Wilbur Wright on the Craft of Flying

Santos Dumont or the Wright Brothers: Who’s the father?
Americans swear they were the Wright brothers and have already convinced almost everyone that. In Brazil, efforts to gather show that Santos Dumont is who deserves the fame. After all, who invented the airplane?
Giba by Stam

The inventions that change the course of history not usually arise from night to day. They are the result of the hard work of several inventors and scientists, who set the stage for a breakthrough. However, the credit usually goes to just one person, who inventiveness, genius, or even by chance, just give the decisive step. A he or she is guaranteed all the glory. Sometimes, however, is difficult to determine who deserves to have his name immortalized. This applies to the contest between Alberto Santos Dumont and the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright. Santos Dumont is lauded as the Father of Aviation in Brazil. The rest of the planet, he is a famous unknown: the title of pioneers of heaven is up to Wright. In the United States, the birthplace of two brothers, is celebrated this year the centenary of the first flight of the double, which occurred in 1903. Here, the celebration will be in 2006, when it will complete 100 years since that Santos Dumont flew his 14 Bis.

But ultimately, what the date is correct? Who invented the airplane?

To try to answer these questions, we must go back to the turn of the 19th to the 20th. “Two major challenges were presented regarding the conquest of the air: the handling of the balloons (ie, the ability to control them), and flight machines heavier than air,” says physicist Henrique Lins de Barros, the Center de Física, São Paulo. Since 1890, the experiences have multiplied on both fronts. There was much expectation, the problem is that there was no definition for controlled flight, or the balloon or the “heavier than air.”

In 1898, created the Aero Club of France. In order to stimulate competition and at the same time establish definitive landmarks, the Flying Club has followed the awards criteria. For the handling of the balloons, it was decided that the experience would be public hearing held before an official commission and scheduled to avoid factors such as climatic conditions favor a competitor. “Until then, the common practice was to take a leading scientist to observe the demonstration and write an opinion, but the reports were subjective and laden with emotion,” says Henry. In October 1901, the Deutsch Prize – offered by the oil magnate Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe, worth 50 billion francs – was sold by Santos Dumont, after around the Eiffel Tower on board a blimp. His main innovation was to engage an internal combustion engine running on gasoline (later he would use the planes) to a hydrogen balloon.

To zero. However, to define what would be a plane flight would be a much bigger challenge. The subject was controversial, and many people even believed in the possibility of something heavier than air takeoff. Unbelief was common to the famous scientists. In 1895, the British physicist and mathematician Lord Kelvin declared that “flying machines heavier than air is impossible.” Science, however, goes contrary to the impossible, and men full of imagination rushed to the dream of flying. The Frenchman Clément Ader built a plane shaped like a bat, which he lost contact with the ground, without a win, however, altitude. Samuel Langley, the U.S. managed to make a small model unmanned flying. However, it was Otto Lilienthal who caused a sensation in the specialized and far had become the favorite of the public. Flying in gliders inspired by the birds, the German showed that efficient flight was possible.

For the French Aero Club, however, was not planar the same as flying. Still discussing the criteria for determining the award of the first flight of heavier than air, when, in 1903, came to Europe to learn that the Wrights had accomplished the first controlled flight in an airplane. But the only evidence was a telegram written by his own brothers, counting have flown against winds around 40 mph. Within two years, the rumors were that they had traveled farther away, reaching an amazing 39 kilometers. “But the brothers do not even released a picture, and did not allow witnesses neutral accompany the experiment,” says Mark Danhoni Neves, a physicist at the State University of Maringá. The French ignored the feat, for lack of evidence and because of the strong wind, which helps the plane to take off.

