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January 28, 2002
The "Wright" stuff
Students build replica of famous airplane

By Arrin Brunson
The Herald Journal

Photo by Mitch Mascaro/HJ

When the Wright Flyer replicas under construction at Utah
State University are finished, the airplanes will do much more than fly — they will be
vehicles for the education of people of all ages throughout the United States, project proponents say.

The lessons have already begun for the USU engineering students who are working furiously to complete a quarter-scale remote control model. What is now little more than a set of plans and some assembled balsa wood will be completed for display at the mouth of Ogden Canyon in time for the Olympic games.

Photo by Mitch Mascaro/HJ

Then the students will get to work on the real thing. In honor of the 100th anniversary of powered flight, USU and the Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) plan to build two life-size flying replicas using space-age materials for the 2003 Wright Flyer celebrations. The two-year project will involve engineers, students, faculty and the local community.

On Dec. 17, 1903 Wilbur and Orville Wright stepped onto the shores of Kitty Hawk N.C. and achieved the first powered, controlled, sustained flight. Marc Karpowich, an aeronautics student at USU who is overseeing the development of the Wright models, said the early planes weren’t very stable.

“It’s amazing that the Wright brothers got airborne in the 1903 model,” Karpowich said. “It was an incredible feat in those days.”

“The Wright brothers’ invention gave birth to a century of wondrous technological developments that are a part of USU and SDL history,” said Frank Redd, SDL director. “We want to continue their legacy by emulating their pioneering spirit.”

Project participants are using the Wright brothers’ pioneering spirit to develop USU’s flyers. Charles “Chuck” Larsen, aviation maintenance program coordinator and Wright project engineer, said this is the first time anybody has tried to build a Wright flyer with composite materials, the latest, newest technology.

David Widauf, director of aviation at USU, said Kevlar and graphite, composites manufactured in Utah and used in the space shuttles and next-generation rockets and military aircraft, will replace the muslin and spruce used in the original flyer.

USU designers are proceeding by asking, if the Wright brothers were alive today what would they have build their aircraft out of and if they had the computer technology how would they have designed it?

“The theme is blending the historic with the current and future materials,” Widauf said.

A project of this magnitude is very expensive and Widauf is looking for all the support he can get. Amy Hintze and Wayne Goodrich, engineering students at USU who are working on the Wright project, spent Thursday at the state capitol vying for the attention of legislators at the annual posters on the hill event.

USU and SDL have partnered with local aerospace manufacturers, Hill Air Force Base and the State of Utah to showcase advancements developed within the state. The benefits of this project will be far-reaching, Widauf said.

“We want to get children from K-12 excited about engineering, science and those kinds of things and tell them about their heritage — where the realm of flight came from and the impact it’s had on our society and their lives,” he said.

TIMELINE FOR OPTIONAL SIDEBAR
1899 — Wilbur Wright sent a letter to the Smithsonian Institution for information with which to conduct experiments on flight.

1900 — Wilbur and his brother, Orville, successfully tested their 50-pound biplane glider with a 17-foot wingspan at Kitty Hawk, N.C.

1901 — The brothers flew the largest glider ever flown at Kill Devil Hills, N.C. It weighed nearly 100 pounds, had a wingspan of 22 feet and skids for smoother landings. But many problems occurred: The wings did not have enough lifting power; the forward elevator was not very effective in controlling the pitch; and the wing warping occasionally caused the airplane to spin out of control. In their disappointment, they predicted that man would probably not fly in their lifetime.

1902 — The Wrights persevered and built a wind tunnel to test wing shapes. They flew numerous piloted test glides with few mishaps. They coordinated turns and were ready to build a powered aircraft.

1903 — They studied how propellers work and designed a motor and new flying machine. It weighed over 700 pounds and became the first Flyer. On Dec. 17, on the third attempt to fly this machine, Orville took it for a 12-second, sustained flight. This became the first successful, powered, piloted flight in history.