Ask an Expert: 1909 Aviation Meet at Reims

[@warp13]

Fantastic video- it was the begining of a new age, many people don't realize how much of an impact these days at Reims how on the attitude of the general public and changed the future of aviation.

[@geomodelrailroader]

The Wright Brothers were the first to fly. I have made the pilgrimage to the Air and Space Museum and have overflew Kittyhawk when I landed at Raleigh Durham. It was good to see this plane the legendary Wright Flyer the one who started it all.

[@cashstore1]

Well done Peter

[@stevelangstroth5833]

My great great grandmother was a 2nd cousin of Glenn Curtiss. I'm learning more about him. It seems to me that the Wright brothers were the tortoise and Curtiss was the hare. Unlike the children's story, the tortoise doesn't win, if he retracts into his shell. Curtiss was a "speed demon". He was "The Fastest Man in the World" at the time of this airplane race. He went 136 1/2 mph on his V8 engine motorcycle 2 years before this airplane race.

[@stevebett4947]

Very well produced video on the Grand Semaine d'Aviation at Rheims in 1909. I would like to see more on the Wright Model R (Racer?) which set the World Speed record of over 47 mph. Curtis won the prize because he completed both of the required laps around the pylons. The Wright Racer crashed doing aerobatics just before the scheduled 2nd attempt. The plane used a Dayton built V8. The detail on the engine is available in the free Hobbs book at Project Gutenberg. Link: book: The Wright Brothers' Engines And Their Design by Leonard S. Hobbs full text free version at www.gutenberg.org/files/38739/38739-h/38739-h.htm The 4-cylinder vertical engine was a considerable improvement over the previous designs. They had obtained a power increase of about 40 percent, with a weight decrease of 10 percent @majorbett

[@L1K2F3]

The Ft. Meyers flights were in 1908, not 1909. In fact, the first flight Orville made at Ft. Meyer on Sept. 8, 1908, was the first public flight the Wrights made in America. They still had never accomplished a take-off without the assistance of some kind. Gravity and wind at Kitty Hawk, Counterweights dropped from a tower after they no longer had a large sand dune. Lt. Selfridge probably had more time flying than Orville did when he crawled into the out-dated and obsolete Wright flyer for his fateful flight 9 days later.

[@stevebett4947]

SB: Selfridge worked for Graham Bell, What would he be flying? Orville thought that he was a spy out to steal his secrets. I doubt if there were many secrets in 1908 that were not in plain view. It is amazing to me that there is not record of anyone understanding wing warping and bank and turn control before Wilbur gave Beloit a lecture on just how it worked. Within 4 months, other aviation pioneers had incorporated the Wrights' ideas in their prototypes. By 1910 one could say that the Flyer Models A and B were outdated and obsolete. I don't think the case can be made in 1908.

[@stevelangstroth5833]

Actually; the airleron was patented in Great Britain in 1868. That's right, 1868!! The Wrights claimed in court that Curtiss's patent of the aileron infringed their wing warping patent. If both are effectively the same, then the Wright patent is as invalid as the Curtiss aileron patent. See how 'muddy' this all gets?