who were the people that build the first airplane?

Answer 1

The Wright brothers were the first ones to make first flyinf aeroplane in the world hitory.
The Wright brothers: Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 - January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 - May 30, 1912), are generally credited with making the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight on December 17, 1903. In the two years afterward, they developed their flying machine into the world's first practical fixed-wing aircraft, along with many other aviation milestones.

Currently, their feat is officially recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) as being the first controlled, powered, sustained (from takeoff to landing) flight involving a heavier-than-air vehicle, using mechanically unassisted takeoff (thrust/lift created chiefly by onboard propulsion).

Nevertheless, the Wright brothers' claim to this aviation "first" has been subject to counter-claims by various parties. Much controversy persists around the many competing claims of early aviators. See first flying machine for more discussion.

Both brothers received their high school educations, but did not receive diplomas. They grew up in Dayton (but also lived in Iowa and Indiana for a few years), where they ran a printing business and, for a brief time, weekly and daily newspapers, then opened a bicycle repair, design, and manufacturing company (the Wright Cycle Company) in 1892. They used this endeavor to fund their growing interest in flight. In the early or mid-1890s they saw newspaper or magazine articles and probably photographs of the dramatic glides by Otto Lilienthal in Germany. The year 1896 brought three important aeronautical events. In May, Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Langley successfully flew an unmanned steam-powered model aircraft. In the summer, Chicago engineer and aviation authority Octave Chanute brought together several men who tested various types of gliders over the sand dunes along the shore of Lake Michigan. In August, Lilienthal was killed in the plunge of his glider.[4] These events lodged in the consciousness of the brothers. In May 1899 Wilbur wrote a letter to the Smithsonian Institution requesting information and publications about aeronautics.[5] Drawing on the work of Sir George Cayley, Chanute, Lilienthal, Leonardo da Vinci, and Langley, they began their mechanical aeronautical experimentation that year. The brothers extended the technology of flight by emphasizing control of the aircraft instead of increased power. They developed three-axis control, a fundamental principle of aviation which is still used.

The Wrights had researched and initially relied upon the aeronautical literature of the day, including Lilienthal's tables; but finding that the Smeaton Coefficient (a variable in the formula for lift and the formula for drag) was wrong, they built a wind tunnel and tested over two hundred different wing shapes in it, eventually devising their own tables relating air pressure to wing shape. Their work and projects with bicycles, gears, shop motors, and balance (while riding a bicycle), were critical to their success in creating the mechanical aeroplane.

During their research, the Wrights always worked together, and their contributions to the aeroplane's development are inseparable. Biographers, however, note that Wilbur took the initiative in the early stages and at first wrote of "my" machine and "my" plans before Orville became deeply involved, when the first person singular became the plural "we" and "our". Author James Tobin writes, "it is impossible to imagine Orville, bright as he was, supplying the driving force that started their work and kept it going from the back room of a store in Ohio to conferences with capitalists, presidents, and kings. Will did that. He was the leader, from the beginning to the end." [6]

Their assistant Charlie Taylor helped with construction, especially the engine, which he built in consultation with the brothers. The Wrights did all of the theoretical work and most of the other hands-on construction.

Despite Lilienthal's fate, the brothers favored his strategy: to practice gliding in order to master the art of control prior to attempting flight with a motor. The death of British aeronaut Percy Pilcher in another hang gliding crash in 1899 only reinforced their opinion that a reliable method of pilot control, not elusive built-in stability, was the key to successful—and safe—flight. At the outset of their experiments they regarded control as the unsolved third part of "the flying problem". They believed sufficiently promising knowledge of the other two issues—wings and engines—already existed.[7] The Wright brothers thus differed sharply from more experienced practitioners of the day, notably Ader, Maxim and Langley who built powerful engines, attached them to airframes equipped with unproven control devices, and expected to take to the air with no previous piloting experience. Though agreeing with Lilienthal's idea of practice, the Wrights saw that his method of balance and control—shifting his body weight—was fatally inadequate.[8] They determined to find something better.

