Dienstbach, 1908, The Perfect Flying Machine
Here Dienstbach claims—by virtue of personal correspondence, visits, and communication with German observer Alfred Hildebrandt—to have the scoop on the secret behind the the Wright Flyer. The context is general confusion about the state of the Wrights' airplane, and about the Wrights' themselves. The following comment gives a good indication both of the state of uncertainty and of the trajectory of technological development as understood at the time.
We happened to have accidental, yet absolutely reliable information confirming the likeness of the first flyer to the last glider. It is hardly necessary to mention to the adept the insistence of the machines of Herring, Ferber, and Wels for confirmation of the fact that the first power machine is always like the last glider. Mr. Manley, Prof. Langley's able assistant, gave information to the same effect to the United States War Department, long ago, concerning the Wright machine.
Basic description of the Wright Flyer:
The Wright Flyer consists, principally, of two superposed surfaces, 40 feet from tip to top and 6½ feet from front to rear, the top surface being 6 feet above the lower one, and the total area, 510 square feet. The wing tips are about 10 inches lower than the center of the surfaces. The framework is made of a very high grade spruce, braced by steel wires and covered with canvas, in which most of the framing is embedded, the exposed parts being especially sharpened, and the head resistance kept low. The trussing is flexible, making it possible to twist the whole frame, to some extent, in such disturbing effect, whereas, if immovable, it would at once make things worse by causing the machine to continue spinning around, through excess of the momentum, initially acquired. Whichever way the rudder moves, the side regulation, by the aforementioned twisting, acts upon it in a manner that decreases the initial effect and neutralizes the subsequent one.
Dienstbach also refers to "first authoritative account" by "Mr. Root" in Gleanings in Bee Culture. (Root, 1904–1905)
Overall the article puts an emphasis on the importance of experienced piloting.
Wilbur Wright once put it very strikingly, thus: "It is the man; not the machine. The time will come when people fly with old shingles. If from another planet a perfect flying machine were dropped to the Earth, it would not help men to fly. They could not use it and would then begin trying to improve on the design and end by ruining the whole thing hopelessly." Eye-witnesses talked about the simple front and rear rudders and the simple double-deck surface, even in their references to the very last flights.
Brockett's apparent omission of this article is surprising, since the newspaper thought it was dynamite, and even published a follow-up article—Publication 558, 1908, American aeronaut's disclosure of Wright Brothers' secret, which Brockett did catalogue—insisting on its importance.
| Original title | The Perfect Flying Machine: First description of the marvelous invention which has given Wilbur and Orville Wright mastery of man's flight.—How they fly and how they learned the secret. |
|---|---|
| Simple title | The Perfect Flying Machine |
| Authors | Carl Dienstbach |
| Date | 1908-01 |
| Countries | US |
| Languages | en |
| Keywords | airplane, biplane, piloting, equilibrium, wood, frame, wing warping, propellers, design, engine, Wright Brothers, Alfred Hildebrandt, Milton Wright, Octave Chanute, Moedebeck, 1907, Pocket-Book of Aeronautics, Torrence Huffman, Otto Lilienthal, landing, Root, 1904–1905 |
| Journal | American Aeronaut |
| Related to aircraft? | 1 |
| Page count | 9 |
| Word count | |
| Wikidata id |
- Scan on HathiTrust
