Aero Quest Chat with the Wright Brothers

99th Anniversary of Flight

December 17, 2002

[ Lori/QuestChatHost - 0 - 17:25:27 ]
Welcome to NASA Quest! This chat room has been set up for a web chat with the Wright Brothers. Chat with Orville and Wilbur Wright about the process they used to design airplanes. Craig Hange (Orville) & Steve Shackelford (Wilbur) recreate history by answering your questions live. Please be sure to read Orville's and Wilbur's bio prior to the events at: <http://wright.nasa.gov/orville.htm> and <http://wright.nasa.gov/wilbur.htm>. You can learn more about Craig and Steve at: <http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/people/bios/aero/hange.html> and <http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/people/BIOS/aero/shackelford.html>.

[ Lori/QuestChatHost - 1 - 17:25:46 ]
You may go ahead and place questions in the chat room now to be answered during the web chat. Please don't post test messages or repeats -- though you may not see your question, it is in the chat room. Again, PLEASE do not repeat your questions. If you can't be here live for the web chat, you can read the archive later to see the answer to your question.

[ Lori/QuestChatHost - 2 - 17:26:11 ]
ALSO -- the Name/Location bar IS NOT working properly, so PLEASE identify yourself in the body of your question. For example -- Nancy/Ms.Wilson's 6thgrade/TX - How many years were you an astronaut? REMEMBER -- don't give your last name (or city or anything too personal). ENJOY THE EVENT :-)

[ Lori/QuestChatHost - 3 - 21:46:31 ]
Great questions already coming in - especially from Mr. Huff's class in NY!! We hope to see you all online during the chat :-)

[ Lori/QuestChatHost - 4 - 15:49:43 ]
Good morning everyone!! We will start our chat with the Wright Brothers in a couple of hours. If you submitted any questions early, you aren't seeing them because we use moderated chat rooms, and nothing is placed in the main room until the time of the event.

[ Lori/QuestChatHost - 5 - 15:50:52 ]
The chat will start at 10 am PT / noon CT / 1 pm ET. See you then :-)

[ Lori/QuestChatHost - 6 - 18:00:38 ]
We are ready to begin our chat. Welcome Wilbur and Orville! So glad you could join us today :-)

[ Orville - 7 - 18:01:22 ]
RE: [Lori/QuestChatHost] We are about to begin our chat. Welcome Wilbur and Orville! So glad you could join us today :-)
It's nice to be here. Hello everyone.

[ Orville - 9 - 18:03:03 ]
RE: [Wilbur] Good morning everyone. I am Wilbur Wright at your service.
Hello Brother. Nice to see you again.

[ Wilbur - 13 - 18:05:07 ]
Good Morning Orv. How's it going?

[ Orville - 14 - 18:06:14 ]
RE: Patricia/Ms. Gibson's 2nd grade/CA - For the Wright Bros., How aware were you of any of your competitors in the race to be the first to develop the first engine-powered flying machine?
Yes Patricia, we were aware of a lot of competitors. That's why we were very secretive about explaining our invention to other people. We made sure we got the patent for our invention before we released any details to the public.

[ Wilbur - 15 - 18:06:59 ]
RE: Patricia/Ms. Gibson's 2nd grade/CA - For the Wright Bros., How aware were you of any of your competitors in the race to be the first to develop the first engine-powered flying machine?
Hello Patricia. Good question. We were very much aware of Langley's attempts to fly and his aircraft. We figured, however that he didn't have the critical information that we had developed ourselves. We were very confident that we could beat him.

[ Orville - 17 - 18:07:51 ]
RE: Andrew/homeschooled/OK-Are you honered to know that without you two, NASA might not be around?
Yes Andrew, it is amazing that something that started out as a hobby for us, became so important to the world in such a short time. It is an honor.

[ Wilbur - 18 - 18:08:17 ]
RE: Patricia/Ms. Gibson's 2nd grade/CA - For the Wright Bros., How aware were you of any of your competitors in the race to be the first to develop the first engine-powered flying machine?
Good morning Patricia, Good question. We were very aware of Langley's and others attempts to build an aircraft but we knew that they didn't have the critical wind tunnel information that we had. We knew that we could beat all of them.

[ Orville - 20 - 18:09:58 ]
RE: Sarah/IL/What was so nice about Kitty Hawk for launching airplanes?
Sarah, Kitty Hawk had a nice steady wind for most of the season we flew there, and it also had large areas of soft sand to lessen the impact of a rough landing.