Observation of birds led Wilbur to conclude they changed the angle of the ends of their wings to make their bodies roll right or left.[9] The brothers decided this would also be a good way for a flying machine to turn—to "bank" or "lean" into the turn just like a bird—and just like a person riding a bicycle, an experience with which they were thoroughly familiar. Equally important, they hoped this method would enable recovery when the wind tilted the machine to one side (lateral balance). They puzzled over how to achieve the same effect with man-made wings and eventually discovered wing-warping when Wilbur idly twisted a long inner tube box at the bicycle shop.[10]

Other aeronautical investigators regarded flight as if it were not so different from surface locomotion, except the surface would be elevated. They thought in terms of a ship's rudder for steering, while the flying machine remained essentially level in the air, as did a train or an automobile or a ship at the surface. The idea of deliberately leaning, or rolling, to one side either seemed undesirable or did not enter their thinking.[11] Some of these other investigators, including Langley and Chanute, sought the ideal of "inherent stability," believing the pilot of a flying machine would not be able to react quickly enough to wind disturbances to effectively use mechanical controls. The Wright brothers, on the other hand, wanted the pilot to have absolute control.[12] For that reason, their early designs made no concessions toward built-in stability (such as dihedral wings). They deliberately designed their 1903 first powered flyer with anhedral wings, which are inherently unstable. The design mimicked seagulls, however, whose drooping wings help the birds remain balanced in gusty winds.

In 1899 Wilbur put wing-warping to the test by building and flying a five-foot box kite in the approximate shape of a biplane. When the wings were warped, or twisted, one end would receive more lift and rise, which would start a turn in the direction of the lower end. To allow warping, the front and rear posts between the wings of the kite (and later, manned gliders) were unbraced. Warping was controlled by wires running through the structure, which led to sticks held by the kite flyer, who could pull one or the other to twist the wings and make the kite bank left or right. It worked.

In 1900 the brothers went to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to continue their aeronautical work — choosing Kitty Hawk (specifically, a sand dune called Kill Devil Hill) on the advice of a Weather Bureau meteorologist because of its strong and steady winds, and because its remote location afforded the brothers privacy from prying eyes in the highly competitive race to invent a successful heavier-than-air flying machine.

They based the design of their first full-size glider on the Chanute-Herring "double-decker," a hang glider which flew well in experiments in 1896 near Chicago. The uprights between the wings of the Chanute and Wright gliders were braced by wires in a modified "Pratt truss," which Chanute, an engineer, had adapted from his bridge-building experience. The general appearance of these gliders was similar to the biplanes that would usher in the era of flight in the next few decades.

The brothers flew the glider only a few days in the summer of 1900 at Kitty Hawk. In early tests Wilbur was aboard the glider while it flew as a kite not far above the ground with men below holding tether ropes. Many of the kite tests were unpiloted with sandbags or chains (and even a local boy) as onboard ballast. The glider was also tested unmanned while suspended from a small homemade tower. Wilbur (and possibly Orville) made free glides on only one day. Although lift was less than expected, the brothers were encouraged since the front elevator worked well and they had no accidents. Because they did so little untethered gliding, they were not able to give wing-warping a true test.

The pilot lay flat on the lower wing, as planned, to reduce aerodynamic drag. As a glide ended, the pilot was supposed to lower himself to a vertical position through an opening in the wing and land on his feet with his arms wrapped over the framework. Within a few glides, however, they discovered the pilot could remain prone on the wing, headfirst, without undue danger when landing. They made all their flights in that position for the next five years.

They built the 1901 glider with a much larger wing area, hoping to improve lift. This glider, however, delivered two major disappointments. It produced much less lift than calculated and sometimes failed to respond properly to wing-warping, turning opposite the direction intended. On the trip home after their second season, Wilbur, stung with disappointment, remarked to Orville that man would fly, but not in their lifetimes. In the fall of 1901 they renewed their efforts and conducted systematic wind tunnel experiments. In only a few weeks they re-defined fundamental knowledge of lift, drag, wing shapes and airfoil curves. With a greater "aspect ratio"--longer wingspan and shorter chord (front-to-back wing dimension)--the 1902 glider that emerged from this research looked much more like the modern idea of an aircraft than their previous machines, possessing a notably more graceful appearance. The airfoil also had a flatter camber--the ratio of the wing's maximum thickness to its chord. The 1901 wings had been significantly thicker, a feature copied from Lilienthal. With their own wind tunnel data in hand, they were no longer copying anyone else's designs.

