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Wilbur and Orville Wright


Cautiously, the brothers began to fly the glider as a kite. Pleased with the performance, they cut it loose and let it soar. On the first two days, Wilbur and Orville made nearly fifty glides. A few days later, they made seventy-five and then 150. The glider landed safely every time. On October 23, 1902, Wilbur glided for twenty-six seconds over a distance of 622.5 feet. Orville wrote, "We now hold all the records! The largest machine.the longest time in the air, the smallest angle of descent, and the highest wind!" But gliding would never be enough. They left Kitty Hawk with a new dream: sustained powered flight.
             Back in Dayton, the Wright Brothers began to search for an engine. They wanted the engine to be gasoline-powered, less than 180 pounds in weight, and able to give eight to nine horsepower with little vibration. When they learned that such an engine did not exist, they decided to build their own. They called Mr. Charles E. Taylor into service. Mr. Taylor was a skilled machine maker. By February, 1903, the three-man team had built, in their bicycle workshop, a twelve horsepower engine that weighed just 179 pounds. They also had to build their own propeller. They spent weeks experimenting with this one important part of the plane. They filled an entire notebook with propeller calculations. By June, they had one. It was 8.5 feet in diameter. It was made of three layers of thin spruce (1 1/8 inch) glued together and shaped with a hatchet and a drawshave. Meanwhile, on March 23, 1903, they applied for a patent for their new biplane.
             Some problems did arise. The engine vibrated so strongly that it caused the propeller shaft to break. The shaft was made of heavy steel tubing and it revolved to spin the propeller blade. They repaired and strengthened the shaft, but, it broke again. Finally, in late November, Orville went home to Dayton to make stronger steel parts for the propeller. He was back in Kitty Hawk on Saturday, December 11 and the new parts worked perfectly.


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