[ Wilbur - 21 - 18:10:36 ]
RE: Andrew/homeschooled/OK-Are you honered to know that without you two, NASA might not be around?
Andrew, you're soooooo right. NASA would be a nothing without us. Remember that up until now NASA has put 12 men on the moon and also up until now only Orville and I have been able to fly the Wright Flyer successfully. WOW, all that space expertise and still nobody but us can fly the 1903 Wright Flyer. We were good, weren't we Orville.

[ Orville - 22 - 18:11:26 ]
RE: How long was the longest flight? Shortest flight?
My first flight was about 12 seconds long, and went 120 feet. Wilbur's second flight (fourth overall) was about 59 seconds and 852 feet.

[ Wilbur - 23 - 18:12:16 ]
RE: Sarah/IL/What was so nice about Kitty Hawk for launching airplanes?
Good Morning Sarah, We liked Kitty Hawk because of its wide expanse of soft sand, very few trees to hit with our airplane or our gliders and the steady wind that seemed to blow all the time. And you know, the sand and the wind are still there. Come visit Kitty Hawk some time.

[ Wilbur - 26 - 18:14:16 ]
RE: How long was the longest flight? Shortest flight?
As I recall, the shortest flight was about 12 seconds and the longest flight was 59 seconds.

[ Orville - 27 - 18:14:27 ]
RE: Do you think that if Wilbur and Orville would have known that their invention was to have such an impact on human kind they would have changed their experimentation process? Alison/Mr.Huff's 6th grade class, NY
It is interesting to imagine that we might have done something different had we known, but who's to say doing something different for that reason might have caused us to fail. Our airplane worked because of the scientific process we used to create it, and that should stay the same no matter what the potential outcome might be.

[ Wilbur - 28 - 18:16:42 ]
RE: Do you think that if Wilbur and Orville would have known that their invention was to have such an impact on human kind they would have changed their experimentation process? Alison/Mr.Huff's 6th grade class, NY
Good morning Alison. It is very likely that we would not have changed our experimental methodology in any way. We did the work in the only way we knew how to do it. We were aware that inventing the first airplane would be very important but not as important as it has certainly become. Good question.

[ Orville - 30 - 18:17:46 ]
RE: How did the concept of flight spread all over the world after the Wright Brothers first sucessful flight? Molly/Mr.Huff's grade 6 class, NY
Well Molly, a lot of other inventors built upon our work over the following years, especially after we did our demonstrations in Paris in 1908. A lot of work was done in Europe, and a lot of progress was made in aviation as a result of the airplane's use in World War 1.

[ Wilbur - 31 - 18:20:33 ]
RE: How did the concept of flight spread all over the world after the Wright Brothers first sucessful flight? Molly/Mr.Huff's grade 6 class, NY
Good morning Mr. Huff and your whole class. The concept of flight surely did spread widely over the world in just a few years. The French were hot on our trail as far as further development of aircraft. In fact, a good number of aeronautical expressions and words come from the French. For example, Empennage and Fuselage and of course the word Canard, which means both a "joke" and a "duck". In this case "canard" is used to mean a duck because that is what the aircraft sort of looked like (if you have an imagination). Ha Ha!

[ Orville - 32 - 18:21:31 ]
RE: We always see pictures of early inventors strapping wings onto their arms and flapping. Why doesn't that work? Would it ever be possible for humans to fly that way?
It doesn't work because a person doesn't generate enough power to create lift and overcome drag with those flapping inventions. It wasn't until the 1970's when materials were strong enough and light enough to make a human powered airplane (Gossamer Albatross) and that was powered by the large muscles in the legs like a bicycle, not with flapping.

[ Wilbur - 35 - 18:23:01 ]
RE: We always see pictures of early inventors strapping wings onto their arms and flapping. Why doesn't that work? Would it ever be possible for humans to fly that way?
It will probably never be possible for humans to strap on a set of wings and successfully fly, primarily because we just aren't built to fly. In mythology Icarus and Daedelus flew with wax wings with lots of bird feathers attached but that is just not practical. Besides, we'd probably get awfully tired out there flapping our arms.

[ Orville - 36 - 18:24:02 ]
RE: Did the Wright Brothers only experiment with one type of aircraft? Kelly/Mr. Huff's class, NY
Well Kelly, we only built one type of aircraft, but we did a lot of experiments with different shapes for wings, tail, and so on. We went through a lot of design cycles to come up with the airplane we built, and then after flying it we figured out how to make it better.

