Wright Brothers Fly First Motorized Plane

I. First thoughts.

Have you ever traveled by air? If you have not had such an experience, would you like to do it? Why?

II. Study the words. Make sure you know them.

tendency, stability, airplane, condition, machine, calculation.

III. Read the text and say why Wright Brothers can be thought of as audacious men.

Orville and Wilbur Wright were inspired by Otto Lilienthal, a German glider pioneer. Though he crashed to his death in 1896, the Wrights were obsessed by the technical problems involved in flight. They approached the issue methodically, working out ways to control a glider's tendency to pitch up and down, roll side to side, or yaw left and right. By the third glider they built, they had solved most of these problems of steering and stability.

To make a self-powered airplane, they needed to develop a very light gasoline engine and an appropriate propeller. By December 1903, their first airplane (Flyer I, later renamed Kitty Hawk) was ready to test. It had a 12.3 meter wingspan; was 6.4 meters long, and weighed about 274 kilos without the pilot. It was powered by the Wrights' home-made 12 horsepower gasoline engine. The Wrights returned to the site at Kill Devil Hill near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where they had tested their gliders. Their selection of this spot was based on national weather records which showed it to have consistently favorable conditions.

The first day's attempt was unsuccessful, but in a few days, Orville flew the plane 37 meters, which took 12 seconds. They made several more flights that day, the longest being 260 meters in 59 seconds. The Wrights press release sent out the following month was largely ignored. Many people just didn't believe it, though there were five witnesses to their first flights.

Orville later wrote of that first motorized flight: "With all the knowledge and skill acquired in thousands of flights in the last ten years, I would hardly think today of making my first flight on a strange machine in a 27 mile wind, even if I knew that the machine had already been flown and was safe. After these years of experience I look with amazement upon our audacity in attempting flights with a new and untried machine under such circumstances. Yet faith in our calculations and the design of the first machine, based upon our tables of air pressures, secured by months of careful laboratory work, and confidence in our system of control developed by three years of actual experiences in balancing gliders in the air had convinced us that the machine was capable of lifting and maintaining itself in the air, and that, with a little practice, it could be safely flown.

IV.Comprehension Check.

I. Match the words with their meaning by placing the proper letter on each blank.

- inspiration a) to preoccupy the mind with an idea or emotion

- to obsess b) to cause to believe without doubt

- to convince c) an idea or impulse which loads to creative action.

- circumstance d) a belief in the value or truth.

- faith e) a condition.

2. Cross out the word which does not correspond to other words in the line.

1. Engine, wingspan, propeller, witness, plane.

2. Flight, death, consistently, pressure, air.

3. Maintain, glide, fly, swim, return.

3. Which of the verbs corresponds to the same scheme?

1. to push up and down a.

2. to roll side to side b.

3. to yaw left and right c.

4. move straight d.

4. Choose the best answer to the following questions.

1. What did the Wrights need to develop to make a self-powered airplane?

a. its stability b. its weight c. its engine

2. What was the first name of Wrights airplane?

a. Kill David Hill b. Kitty Hawk c. Flyer

3. Which of the three figures correspond to the longest flight of the plane?

a. 274 b. 260 c. 123

4. How many witnesses were there to the first Wrights’ flight?

a. three b. five c. two

5. What was the selection of the test side at Kill David Hill based on

a. technical calculations

b. technical conditions

c. favourable weather conditions