US History/US History (Bureau Development Inc.)(1991).ISO/dp/0024/00243.txt

Text File | 1990-12-23 | 8KB | 175 lines

$Unique_ID{USH00243}
$Pretitle{17}
$Title{The Wright Brothers
Of Additional Interest}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{East, Omega G.}
$Affiliation{National Park Service}
$Subject{airfoil
memorial
airplane
national
wright
first
shaft
flight
hill
center}
$Volume{Handbook 34}
$Date{1985}
$Log{Two Results*0024301.scf
}
Book:        The Wright Brothers
Author:      East, Omega G.
Affiliation: National Park Service
Volume:      Handbook 34
Date:        1985

Of Additional Interest

The Original Airplane Exhibited

     Orville always thought that the National Museum in Washington,
administered by the Smithsonian Institution, was the logical place for the
original Wright 1903 airplane to be preserved and exhibited.  However, for a
long time he was unwilling to entrust the airplane there because of a
controversy between him and the Smithsonian in regard to the history of the
invention of the airplane.  In 1928, Orville lent the plane to the Science
Museum at South Kensington, near London, England, with the understanding that
it would stay there permanently unless he made a written request for its
return.  Finally, in 1942, the dispute with the Smithsonian was settled to
Orville's satisfaction, and the next year he wrote a request to the Science
Museum for the return of the airplane to this country when it could be safely
shipped after World War II ended.

     After Orville Wright's death, on January 30, 1948, his executors
deposited the original 1903 airplane in the National Air Museum.  It was
formally placed on exhibition on December 17, 1948, in Washington, D.C., the
45th anniversary of the first flights.  The priceless original airplane now
occupies the highest place of honor among other interesting aeronautical
exhibits.

The National Memorial

     On March 2, 1927, the Congress authorized the establishment of Kill Devil
Hills Monument National Memorial to commemorate the Wrights' achievement of
the first successful flight of a man-carrying, power-driven, heavier-than-air
machine.  The area was transferred from the War Department to the National
Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, on August 10, 1933, and on
December 1, 1953, the name was changed to Wright Brothers National Memorial.
The memorial contains about 425 acres.  It embraces the actual site of the
first four flights and the sites of most of the glider experiments.

[See Two Results: Aircraft over the Wright memorial shaft.]

Guide to the Area

Visitor Center

     The visitor center represents the focal point in the interpretation of
the area.  In addition to an extensive series of modern museum exhibits
telling the story of the memorial, the center also houses an information desk,
where literature is available, and the administrative offices of the memorial.
From the exhibition rooms, there is a sweeping panoramic view of the
reconstructed Wright brothers' 1903 camp, the first flight grounds where
markers designate the take-off and landing points of the first flights, and
the Wright memorial shaft atop Kill Devil Hill.

Reconstructed Wright Brothers' 1903 Camp

     About 100 yards southwest of the visitor center stand two wooden
structures built by the National Park Service in 1953 on the 50th anniversary
of the first flight.  They are reconstructions of the Wright brothers' 1903
living quarters and hangar based on historical research and photographs of the
originals.  The furnishings within the living quarters are of the 1902-3
period, and are almost exact duplications of those used by the Wrights.

First Flight Grounds

     Less than 100 feet west of the camp is a 10-ton granite memorial boulder
placed by the National Aeronautic Association in 1928 on the 25th anniversary
of the first flight.  The boulder marks the take-off point of the first flight
and of the three additional flights made December 17, 1903.  A reconstruction
of the original single-rail starting track is placed at the north and south
sides of the boulder.  Four numbered markers north of the boulder designate
landing points of the powered flights made on December 17, 1903.

Kill Devil Hill

     About a quarter of a mile south of the visitor center lies Kill Devil
Hill, used by the Wrights for gliding experiments during the period 1900-1903.
The north slope of this hill was also used for the unsuccessful attempt at
flight on December 14, 1903.  Before the Wright memorial shaft was erected,
conservation work was begun in 1929 on the massive 26-acre dune of shifting
yellow sand to anchor the 91 foot high dune by seeding it with special grasses
adapted to sandy soil.

Wright Memorial Shaft

     Atop Kill Devil Hill stands the striking Wright memorial shaft, a
triangular pylon 60 feet high, made of gray granite from Mount Airy, N.C.
Construction was begun February 4, 1931, and the shaft was dedicated November
19, 1932.  Its sides ornamented with outspread wings in bas-relief, the pylon
gives to the eye the impression of a gigantic bird about to take off into
space.  Stairs lead to the top of the shaft and an observation platform which
offers a good view of the surrounding country -  magnificent dunes, the
Atlantic Ocean, Albemarle Sound, and even West Hill, a quarter of a mile west
of the shaft, in the direction of the sound.  West Hill, the sand dune which
was the scene of many of the Wrights' gliding experiments in 1901-3, was
stabilized by the National Park Service in 1934 to preserve the historic site.

Administration

     Wright Brothers National Memorial is administered by the National Park
Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.  A superintendent, whose address is
Kill Devil Hills, N.C., is in immediate charge.

Glossary

Aileron - A control surface set into or near the trailing edge of an airplane
     wing, extending, when in the wing, toward the tip and usually within the
     contour of the wing, and used to control the longitudinal axis of an
     airplane.

Airfoil - A surface or body, as a wing, propeller blade, rudder, or the like,
     especially designed to obtain a reaction, as lift or thrust, from the air
     through which it moves.

Angle of attack - The acute angle between the chord of an airfoil, and a line
     representing the undisturbed relative airflow.  Any other acute angle
     between two reference lines designating the cant of an airfoil relative
     to oncoming air.

Aspect ratio - The ratio between the span of an airfoil and its chord.

Camber - The curve of an airfoil section from the leading edge to the trailing
     edge.  Camber is usually expressed as the distance from the chord line to
     the upper or lower surface of an airfoil.

Center-of-pressure travel - The movement, or the amount of movement, of the
     center of pressure along a chord of an airfoil as the latter is inclined
     through its normal angles of attack.

Chord - An assumed straight-line tangent to the lower surface of an airfoil
     section at two points, or a straight line between the leading and
     trailing edges of an airfoil section, or between the ends of the mean
     line of an airfoil section; the distance between the leading and trailing
     edges of an airfoil section.

Drag - A resistant force exerted in a direction opposite to the direction of
     motion and parallel to the relative gas or air stream.

Dynamic lift - The lift given an airplane by the aerodynamic force produced
     from an adequately designed airfoil.

Lift - That component of the total aerodynamic forces acting on an airfoil or
     on an entire aircraft or winged missile, perpendicular to the relative
     wind, and exerted, normally, in an upward direction opposing the pull of
     gravity.

Tailspin - A spin, so named in reference to the characteristic spiral action
     of the tail when the airplane is in a spin.

Yaw - An angular displacement or motion to the left or right about the
     vertical axis of an airplane.