[ Wilbur - 38 - 18:27:24 ]
RE: Did the Wright Brothers only experiment with one type of aircraft? Kelly/Mr. Huff's class, NY
Orville and I pretty much had one basic design for our aircraft. We didn't have a wide variety of different designs to pick from. If you will notice, there seems to be a strong resemblance of our aircraft to a long box kite with propellers. We experimented with a variety of different changes to the basic design of course. We tried very hard to learn how to fly it and then to be able to make a full circle and then to control turns and climbs and its tendency to stall. The 1903 design was VERY unstable. Probably the 1905 design was the first really practical aircraft. It was the later improvements that we took to Europe to show everyone there in 1908.

[ Orville - 39 - 18:28:30 ]
RE: How did you know what to make the glider from so it would fly?
We knew the materials had to be light to reduce weight, and they had to be strong to resist breaking, and they had to provide enough surface area to generate lift. When these things are all considered it is fairly easy to see that a fabric covered frame made from light woods makes the most sense.

[ Wilbur - 40 - 18:31:24 ]
RE: Were there any other kids in your family -- brothers or sisters? Did either of you ever have kids? Thanks Lori
Good morning Lori. Yes, we had two other brothers, Lorin Wright (1862-1939) and Reuchlin Wright (1861-1920). We also had a sister Katharine, but we never ever called her Katharine or Katy or Kathy. We caller her a pet nickname "Sterchens" because when she was born we heard the relatives say the German word "Swisterchens" which meant "little sister" in German. So, since we couldn't pronounce the German word, we always called her "Sterchens" the rest of her life.

[ Orville - 41 - 18:32:10 ]
RE: Were there any other kids in your family -- brothers or sisters? Did either of you ever have kids? Thanks Lori
Lori, We had two other brothers, Reuchlin and Lorin, and our younger sister, Katharine. I didn't get married but did have the nieces and nephews visit on occasion.

[ Wilbur - 43 - 18:33:46 ]
RE: How did you know what to make the glider from so it would fly?
We chose the lightest and strongest material we could find and that was fabric and wood (mostly spruce). Even the propellers were made of wood. If the aircraft was to heavy it would never have flown. Even with our efforts, the aircraft weighed about 650 pounds.

[ Orville - 44 - 18:33:49 ]
RE: Who/what inspired you to think man could fly? Were you and your friends just sitting around talking about it? Jerry
Jerry, we learned a lot from the flights of Otto Lilienthal, and his glider flights in 1896. We also got a lot of support from Octave Chanute.

[ Orville - 47 - 18:36:29 ]
RE: Did any women help you with getting your aircrafts up into the air?
Our sister Katharine basically ran the house and watched over our cycle shop while we were in Kitty Hawk. While that isn't quite like building actual parts of the airplane, it was still necessary work that we needed to have done to get the airplane into the air.

[ Wilbur - 48 - 18:37:03 ]
RE: Who/what inspired you to think man could fly? Were you and your friends just sitting around talking about it? Jerry
Good morning Jerry. Yes, we did have a person in mind who inspired us to learn to fly. His name was Otto Lilienthal, a German inventor who lived on his estate outside of Berlin. He did a lot of early experiments in a sort of strapped on wings sort of design and then he just jumped off a huge artificial hill he had built in his back yard and learned to glide very successfully for quite a long while. Unfortunately he was killed when his craft stalled (the wings stopped developing lift) and he crashed to the ground with a broken neck.

[ Orville - 49 - 18:38:48 ]
RE: How many times did you fail before you got it right? Josie/8thgrade
Josie, we failed a lot before we got it right. In fact, a lot of people say that we failed to get a "practical" airplane right until we succeeded in 1905. Failure was a big part of the process.

[ Wilbur - 52 - 18:41:35 ]
RE: Did any women help you with getting your aircrafts up into the air?
I didn't ever get married or have any children either. That is not to say that I didn't like women. I did. However I was just too busy with my inventing to ever get married. Our sister Katharine was very supportive to us. For example, she did a lot of the sewing of the fabric that we used to cover the wings of the various gliders and the 1903 Wright Flyer. She packed her own handmade marmalade in my suitcase to eat when I first went down to Kitty Hawk. Katharine also helped run the bicycle shop while we were away at Kitty hawk experimenting. She was a big help. She also went to Europe with us when we demonstrated the aircraft to the kings and queens and other leaders of all those countries (France, Germany, Italy, etc.)

