Chris McDonnell tells me that today is the 100th anniversary flight of the Wright Brothers first glider replica at Kitty Hawk. (He got it off the net, so it must be true).
This is the 'next' biggest anniversary after the Lilienthal flights & death (1896) and ahead of the 1903 powered flight anniversary which will be the biggie for aviation overall. And a possible anniversary goal for a Point Cook national aviation centre including the Australian Gliding Museum. My copy of the Smithsonian report for 1950 records:- "The wing panels had a 5 foot chord and 16.5 foot span, giving a total area of 105 square feet. The weight of the craft was 52 pounds. The wing saection had a camber of 1/22, with the peak well forward. The craft was tested in 3 different ways 1 as a man carrying kite in winds over 25 mph, 2 as a simple kite controlled from the ground in light winds, 3 as a glider off the hilltop. With the craft used as a simple kite, the L/D could be computed as 6.2 from the measured pull of the tow line. As a glider, the L/D measured 6.3. Their actual glider flight time during the summer totaled scarcely over 2 minutes for some 12 flights." -- Emilis Prelgauskas B.ARCH ARAIA [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.
