愛薇塔樂學英文

美國100位歷史名人榜(23)：萊特兄弟

In 1899, after Wilbur Wright had written a letter of request to the Smithsonian Institution for info

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In 1899, after Wilbur Wright had written a letter of request to the Smithsonian Institution for information about flight experiments, the Wright Brothers designed their first aircraft: a small, biplane glider flown as a kite to test their solution for controlling the craft by wing warping. Wing warping is a method of arching the wingtips slightly to control the aircraft's rolling motion and balance.

Wright Brothers - Birds of a Feather
The Wright Brothers spent a great deal of time observing birds in flight. They noticed that birds soared into the wind and that the air flowing over the curved surface of their wings created lift. Birds change the shape of their wings to turn and maneuver. They believed that they could use this technique to obtain roll control by warping, or changing the shape, of a portion of the wing.

Wright Brothers - Gliders
Over the next three years, Wilbur and his brother Orville would design a series of gliders which would be flown in both unmanned (as kites) and piloted flights. They read about the works of Cayley, and Langley, and the hang-gliding flights of Otto Lilienthal. They corresponded with Octave Chanute concerning some of their ideas. They recognized that control of the flying aircraft would be the most crucial and hardest problem to solve.

Following a successful glider test, the Wrights built and tested a full-size glider. They selected Kitty Hawk, North Carolina as their test site because of its wind, sand, hilly terrain and remote location.

In 1900, the Wrights successfully tested their new 50-pound biplane glider with its 17-foot wingspan and wing-warping mechanism at Kitty Hawk, in both unmanned and piloted flights. In fact, it was the first piloted glider. Based upon the results, the Wright Brothers planned to refine the controls and landing gear, and build a bigger glider.

In 1901, at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, the Wright Brothers flew the largest glider ever flown, with a 22-foot wingspan, a weight of nearly 100 pounds and skids for landing. However, many problems occurred: the wings did not have enough lifting power; forward elevator was not effective in controlling the pitch; and the wing-warping mechanism occasionally caused the airplane to spin out of control. In their disappointment, they predicted that man will probably not fly in their lifetime.

In spite of the problems with their last attempts at flight, the Wrights reviewed their test results and determined that the calculations they had used were not reliable. They decided to build a wind tunnel to test a variety of wing shapes and their effect on lift. Based upon these tests, the inventors had a greater understanding of how an airfoil (wing) works and could calculate with greater accuracy how well a particular wing design would fly. They planned to design a new glider with a 32-foot wingspan and a tail to help stabilize it.

Wright Brothers - Inventing the Flyer
During 1902, the brothers flew numerous test glides using their new glider. Their studies showed that a movable tail would help balance the craft and the Wright Brothers connected a movable tail to the wing-warping wires to coordinate turns. With successful glides to verify their wind tunnel tests, the inventors planned to build a powered aircraft.

After months of studying how propellers work the Wright Brothers designed a motor and a new aircraft sturdy enough to accommodate the motor's weight and vibrations. The craft weighed 700 pounds and came to be known as the Flyer.

Wright Brothers - First Manned Flight
The brothers built a movable track to help launch the Flyer. This downhill track would help the aircraft gain enough airspeed to fly. After two attempts to fly this machine, one of which resulted in a minor crash, Orville Wright took the Flyer for a 12-second, sustained flight on December 17, 1903. This was the first successful, powered, piloted flight in history.

In 1904, the first flight lasting more than five minutes took place on November 9. The Flyer II was flown by Wilbur Wright.

萊特兄弟指的是奧維爾（1871年8月19日—1948年1月30日）和維爾伯（1867年4月16日—1912年5月30日）這兩位美國人。世人一般認為他們於1903年12月17日首次完成完全受控制、附機載外部動力、機體比空氣重、持續滯空不落地的飛行，並因此將發明了世界上第一架實用飛機的成就歸功給他們。

象鳥兒一樣在天空飛翔，自古以來就是人類的夢想。為了它的實現，人們付出了多年堅持不懈的努力，甚至許多先驅者生命的代價。終於在1903年12月17日，世界上第一架載人動力飛機在美國北卡羅來納州的基蒂霍克飛上了藍天。這架飛機被叫做“飛行者—1號”，它的發明者就是美國的威爾伯·萊特和奧維爾·萊特兄弟。萊特兄弟的第一次有動力的持續飛行，實現了人類渴望已久的夢想，人類的飛行時代從此拉開了帷幕。