Numerous claims before the Wrights aspire to the title of first powered, manned, controlled, and self-sustaining heavier than air flight (or minor variations of this classification). See First flying machine. Several claims actually were made after the Wrights' first successful flights, and attempt to discount the achievement on some technical basis, such as their use of a launching rail and catapult and the Flyer's lack of wheels.

Controversy regarding credit for the invention of the fixed-wing aircraft was also fueled by the Wrights' secrecy before and after their patent was granted, and by the pride of nations.

There has also been much debate whether the Wright brothers' early flights (as well as those of earlier claims) flew high enough to be out of ground effect. Competing claimants also note that the Wrights' early flights were usually flown only into the wind, helping lift. Taking off into the wind, in fact, became standard practice in aviation, for the same reason: takeoff is easier because the aircraft receives more lift.

Another source of attack is that some replicas of the Wright Flyer do not fly. The reasons usually stem from an inability to know the exact details of the Wrights' design and construction and to duplicate the conditions of the flight. Specific features of the Flyer that even the Wrights did not know were important in rendering it capable of flight are lost to history, such as the octane of the fuels used, and the small details of aerodynamics that can have disproportionate effect on the ability to fly.

After their Kitty Hawk flights in windy conditions, the Wrights developed a weight-powered catapult in Ohio to aid initial acceleration, compensating for the several additional horsepower their homebuilt engines lacked. This method of launching has been the source of some attacks on the Wrights' claim. Critics say that a plane incapable of taking off using its own power could not be a true aircraft.

In fact, the Flyer II took off without a catapult and made short straight flights dozens of times in the spring and summer of 1904. The location available to the Wrights was unsuitable for wheels and a long takeoff roll, so they used the rail and added the catapult. The combination allowed takeoffs in only 50 or 60 feet, giving them consistent opportunities to get into the air and learn to fly. The takeoff devices materially shortened the time they needed to master their aircraft and make true flights, including turns, circles, figure-eights and safe landings.

A few manned heavier-than-air aircraft probably became airborne before the Wrights, but lacked effective control; candidate machines include those of Clément Ader, Hiram Stevens Maxim, Richard Pearse and Gustave Whitehead. The Wright Flyer, however, stands as the first practical airplane with a combination of features not used before, but included in all that came later: efficient wings, three-axis control, an effective system to generate power and turn it into thrust, and a takeoff system.

Answer 2

Depends on what you mean by airplane. George Cayley of England was experimenting with gliders long before the Wright Bros. were born. He actually got them to fly too, using his servant as test pilot. Then there was Langley in the U.S. He built a not-too successful airplane that flew over the Potomac River. Otto Lillienthal was also experimenting at about the same time as the Wright Bros. However, the preacher's sons from Dayton were the first to get it right. They realized that an aircraft had to be controllable in all three axes, horizontal, vertical and longitudinal. They also did what no one before them had, launch an airplane, fly it and have it land at an elevation equal to or greater than its launch height. They also chose the best location, the Kill Devil hills of Kitty Hawk N.C. have the highest sustained winds in the U.S., a fact they learned from the U.S. Meteorlogical service. Clever boys, these.

Answer 3

Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, USA, built the first working heavier-than-air craft in 1903. Their first successful flights took place at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903.

Answer 4

The Wright brothers

Answer 5

Orvil and wilbur wright at Kittyhawk north carolina USA
PS: it wasn't an aircraft until it actually took off at kittyhawk

Answer 6

the Wright Brothers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers

Answer 7

the Wright bros

Answer 8

the Wright borthers

Answer 9

I think its wirght brothers (Oliver & Wilber Wright) spellings can be wrong.

Answer 10

wright bros.