82 min
WEB Sites:
http://www.airforce,com
http://www.aopa.org (airplanes)
http://print.infoplease.com/ipa
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/wright