The Wright brothers designed, built and flew a series of three manned gliders in 1900–1902 as they worked towards achieving powered flight. They also made preliminary tests with a kite in 1899. In 1911 Orville conducted tests with a much more sophisticated glider. Neither the kite nor any of the gliders were preserved, but replicas of all have been built.
1899 kite The 1899 kite, which Wilbur flew near his home in Dayton, Ohio had a wingspan of only 5 feet (1.5 m). This pine wood and shellacked craft, although too small to carry a pilot, tested the concept of wing-warping for roll control that would prove essential to the brothers' solving the problem of controlled flight. The Wrights burned the craft along with other trash in 1905.
1900 glider The 1900 Wright Glider was the brothers' first to be capable of carrying a human. Its overall structure was based on Octave Chanute's two-surface glider of 1896. Its wing airfoil was derived from Otto Lilienthal's published tables of aerodynamic lift. The glider was designed with wing-warping capability for full-size testing of the concept first tried on the 1899 Wright Kite. On 23 September 1900, Wilbur wrote from Kitty Hawk, "My idea is merely to experiment and practice with a view to solving the problem of equilibrium. When once a machine is under proper control under all conditions, the motor problem will be quickly solved. I am constructing my machine to sustain about five times my weight...trussed like a bridge." Weighing 52 pounds (24 kg), the glider had a wingspan of 17.5 feet (5.3 m), a wing area of 155 square feet (14.4 m2), while the wings were curved with a ratio of 1-in-22. In 1924, Orville wrote, "...we retained the elevator in front for many years because it absolutely prevented a nose dive such as that in which Lilienthal and many others since have met their deaths." Harry B. Combs noted, "...because the elevator was forward instead of behind, the aircraft, when it stalled, instead of spinning out and killing them the way a conventional aircraft would have done, simply parachuted to the ground in a flat position. The forward elevator also served as a visual indicator of the airplane's attitude in flight." The flyer would operate the craft from a prone position on the bottom wing, so as to reduce wind resistance. The glider was first flown as an unmanned kite on October 5, 1900 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Next, Wilbur rode as pilot while men on the ground held tether ropes attached to the airborne craft. Subsequently, Wilbur made about a dozen free flights on a single day, concluding the season's test efforts. The brothers abandoned the glider when they broke camp on 23 October, and it eventually disappeared in the region's severe storms. The fabric covering of the wing components was given to the wife of helper Bill Tate, whose family Wilbur first stayed with at Kitty Hawk in 1900. Mrs. Tate allegedly used the material to make dresses for her daughters. Afterwards, Wilbur wrote, "longitudinal balancing and steering were effected by means of a horizontal rudder projecting in front of the planes. Lateral balancing and right and left steering were obtained by increasing the inclination of the wings at one end and decreasing their inclination at the other." The brothers had demonstrated two thirds of the eventual three-dimension control system (the glider did not possess a vertical rudder).
1901 glider
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