 rville
first flew the original Flyer 3 on 23 Jun 1905. Flyer 3 had a new airframe, but used the
propulsion system (see 1904 motor) from the Flyer 2, and was essentially the same design
and same marginal performance as the Flyers 1 and 2. When rebuilding the Flyer 3 after a
severe crash on 14 Jul 1905, the Wrights made radical changes to the design. They almost
doubled the size of elevator and rudder and moved them about twice the distance from the
wings. The added two fixed vertical vanes (called "blinkers") between the
elevators, and gave the wings a very slight dihedral. They disconnected the rudder of
re-built Flyer 3 from the wing warp control, and as in all future aircraft, placed it on a
separate control handle. On 5 Oct 1905, Wilbur flew 24 miles in 39.5 minutes, longer than
the total duration of all the flights of 1903 and 1904. Four days later, they wrote to the
Secretary of War, offering to sell the world's first practical airplane.The rebuilt Flyer 3 had: 40.5-foot span; 6.5-foot chord; 6-foot separation; 503 sq-foot area; 1/20 camber; 83 sq-foot double horizontal front rudder ; 34.8 sq-foot twin movable vertical rear rudders; 28-foot overall length; and weighed 710 lb. Disassembled on 7 Nov 1905, they refurbished it as the 1908 prototype flown at Kitty Hawk in 6-14 May 1908; abandoned there for three years; restored in 1947-1950, Carillon Park in Dayton, OH now displays it at Wright Hall. References:
[Submitted by Joe W. McDaniel] |
 The 1905 Flyer 3 over Huffman Prairie. Few, if any, photos were taken of this aircraft close-up. The Wrights needed photos to prove they had flown, but they didn't want potential competitors to see how their plane was constructed.
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A Closer Look
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