Page 88 - KBHA Bulletin 10

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into the first aeroplanes from 1903 onwards. This was the first properly designed
aeroplane. Stringfellow constructed a modified model based on Henson’s and during

1848 achieved the first successful machine-powered flights of 40 ft. and 120 ft. Similar
experiments were conducted in France and Austria, while in Italy a steam-powered

model helicopter rose to 40 ft. in 1877.

Experimental activity continued during the rest of the century in Europe, Britain and the

USA but three problems remained unresolved by its close: first, the development of a
light powerful motor; second, an efficient way of starting a machine on a flight; and

third, adequate stability and control of the machine by an occupant while in the air. The
keys to these problems were to lie, on the one hand, in the development of the internal

combustion engine, on which there was intensive activity during 1896 – 98 for

automobiles, and on the other hand, in perfecting control mechanisms through the actual
practice of flying in motorless gliders. Thus began an era of practical experimentation

based on the principles of gliding and soaring so evident in birds like the Albatross and

the Gannet.

The pioneer of gliding flight was the German, Otto Lilienthal, who constructed his first
glider in 1890. (Fig. 3.1). After making hundreds of experimental flights he died in

1896 while testing a new form of control. Octave Chanute continued these experiments
in the USA and invented the bi-plane glider with mobile planes to provide stability and

control. The Wright brothers, inspired by the successes of Lilienthal and Chanute,

conducted a series of precise and systematic gliding experiments over a period of three
years during the autumn months from 1900 onwards at Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, on

the sandy North Carolina coast, followed by wind tunnel and laboratory testing during
the intervening periods. (Fig. 3.2). All of this work they shrouded in intense secrecy. By

the end of 1902 they had perfected a machine that could be controlled in flight and all
that remained was to add power, for which they adapted a motor-car engine to drive two

propellers. Eventually they made four historic flights in gale force winds at Kitty Hawk

on the morning of 17 December 1903. (Fig. 3.3). The final and longest flight lasted 59