Object Details
- Owner
- Rick Young
- Physical Description
- A biplane kite with square upper and lower wings and canard.
- Summary
- The Wrights combined their wing-warping control concept and the structural design of the Chanute-Herring glider in their first aircraft, a biplane kite with a 5-foot wingspan, built in July 1899.
- To allow for wing-warping, they left the kite unbraced between the front and rear struts (vertical posts). It was controlled with four lines running from the top and bottom of the front outer struts to a pair of sticks held by the operator. Tilting the sticks in opposite directions caused the wing structure to twist.
- No photographs exist of the 1899 kite; only a sketch of it illustrating wing-warping, drawn by Wilbur in 1912.
- Credit Line
- On Loan from Rick Young, Richmond, VA
- Inventory Number
- I20031236002
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- CRAFT-Kites
- Materials
- Wood
- Fabric
- See more items in
- National Air and Space Museum Collection
- Location
- National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
- Exhibition
- Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age
- National Air and Space Museum
- Record ID
- nasm_I20031236002
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv94a304896-51b6-437a-895e-cdb3da1cfa76
