A Demonstration of the Key Feature That Let The Wright Brothers’ Fly First

Jim’s Tech Talk

By Jim Langley

Most people know that brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright were the first to invent an airplane that worked, changing the world in the process by revolutionizing transportation. What some people don’t know is that, before they developed their airplane they were passionate about the current transportation craze of the time, bicycling. The 1880s and 90s were the original bike boom, when the two-wheeler swept the world and ruled the roads. To give you an idea of its popularity, at the peak of the craze, in America alone there were over 2,000 manufacturers of bicycles!

In 1892 the Wright Brothers decided to open their own shop, the Wright Cycle Company in Dayton, Ohio, where they prospered making and selling bikes under the Van Cleve and St. Clair model names (Wright family names). As much as the brothers were into bikes, they shared a second passion, which was following the experiments of the early pioneers of flying machines, Otto Lilienthal of German and the USA’s Samuel Langley [Editors note: a distant relative of mine].

Then in 1896 Lilienthal died while flying an experimental glider. And while Langley had successfully developed powered models that flew, still, no one had yet come up with an airplane that allowed a person to fly. These events and their dream of being the first to build and fly an airplane inspired the brothers to throw their hats in the ring.

In 1899 they began their study of aerodynamics, which over the next four years led to the development of the Wright Flyer, that Orville flew on December 17, 1903. His flight only lasted for 12 seconds. But it finally proved that it was possible for man to fly. And later that day Wilbur remained aloft for 59 seconds covering 852 feet.

The story of the Wright Brothers, two bicycle mechanics without college degrees, who designed and built the first airplane is the stuff of legend and there are excellent books available to learn more, such as David McCullough’s The Wright Brothers. 

One of the things I didn’t realize is that their sister Katharine had a tremendous amount to do with their success. “Brothers” makes you think it was just the two of them, but it was their entire family helping with the project. In fact, historians give their mother Susan, who had learned to use tools working in her father’s carriage shop, credit for her sons’ ingeniuity and mechanical skills.

Bicycle connections

I’m interested in how the Wrights used their bicycle knowledge in the development of their plane. Thirty years ago I visited the Wright Cycle Company bicycle shop in Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford Museum outside of Detroit in Dearborn, Michigan. It’s the actual shop that the Wright Brothers worked in so it’s an inspirational place to visit (Greenfield Village is made up of buildings that Henry Ford purchased to save and then brought to the village – another one I remember is the Thomas Edison’s original Menlo Park factory). For more information: https://www.thehenryford.org.

Currently I’m touring North Carolina in our RV and I went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk, where they have a full-size reproduction of the Wright Flyer. I saw the original at the Smithsonian but that was even longer ago than my visit to Greenfield Village. So I wanted to see it again even if it was a replica.

I also hoped to find out more about something the curator of the Wright Cycle Company shop in Greenfield Village had told us. He said that the Wright Brothers understood from watching how birds move their wings around, that in order to keep their airplane flying, they needed a way to control the plane. Because nothing so far in their hundreds of experiments had worked.

And that one day while fixing a flat tire in the bike shop, Wilbur was holding and flexing the box the tube came in and suddenly realized that it was like the wings structure on their plane. Just as the box would flex when twisted, they could twist the wings to control the plane.

I love the bike connection of the tube box leading to controlling the plane but there wasn’t anything more about it – the actual application on the plane – at the Wright bike shop in Greenfield Village. So, in Kitty Hawk, I was hoping to find out more and I quickly spotted a hands-on demonstration of the tube twisting that you could try out. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything that showed exactly how the twisting, which they called “wing warping,” worked, or at least I couldn’t find it.

So I went into the large room were the Wright Flyer was displayed trying to spot the details. A couple of things any bike mechanic will see are the bike hubs on the front that let the Flyer roll down the takeoff ramp, basically a wooden plank. And, the sprockets that drive the two propellers (the Wright Brothers also invented the first working airplane propeller). I can’t be sure they’re bicycle chainings or that the chains are from their bike shop, but they might be.

As I was snapping photos and getting ready to head outside to see where the Wrights made history, one of the rangers came in and went inside the enclosure with the airplane. He introduced himself and waited a bit for the seats to be filled and then started educating us about the Wright Brothers. I had already spent an hour looking at the museum exhibits and he was covering material I had already read. But then he began discussing wing warping and actually demonstrated how it worked on the plane!

There weren’t any signs forbidding photography or video so I took the liberty of filming it to share it with you here. If you too wondered how the wing warping mechanism worked, this will give you an idea. For me, watching it in action will be one of the highlights of our trip. I hope you like it too. I know there are many Wright Brothers aficionados out there. If that’s you, please feel free to share your knowledge especially if it has to do with their bicycle connections.

One other bike connection worth mentioning I think is that the Wright Brothers’ invention was completely funded by the proceeds earned in their bicycle shop.

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Jim Langley is RBR’s Technical Editor. A pro mechanic & cycling writer for more than 40 years, he’s the author of Your Home Bicycle Workshop in the RBR eBookstore. Tune in to Jim’s popular YouTube channel for wheel building & bike repair how-to’s. Jim’s also known for his cycling streak that ended in February 2022 with a total of 10,269 consecutive daily rides (28 years, 1 month and 11 days of never missing a ride). Click to read Jim’s full bio.