威爾伯·萊特生於1867年4月16日，他的弟弟奧維爾·萊特生於1871年8月19日，他們從小就對機械裝配和飛行懷有濃厚的興趣，從事自行車修理和製造行業。萊特兄弟原以修理自行車為生，兄弟倆聰明好學，從1896年開始，他們就一直熱心於飛行研究。通過多次研究和實驗，他們很快得出一個結論：要解決飛機操縱這個懸而未決的關鍵問題，必須裝上某種能使空氣動力學發揮作用的機械裝置。他們按照這一想法，在基蒂霍克沙丘上空對載人滑翔機進行了幾度寒暑的試驗之後，他們的夢想終於變成了現實。　

奧托·李林塔爾試飛滑翔機成功的消息使他們立志飛行。1896年李林塔爾試飛失事，促使他們把注意力集中在了飛機的平衡操縱上面。他們特別研究了鳥的飛行，並深入鑽研了當時幾乎所有關於航空理論方面的書籍。這個時期，航空事業連連受挫，飛行技師皮爾機毀人亡，重機槍發明人馬克沁試飛失敗，航空學家蘭利連飛機帶人摔入水中，等等，這使大多數人認為飛機依靠自身動力的飛行完全不可能。　　

萊特兄弟卻沒有放棄自己的努力。從1900年至1902年期間，他們除了進行1000多次滑翔試飛之外，還自製了200多個不同的機翼進行了上千次風洞實驗，修正了李林塔爾的一些錯誤的飛行資料，設計出了較大升力的機翼截面形狀。滑翔機的留空時間畢竟有限，但假如給飛機加裝動力並帶上足夠的燃料，那麼它就可以自由地飛翔、起降。於是，兄弟倆又開始了動力飛機的研製。萊特兄弟廢寢忘食地工作著，不久，他們便設計出一種性能優良的發動機和高效率的螺旋槳，然後成功以把各個部件組裝成了世界上第一架動力飛機。他們在1903年製造出了第一架依靠自身動力進行載人飛行的飛機“飛行者”1號，這架飛機的翼展為13.2米，升降舵在前，方向舵在後，兩副兩葉推進螺旋槳由鏈條傳動，著陸裝置為滑橇式，裝有一台70千克重，功率為8.8千瓦的四缸發動機。這架航空史上著名的飛機，現在陳列在美國華盛頓航空航太博物館內。　　

“飛行者”號是一駕普通雙翼機，它的兩個推進式螺旋槳分別安裝在駕駛員位置的兩側，由單台發動機鏈式傳動。1904年，萊特兄弟製造了裝配有新型發動機的第二架“飛行者”，在代頓附近的霍夫曼草原進行試飛，最長的持續飛行時間超過了5分鐘，飛行距離達4 .4千米；1905年又試驗了第三架“飛行者”，由威爾伯駕駛，持續飛行38分鐘，飛行38.6千米。第一次試飛的那一天，天氣寒冷，刮著大風，首先由弟弟奧維爾·萊特駕駛“飛行者”飛機進行飛行，留空時間12秒鐘，飛行36.5米。在同一天內，飛機又進行了3次飛行，其中成績最好的是哥哥威爾伯·萊特。他駕駛飛機在空中持續飛行260米。　　

1903年12月14日至17日，“飛行者”１號進行第4次試飛，地點在美國北卡羅來納州小鷹鎮基蒂霍克的一片沙丘上。第一次試飛由奧維爾·萊特駕駛，共飛行了36米，留空12秒。第四次由威爾伯．萊特駕駛，共飛行了260米，留空59秒。1906年，他們的飛機在美國獲得專利發明權。　　

萊特兄弟飛行的成功，最初並沒有得到美國政府和公眾的重視與承認，直到1907年還為人們所懷疑；反而是法國於1908年首先給他們的成就以正確的評價，從此掀起了席捲世界的航空熱潮。他們也因此終於在1909年獲得美國國會榮譽獎。同年，他們創辦了“萊特飛機公司”。威爾伯．萊特於1912年5月29日逝世，年僅45歲。此後，奧維爾·萊特奮鬥30年，使萊特飛機公司成為世界著名飛機製造商，資金高達百億美元。奧維爾．萊特於1948年1月3日逝世。