World's first military aircraft

"Just Jeepin'" (macintux) 08/24/2020 at 20:45 • Filed to: Planelopnik

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This was going to be a 2-hour-rule post since, despite the fact that I’m on vacation of sorts, y’all are falling down on the job... but xsnowpig finally rode to the rescue.

So, anyway, the airplane that the Wright brothers built for the U.S. military in 1909 . It served as a trainer for the Army for 2 years before retiring permanently.

RIP Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge, lost in the crash of the Wrights’ previous attempt.

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ttyymmnn > Just Jeepin' 08/24/2020 at 21:22

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Orville got pretty messed up in that crash, too. Selfridge ANG Base is located in Michigan. 

Taylor Martin > Just Jeepin' 08/24/2020 at 21:54

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I thought you were about to say they strapped some guns to the Wright Flyer and that sounds amazing.

Just Jeepin' > Taylor Martin 08/24/2020 at 22:00

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415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Just Jeepin' 08/24/2020 at 23:27

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(read in Captain slow’s voice) The first airplane perhaps, but the Army of Revolutionary France used a balloon in 1794 over the French French camp at the time of the battles of Fleurus and Charleroi.

He went on about this in some thing I saw.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > ttyymmnn 08/25/2020 at 09:30

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Yup. Orville suffered from severe sciatica pain for the rest of his life after that crash. Being the engineering mind that he was, he designed his house, Hawthorn Hill, in Dayton to be as comfortable as possible for him. So he had a custom dished bog seat and his famous surround shower custom built since he struggled with full range of movement.

Also in otherwise irrelevant info, I was one of the first people  to lead public tours through the house after NCR agreed to open it to the public through the local historical organization.

ttyymmnn > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 08/25/2020 at 09:38

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I suppose, then, that you have read David McCullough’s book?

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > ttyymmnn 08/25/2020 at 09:58

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Not yet, no.

ttyymmnn > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 08/25/2020 at 10:03

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It’s quite good, as are all of his books. I felt like he kind of wrapped up the ending too quickly, and I would have loved to have read more about Orville and his life beyond the Wright Flyer. But I can also understand the necessity of a more narrow focus. It does go into great detail about Wilbur’s time in Europe, which I think many Americans don’t know about.

All of this makes me think I should also read a biography of Glenn Curtiss. 

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > ttyymmnn 08/25/2020 at 11:57

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I think I already own the McCullough book. I just need to make the time to sit and read. And also find the head space. So it will be a while yet.

From what I remember of my time at the local historical organization, all the Curtis bios set out to portray him as some sort of martyr against the evil Wright empire. Which is utter bollocks. Sure he was a capable engineer and inventor and did make several notable contributions to early aviation. But he was also a charlatan who found funding to try and lay claim to the Wrights’ achievements by helping to obfuscate their accomplishments with Samuel Langley and his failed steam glider.

The Wrights are the first to achieve flight as we know it now, and no one has any concrete proof otherwise.

I’ll admit being biased for the home team seeing as I live in the Dayton area. But simply claiming the Wrights aren’t first isn’t enough. They have ample, corroborated evidence of their achievement. And thus far no one else can prove anything otherwise. 

ttyymmnn > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 08/25/2020 at 12:33

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The Wrights are the first to achieve flight as we know it now, and no one has any concrete proof otherwise.

The Brazilians might claim otherwise.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > ttyymmnn 08/25/2020 at 13:14

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They’re delusional. Santos Dumont was three years behind the Wrights at best. And he could barely control his ‘plane’. When the Wrights arrived in Paris and banked their first turn, everyone gasped.

Saying that the Wrights didn’t have a functional aircraft because it needed a catapult to launch is asinine and disingenuous. Would one argue that planes launched from a carrier aren’t functional? 

Taylor Martin > Just Jeepin' 08/25/2020 at 17:23

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Our annual military budget should be going towards stuff like this and not some crummy Raptor s or F-16s.