It was agreed that the flight should be done with calm weather, and that the device was able to take off without help from external elements (wind or a catapult, for example). As in the case of balloons, the deed should be accompanied by an official commission. And that, on October 23, 1906, was made the first ratified flight. In the fields of Bagatelle in Paris, in the presence of judges and a crowd of onlookers, Santos Dumont piloted his 14 Bis for exactly 60 meters at a height between 2 and 3 meters. “The man has conquered the air!” Shouted the people on shore. Made by the Brazilian received premium of 3 thousand francs offered by Ernest Archdeacon, a founder of the Aero Club. Less than a month later, on November 12, he flew even farther, 220 meters (6 feet tall), beating his own record.

Meanwhile, the Wright brothers kept secret about his invention, despite calls for them to be showing it in Europe. “One of the reasons why the U.S. refused to participate in the French events was that her plane to take off, used a catapult, with a weight of 700 pounds coming down from a tower and drove the set for the flight, something totally out of parameter of the Europeans, “says Mark. Another reason for the mystery was the fear that his idea was stolen. In 1904, the World’s Fair in St. Louis offered prize for anyone who could fly, but they did not attend. In 1905 and 1906, tried to sell the design of the flying machine to the Ministry of War in the U.S. and then to the French government, but refused to make statements, so the deal did not go forward.

The conduct of Wright was very different from that of Santos Dumont, who published their projects. And unlike Americans, who considered his invention on over, the Brazilian was always testing new gadgets. Before the 14 Bis, he endeavored to improve the airship. Until 1905, he built eight of a kind, not to mention a helicopter that took off and an airplane that was abandoned in the middle. Only then turned to the development of a machine “heavier than air.” Santos Dumont himself later explained the reason for the delay: “It is the inventor, as the nature of Linnaeus, does not leap: progresses from gentle, evolves. He knew that the takeoff was dependent on a powerful engine, and while there was one, followed by exploring balloons.

Interestingly, the first project of Santos Dumont was like a modern plane, but different aircraft at the time. However, due to criticism, he abandoned the idea. Caution was also linked to an event that shook the pioneers of aviation: the death of Otto Lilienthal, whose plane crashed in 1896. “The episode launched a wave of fear among the inventors, who decided to adopt a configuration called canard,” says Henry. Canard means duck in French and refers to the position of the wings on the back and the beak in front. In this configuration, the elevator – tailplane that helps lift the nose of the aircraft so that it may soar – is in front while in aircraft today is located at the rear. The Wrights were the main disseminators of the canard and influenced the very Santos Dumont, who adopted the setting in 14 Bis.

In 1908, the Wrights finally took the Flyer for Europe and for the first time showed pictures of the flight of 1903. “At this point, everyone was interested in the records away, and Wright, who actually had the best developed part of the aerodynamic and control in the air, they knew that at this point would do well,” says Henry. The Americans caused a sensation in the Old World with flights of more than 100 kilometers. Made public his invention helped spur the development of aviation, which would reach a milestone with the crossing of the English Channel (between France and England) by Frenchman Louis Blériot in 1909.

In comparison, the aerodynamic point of view, the Brazilian aircraft loses. Based on the concept of cells Hargrave (hollow boxes and barrels in Japanese), the 14 Bis was passed. However, brought important innovations: the landing gear and ailerons, which allow the slope to the sides, giving greater stability. And some argue that the aircraft of the Wright can even be considered a plane. “What they invented is nothing more than a powered glider. Many people are surprised to learn about the catapult, “says Mark, who gives lectures on the subject.

The controversy is fraught with jingoism, and it is likely that we can never say with certainty who was the first man to fly. However, there is a curious fact. Nearly 100 years after the deed of Santos Dumont, the 14 Bis regained the heavens. Or almost: it is a replica, built by Colonel Paulo Danilo Flores Fuchs, who flew his plane several times, including one in Sao Paulo in 1989 and another in Paris in 1991. “He is very stable and can achieve distances greater than 1 kilometer,” says Fuchs. In the U.S., dreams to do the same with the Flyer. There is even a foundation, the Discovery of Flight Foundation, dedicated to study the achievement of the Wright building replicas and trying to make them fly. To date, failed.