[ Orville - 53 - 18:43:02 ]
RE: Do you know any historic people who influenced flying other than Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright, and Amelia Earhart? Sarah/Mr. Huff's class, NY
Sarah, don't forget about Charles Lindbergh, Samuel Langley, Glenn Curtis, Douglas, McDonnell, (all of the founders of the aircraft companies). There are so many stories of so many people showing each contributed to what we have today.

[ Wilbur - 56 - 18:46:17 ]
RE: How many times did you fail before you got it right? Josie/8thgrade
Good morning Josie. We never had any failures. They were just not successful in the way we had planned. We learned from all of our mistakes and made corrections. We started our designs and experiments on May 30, 1899, when I wrote to the Smithsonian Museum asking for all of the available information having to do with flight. They sent we a whole lot of brochures and other stuff to read and study. Then we built the 1899 kite (very successful), the 1900 glider, the 1901 glider, the 1902 glider (very successful) and then eventually the 1903 Flyer. Even this aircraft had some problems. It was very unstable. Probably the first really practical aircraft was our 1905 Flyer.

[ Orville - 57 - 18:46:18 ]
RE: Jerry - Who is Octave Chanute?
Jerry, Octave Chanute was a gentleman who was an accomplished civil engineer who provided us with a lot of moral and professional support.

[ Orville - 58 - 18:47:08 ]
RE: How does it feel to revolutionize the world in 12 seconds?
We were just happy it flew. We really didn't think we revolutionized anything at the time.

[ Orville - 59 - 18:48:28 ]
RE: Krissy - How did you stay inspired when the first few flights were so short??
Krissy, we knew we had to keep trying to make it better. Don't forget, in our day even a short flight was considered a break through.

[ Wilbur - 60 - 18:48:35 ]
RE: Do you know any historic people who influenced flying other than Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright, and Amelia Earhart? Sarah/Mr. Huff's class, NY
Well, I know all sorts of famous flyers. I talked to Amelia Earhart just the other day. Of course, you know that Amelia died in 1935. I died in 1912. Orville would know a lot more of the famous flyers that I did because he lived until 1948.

[ Orville - 63 - 18:50:09 ]
RE: From Terri -- What made you want to fly? What made you think you could?
Terri, we learned a lot by watching birds fly around. We also became interested in flying when we learned that Lilienthal had flown in his glider. We just addressed the challenge of sustained, controlled flight.

[ Wilbur - 64 - 18:50:36 ]
RE: Jerry - Who is Octave Chanute?
Good question Jerry. Octave Chanute was a famous engineer and structural designer that lived during our time. He had a huge interest in flying and tried to develop his own flying machine with another man named Herring. None of his designs were ever very successful, but he was a lot of encouragement to us both.

[ Wilbur - 66 - 18:52:14 ]
RE: How does it feel to revolutionize the world in 12 seconds?
I feel just wonderful about having been the first (with my brother, of course) to have participated in the first flights. Orville was actually the first to fly the aircraft successfully. I, of course, flew longer and farther than Orville. Ha Ha brother.

[ Lori/QuestChatHost - 67 - 18:53:07 ]
Welcome Mr.Huff's class from NY :-) Glad you could join us today!

[ Orville - 68 - 18:53:53 ]
RE: How did the Wright brothers know to build a wind tunnel? How did they know how to build it? Thanks, Jackson
Jackson, we didn't invent the wind tunnel we just found a use for it. I'm not sure I remember where we learned about it, do you remember Wilbur?

[ Wilbur - 69 - 18:55:37 ]
RE: Krissy - How did you stay inspired when the first few flights were so short??
Good morning Krissy, Good question. We did get discouraged from time to time. In fact, after the 1901 glider experiments we both had sort of decided that man was just never meant to fly. But, we went back to the shop and experimented with our new wind tunnel (we designed ourselves)and realized that our data was faulty and designed a new wing that we had a lot of confidence in. And it worked. The 1902 experiments proved our design ideas and that led directly to the successful 1903 Wright Flyer.

[ Orville - 71 - 18:56:23 ]
RE: Did one of you either Wilbur or Orville get injured playing a hockey game in your youth? Kyle/Mr.Huff/NY
Wilbur, did we decide if that was your tooth or mine? Ha Ha!

