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in the summer of 1904, the Wilbur and Orville began to build a device that would get them
up to flying speed -- a catapult. A 20-foot tower (probably a salvaged derrick that had
once supported a windmill) suspended a 1600-pound weight on a rope. This rope ran through
a system of pulleys and was attached to a carriage resting on the launching rail. The
Flyer rested on the carriage. When the weight dropped, the rope pulled the carriage and
the Flyer along the rail, giving the airplane just the oomph it needed to reach flying
speed.
The Wrights first tested their catapult on September 7, 1904, and from the outset
it was clear that this was the ticket that would get them back in the air. The Flyer 2
lifted cleanly off the carriage as it approached the end of the rail and began to fly. By
September 15, the Wright were making flights up to half a mile long. More importantly,
they began to make controlled turns in the air, something that they had never done in a
powered machine.
On September 20, Orville flew the first complete circuit of the prairie, and for the
first time, an airplane landed back where it had started. That day saw another first. Amos
Root, the owner of a beekeeping supply house in Medina, Ohio, had heard that men were
actually flying at Huffman Prairie, and he had traveled 175 miles to see the miracle for
himself. He was on hand to see Orville's triumphant flight, and he later published the
first eyewitness account of a sustained, controlled, powered flight in Gleanings in
Bee Culture, a journal he published for his customers:
"When it turned that circle, and came near the starting-point, I was right in
front of it; and I said then, and I believe still, it was...the grandest sight of my life.
Imagine a locomotive that had left its track, and is climbing up in the air right toward
you -- a locomotive without any wheels...but with white wings instead...spread 20 feet
each way, coming right toward you with a tremendous flap of its propellers, and you have
something like what I saw...I tell you, friends, the sensation that one feels is something
hard to describe."
For all their success, however, the Wright's flying machine still had serious
shortcomings. In between their long flights, there were many short hops that ended with
the aircraft out of control. Accidents were a daily occurrence, some of them potentially
serious. Dave Beard's wife often sent one of her children running across the field with a
bottle of liniment to sooth Orville and Wilbur's bumps and bruises. Of special concern was
the pitch control -- the Flyer 2 had a tendency to oscillate up and down. The Wrights
tried placing weights on the aircraft to alter its center of gravity, but this was only
marginally successful. Clearly, the machine would have to be redesigned yet again. .
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Click on a
photo to enlarge it.
The 1904 Flyer 2 is catapulted into
the air. The derrick and weight are on the extreme right of the photo.
The Flyer 2 gains altitude after a catapult launch.
The Flyer 2 flying above Huffman Prairie.
The Flyer 2 makes 4 complete circles of the flying
field on November 9, 1904.
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