quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
The reason the Wright Flyer flew and others were failing was because of their propeller.

Among quite a few other things.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
The reason the Wright Flyer flew and others were failing was because of their propeller.

Among quite a few other things.

Including the fact it was a canard.

It's only flying backwards if you assume it's pulling a banner.

I don't recall the Wright brothers being in the aerial advertisement business, pulling banners over the beach in the summertime or whatnot.

So I'm going with it's flying towards the center of the plate, just happening to be near the red ribbon of color with the writing on it.

Aw shucks.

Go easy on them. Ohio wasn't really a state back then, so...

…not to mention that Ohio isn’t known for wheat production.

They grow corn. Lots of corn.

That tag’s a FAIL.

Well, they did issue a revised image with an apology...

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
The reason the Wright Flyer flew and others were failing was because of their propeller.

Among quite a few other things.

Including the fact it was a canard.

Canards can be pretty slick. The Piaggio Avanti:

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
The reason the Wright Flyer flew and others were failing was because of their propeller.

Among quite a few other things.

Including the fact it was a canard.

The propellers and canard were part of their success, but it goes even farther than that. The engines they designed increasingly provided the increased thrust-to-weight needed.

But among the many improvements, the Wright brothers most important one was probably the importance of the airfoil shape. Early on in their experiments, they relied on the flawed assumptions by a few other pioneers exploring flight but after realizing that their failures were due to these bad assumptions they built the world's first wind tunnel and which eventually led to more efficient airfoils.

Another important innovation they devised was the use of wing warping to give them some limited directional control.

The gravity powered catapult they later used was another big factor in developing the necessary airspeed for flight from locations that didn't have the winds famous at Kitty hawk.

Many people considered the Wright brothers to be tinkerers that got lucky. But in fact they were engineers of the first rank, albeit self-educated.

BTW – Note that the two props were counter-rotating – thus no net torque in need of compensation by control surfaces. How neat is that?

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Canards can be pretty slick. The Piaggio Avanti:

Except, the P.180 isn't a canard aircraft, and Piaggio maintains that it's a forward wing (not a canard), as the forward lacks flight controls. A forward wing isn't the only element that makes an aircraft a canard; it must also have primary flight controls. The elevator is on the horizontal stab at the back of the airplane, and the secondary flaps are on the forward wing.

I have a thousand or so hours in the P.180. It's a great airplane, overpriced, but still the fastest production commercial turboprop. It goes to FL410, has a stand=up cabin, same burn as a King Air 200 but about 100 knots faster, very quiet inside, can be flown with one engine out right down to the buffet (though one probably shouldn't) while maintaining control, and passengers love them.

Every surface on the airplane is a lifting body, including the fuselage and nacelles. It's also close enough to laminar flow that flight through light rain, or even a cumulus cloud, causes a noticeable loss of lift, and loss of airspeed in sustained conditions (or increased thrust).

The Wrights, due to ambition and lawsuits, did more to hold back early aviation than nearly any other pioneer, and ironically, it was their dogged insistence on preventing Glen Curtis (et al) from the use of wing warping that lead to the conventional aileron and elevator that's nearly universal today. Modern aviation isn't a result of the Wrights, but the result of an end-run around the road block they presented.

From the article:

quote:

Some 35,000 plates were produced before the wrong Wright Flyer was caught.

Well, so much for it being the next "inverted Jenny" postage stamp.

I would like to see a plain plate for my state. Simple, easy, none of this kindergarten art crap. Copy Texas... white plate, black letters. Easy.
Nope. What do we do? We put a cartoon on every car. Idiots.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfe 21:
I would like to see a plain plate for my state.

Did anyone else see an homage to the WWII battle flag of Japan in this design? A rising sun?

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Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
Did anyone else see an homage to the WWII battle flag of Japan in this design?

No, I'm pretty sure that's just you.

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Originally posted by sns3guppy:
<snip>
The Wrights, due to ambition and lawsuits, did more to hold back early aviation than nearly any other pioneer
<snip>

What?! The Wright brothers actually defended their patents? The nerve of those dirty bastards.

“Unable to secure a monopoly they subsequently adjusted their legal strategy suing foreign and domestic aviators and companies, especially another U.S. aviation pioneer, Glenn Curtiss, in an attempt to collect licensing fees. Of the nine suits brought by them and three against them, the Wright brothers eventually won every case in U.S. courts.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik..._brothers_patent_war

The Wright brothers benefited from others who were studying flying machines sure but what really gave them the break through was when they kept failing and decided to build a wind tunnel.

Starting over and building that wind tunnel to test airfoils helped them realize their design flaws regarding insufficient lift. The math regarding lift wasn’t wrong per se it was more of the application of the data was not correct for their design.


If you are ever at the Outer Banks of North Carolina you should go see the Wright Brothers memorial and the small museum. They have a full size replica of the plane as well as piece of the original engine crank case on display. It’s wild to see the large size of the engine and then read about the 12 horsepower power output.

Looking at that inline four the Wright Brothers had built and comparing its size and power to similar sized 4 stroke engines today that are state of the art is just wild. Just the engine alone has picked up over 20 times as much power.

We’ve come a long way my friends.

I know its wrong too, but if the plane was going in the correct direction the canards would not be seen as well. It would be hidden by the wings.

The should've opted for a better angle and design.

Why is the kids jumping on a rock with a fishing pole and not near the water?
Actually hes being hung from the tree!

quote:

If you are ever at the Outer Banks of North Carolina you should go see the Wright Brothers memorial and the small museum. They have a full size replica of the plane as well as piece of the original engine crank case on display. It’s wild to see the large size of the engine and then read about the 12 horsepower power output.

Went there in 2011.

quote:

If you are ever at the Outer Banks of North Carolina you should go see the Wright Brothers memorial and the small museum. They have a full size replica of the plane as well as piece of the original engine crank case on display. It’s wild to see the large size of the engine and then read about the 12 horsepower power output.

Been there a few times. Awesome pace to visit.

Both my vehicles still have the "First In Flight" NC plates