[ Orville - 72 - 18:57:36 ]
RE: Did any of you not want to build an airplane before you found out your Wright Flyer was able to sustain flight?Taylor/Mr.Huff/NY
Taylor, we always wanted to build the airplane, but we definitely did not want to get ourselves killed doing so.

[ Wilbur - 73 - 18:58:33 ]
RE: From Terri -- What made you want to fly? What made you think you could?
Good morning Terri. In our boyhood we watched the buzzards flying near Dayton, Ohio, and that interested us a lot. Also, our father brought home a little wind up toy that flew up into the air and that really interested us a lot. In fact, I built bigger and bigger versions of that toy in an effort to see if I could make an early successful aircraft design. My bigger and bigger versions, however, did not work very well. It was a start and we never forgot our fascination, our obsession, really, of wanting to build the world's first successful aircraft.

[ Lori/QuestChatHost - 74 - 18:59:01 ]
What great questions!! We are coming to the end of our chat for today. I will not put anymore questions into the room at this point, so Wilbur & Orville can finish answering what's there. We will be chatting with them again in January.

[ Orville - 75 - 18:59:59 ]
RE: I saw a picture of you (Orville) and Amelia Earhart. What were the two of you doing in the same picture? Brittany/mr.Huff/NY
Brittany, It was probably some sort of publicity photo. Since I lived until 1948 I was somewhat of a celebrity during the 1920's, 30's and 40's.

[ Orville - 76 - 19:01:19 ]
It was nice talking to you today.
RE: [ Lori/QuestChatHost - 78 - 19:02:28 ]
Thanks for sharing your time and expertise with us, too Orville. I hope you all had a chance to read Orville's and Craig Hange's bio prior to our chat. If not, please be sure and read them with you get a chance.

[ Wilbur - 77 - 19:02:02 ]
RE: Did any of you not want to build an airplane before you found out your Wright Flyer was able to sustain flight?Taylor/Mr.Huff/NY
Good morning Taylor, Nope, we both had the same dedication, even though we argued a lot together. Sometimes we would argue an idea and then switch sides and argue all over again. One time, when we were both in the bicycle shop and a banker drove by in his early automobile, Orville said something like, "Hey, Wilbur, maybe we could get involved in building these things." And I said something like, "Naw, those things (automobiles) will never amount to anything." I was wrong about automobiles, but not about our flying design.

[ Wilbur - 79 - 19:04:44 ]
RE: [Orville] Jackson, we didn't invent the wind tunnel we just found a use for it. I'm not sure I remember where we learned about it, do you remember Wilbur?
Jackson, I'm not sure where we got the original idea, but our design was probably the world's first really practical wind tunnel. Unfortunately the original was destroyed. It no longer exists, but copies do at the museum at Kitty Hawk.

[ Orville - 80 - 19:05:43 ]
RE: [Lori/QuestChatHost] Thanks for sharing your time and expertise with us, too Orville. I hope you all had a chance to read Orville's and Craig Hange's bio prior to our chat. If not, please be sure and read them with you get a chance.
Thank you for moderating the chat. I hope everyone has a good holiday season. And Wilbur, dear brother, until next time.

[ Lori/QuestChatHost - 81 - 19:05:49 ]
While Wilbur is finishing up -- I want to thank him for sharing his time and expertise with us, too. I hope you all had a chance to read Wilbur's and Steve Shackelford's bio prior to our chat. If not, please be sure and read them with you get a chance.

[ Wilbur - 82 - 19:06:30 ]
RE: Did one of you either Wilbur or Orville get injured playing a hockey game in your youth? Kyle/Mr.Huff/NY
I was injured playing a version of street hockey. The puck hit me in the mouth, and knocked out several teeth. That is the reason that you almost never see any photos of me (Wilbur) smiling.

[ Orville - 83 - 19:07:29 ]
RE: [Wilbur] I was injured playing a version of street hockey. The puck hit me in the mouth and knocked out several teeth. That is the reason that you almost never see any photos of me (wilbur) smiling.
So that was your tooth?

[ Wilbur - 85 - 19:09:01 ]
Thanks for letting me chat with you all today. This was a lot of fun. Bye for now, Wilbur Wright.

[ Lori/QuestChatHost - 84 - 19:08:50 ]
Thanks again everyone!! Please join us in January for our Space Day Challenge Prep events. We will have 3 webcasts and another chat with Orville and Wilbur. Please see our Calendar of Events for dates and times. Have a wonderful holiday season :-)