December 2002
"Letters from the West" - The Wright Stuff
John Taylor
Jim
Slade's Airlines
Have you ever thought about going back in time to rewrite history? Perhaps to journey back and become a soldier in the Civil War, but take an M-16 along with you? Or do you picture yourself hanging around the Wright Brothers bicycle shop in Dayton while they were trying to figure out how to make an engine-driven machine light enough to fly through the air?
"Use composites!" you could shout. Becoming an instant hero.
Most likely they would instantly throw you out of their shop. The closest anybody could come to a "composite" a hundred years ago was probably a wooden wagon wheel with a steel rim.
But what if??
What if the brothers Wright had been able to solve the thorny issues that stood between them and powered flight by dipping into a parts box of 21st century goodies? And what if they had a hundred years of aeronautical technology development available to them? How different would their famous Wright Flyer airplane have turned out?
Out in Logan, Utah, that's exactly what Dave Widauf and Chuck Larsen wondered. The two aeronautical technology professors at Utah State University were looking for a way to celebrate the Wright Brothers centennial and at the same time provide a stiff challenge for their best engineering and aeronautical technology students.
"We wanted to build a tribute to the Wrights," explained Dr. Widauf. "Their spirit, vision and tenacity made today's aviation industry possible. To succeed, Wilbur and Orville Wright simply had to do the impossible.
"We thought a new generation should try their hand at doing the impossible also. And we wanted our students to get a taste of how the Wrights faced and successfully met the technological challenges of their day. So instead of asking them to produce a faithful replica of the Wright Brother's original design, we challenged our students to use their knowledge and skills to make it better.
"We told them it should look the same, but be light years ahead in design and manufacturing."
Just six months after the idea struck Widauf and Larsen, teams of students of Utah State's College of Engineering had designed and built a revolutionary remake of the Wright Brothers' 1905 Flyer. But this one was made with 21st century technology and materials that the famous brothers could not have even imagined. Where the Wrights had been faced with finding creative ways to save a few ounces here and there, the Utah State team managed to shave about 200 pounds off the original Flyer's 750-pound weight.
The project started in April of 2002 when two groups of students were assembled: a design team and a fabrication team. Overall program management and guidance would come from Dr. Widauf, a composites expert, and from Chuck Larsen, an airframe and powerplant specialist and FAA certified inspector. The students themselves would be the designers and builders. Technical and administrative support would come from the Utah State University Research Foundation and its noted Space Dynamics Laboratory, which has a long history of designing and building spacecraft for NASA.
The design team from the university's mechanical and aeronautical engineering department started out by reviewing a set of original plans that still had Orville Wright's notes scribbled across them. "They quickly came back and said 'It can't fly,'" Dr. Widauf remembers. "They found that the original design had a verified aerodynamic static margin of minus 23 in pitch stability. The Air Force considers any airplane with a static margin of less than minus 5 to be unflyable."
So the student design team created new airfoils for the main wing and front canard, then changed the overall geometry of the airframe. "They discovered that the Wrights had it backwards," Dr. Widauf explained. "The center of gravity was aft of the aerocenter, meaning it was way tail-heavy. They ended up moving the engine forward to solve the CG problem. Then designed a new control system, rudders, instruments, powertrain and much more."
Meet the student design team: Design Team
The Wrights flew their plane while lying prone on the lower wing. The USU students put in a control stick and seats, which they considered to be much safer. But rather than redesign the main wings to incorporate control ailerons that are standard today, lead student designer Nick Alley said his team chose instead to perfect the Wright's novel wing-warping concept that provided turning capability. "We did some sophisticated modeling," he said, "that allowed us to modify the wing warp system so that the deflection you set with the control stick will provide about the same roll response that you'd find with a Piper Super Cub." Meaning that when the pilot calls for a turn, this Flyer should turn readily. Orville wasn't that lucky.
Then they integrated all these changes into a single system. The final design still looked like the original flyer, but achieved a healthy verified aerodynamic stability reading of plus 8. Now it was time to build it.
"Even while the design team was finishing its work, the build team consisting of 14 Industrial Technology and Education students were already fabricating parts," said Dave Widauf. "Once they were handed the final design, the students each signed up to put in between 20 and 30 hours per week to get the plane built."
Meet the build team: Build Team
The USU Wright Flyer was constructed of graphite/epoxy, fiberglass/epoxy and some Kevlar/epoxy composite materials. Nickel coated graphite was stained to look like wood, and the wings were covered with STITS "polyfiber" Dacron fabric.
"We had lots of help," Widauf explained. "Bill Pratt, who perfected wavy composites, allowed us to use that technology to roll all the tubes we used to make the major structural elements of the plane. George Hansen of Metal Matrix Composites gave us nickel-coated graphite to use between the wings so the supports look like metal. ATK Thiokol Propulsion, the company that makes the Space Shuttle booster rockets, fabricated the graphite main wing spars."
The team is still experimenting with two engines, a BMW 1150R and a Harley Davidson Twin Cam 88. They expect to use both. "A team of Harley motorcycle engineers came out to see how we were doing," Widauf said, "but when they heard their engine running in the Flyer they were shocked. 'It's too quiet,' they said. 'It just doesn't sound like a Harley!'" According to Widauf, they promised to come back with a redesigned exhaust system that sounds "right."
The students had the plane mostly finished by the end of August, in time for it to be formally dedicated by Utah State University President Kermit Hall and former US Senator-astronaut Jake Garn. Garn will be one of the USU Flyer's demonstration pilots when the plane takes to the air next year.
This project has already brought the students lots of acclaim. Both the History Channel and The Learning Channel are preparing programs about the USU Wright Flyer effort that will air early in 2003. It also brought the more theoretical mechanical engineering students into close contact with the more hands-on aeronautical technology students. "This was the first real team effort between them and it worked out very well," said Project Manager Widauf. "They got so caught up in the spirit of the project that all the design team members who graduated last spring came back from all over the country for the dedication. That was cool as heck."
Through the support of the National Composites Center the USU Wright Flyer project has connected with Inventing Flight, the official Centennial Celebration in the Wright brothers' home base of Dayton, Ohio. The USU Wright Flyer, along with an exact replica Flyer made elsewhere, will fly from the Wrights' former Huffman Prairie field in Dayton, (now part of Wright-Patterson AFB) next July. Senator Garn will be the Utah State pilot.
There are other plans in the works to display the USU Wright Flyer around the state of Utah and around the country to honor aviation heroes in addition to the Wrights. "Part of our plan was to use the Wright Flyer in an outreach program aimed at young people," said Widauf. "We want to light the fire of desire and get more young people interested in aviation, aerospace engineering and technology."
Some have criticized the effort because it is a departure from the original design. Others, like Experimental Aircraft Association President Tom Poberezny, have lauded the project. Poberezny told the Ogden Standard Examiner, "Each approaches honor the Wright Brothers in a different way. Building the plane with modern materials will make the students appreciate what the twosome did a century ago. It highlights, even greater, the engineering feat of the Wright Brothers."
What would the brothers have to say about a group of students trying to improve upon their work? Who knows? But somewhere up in that great hangar in the sky, Orville may be pointing down at northern Utah and saying to brother Wilber, "Would you look at that. They used composites. Isn't that something!"
