[alfa] RE: Dynos, NAC (was: 100 years of powered flight

["Chris Landry" <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nope.  They had a cradle at their hips (lying prone) that slid back and
forth to do the warping.  If you think of the biplane wing structure as
a box, the warping twisted the box one way or the other.  When the
cradle moved, the wings on one side twisted one way, the other side the
other, providing roll control.  They also had a lever for the rudder at
the rear of the plane for yaw (side to side) and one for the elevator in
front for pitch.  Three axis control was the real insight, not how it
was accomplished.  

Having the elevator out front made the plane inherently unstable in
pitch and very difficult to fly, especially considering how underpowered
it was.  They figured that out a couple of years later. Try it yourself:
http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Wrights/simulation/Wright_sim.
html 

Deviating even farther from any semblance of Alfa content . . .
  Chris Landry

> Date: Sun, 07 Dec 2003 16:46:02 -0700
> From: alfacybersite <acs@domain.elided>
> Subject: [alfa] Dynos, NAC (was: 100 years of powered flight
>  
> Having confessed that, once more into the brink: Just going on gut
> instincts here, but the Wrights controlled the turning of the Kitty
Hawk
> by a combination of 'wing warping' (literally - guessing as to how -
> pulling levers to warp one pair of wings and, again assuming, another
> lever, to warp them on the other side) combined with shifting their
own
> weight from side to side.
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