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May 02, 2002
University students rebuilding Wright brothers
aircraft
Nearly 100 years ago Orville and Wilbur Wright stood at Kitty Hawk, N.C., flipped a coin and flew into history.
Orville’s first powered flight lasted 12 seconds and took him 120 feet. The longest flight that day belonged to Wilbur who flew 852 feet in 59 seconds.
Marking this momentous event in history is a group of Utah State University engineering students, working with Space Dynamics Laboratory, are preparing to build a replica of the 1905 Wright Flyer. The plane will get a 21st century makeover though. Kevlar and graphite, composites manufactured in Utah and used in the Space Shuttle, will replace the muslin and spruce originally used. The flyer will weigh 400 pounds, 300 less than the original and cruise at 45 mph, 20 miles an hour faster than the original.
“We expect our version to fly farther, higher and faster than the original, which only had a 17 horse power engine with no carburetor,” said Nick Alley, USU graduate student who is leading the 12-member undergraduate design team. “Their design was the best of its day, no question. When they pulled their plane back out after mothballing it for a few years so people wouldn’t steal their patents, and flew it at the Paris Airshow in 1908, the only reason they had to land was because they ran out of gas. That is how well they built their plane.”
The students built and displayed a quarter-scale model, which they presented to state legislators and was seen by Olympic visitors at various venues. Their presentation, “The Wright Way to Fly”, placed second at the Western Regional American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Student Conference. Now working with aviation maintenance and flight tech students from USU, the engineers are going to building their plane in anticipation of flying it at the “Inventing Flight” celebration at Dayton, Ohio, in July 2003.
The Air Force is commemorating the year-long, worldwide celebration, Centennial of Flight, which showcases events like this, and honors 100 years of air powered flight.
“We’re working a lot with the people who are going to build the plane. We would present them with an idea and they would give us input on how to make it better. One thing I think we’ve all learned is a good design is a redesign,” said Ben Case, an engineering student on the aerodynamics design team. “The Wright Brothers were well ahead of their time, but we wanted to improve on the design, we’re not just restoring it we’re souping it up. There isn’t a lot of engineering in building something that has already been done. The Wright brothers were concerned with lift not drag; we’ve reduced the weight by 40 percent and made the airfoils thicker to reduce stalls and drag. We’ll be able to go higher because our gas tank is bigger. But when a person looks at the plane it will look like the 1905 Wright Flyer.”
The flyer will have two seats to allow for a pilot and a pilot trainer. Former Utah Senator Jake Garn has expressed interest in flying the plane.
“One of our goals with this project is to take the flyer on a tour
of Utah, especially schools, in the hopes of lighting a fire of interest
in engineering among our young people,” said executive director of
the replica project David Wildauf, an associate professor in the industrial
technology and education department at USU. “Building a Wright Flyer
is not only a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our student designers,
it’s an awesome educational outreach tool for Utah’s children.”
