National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
Abstract
The Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Aero and
Astronautics is building two replicas of the 1903 Wright Flyer airplane;
one to wind-tunnel test and display, and a modified one to fly. As part
of this project the aerodynamic characteristics of the Flyer are being
analyzed by modern wind-tunnel and analytical techniques. Tnis paper
describes the Wright Flyer Project, and compares key results from
small-scale wind-tunnel tests and from vortex-lattice computations for
this multi-biplane canard configuration. Analyses of the stability and
control properties are summarized and their implications for closed-loop
control by a pilot are derived using quasilinear pilot-vehicle analysis
and illustrated by simulation time histories.
It is concluded that, although the Wrights were very knowledgeable
and ingenious with respect to aircraft controls and their interactions
(e.g., the good effects of their wing-warp-to-rudder linkage are
validated), they were largely ignorant of dynamic stability
considerations. The paper shows that the 1903 Flyer was readily
controllable about all axes but was intrinsically unstable in pitch and
roll, and it could barely be stabilized by a skilled pilot
