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The Wright Stuff: 100-Year Flight Anniversary: A Kids’ Connection Special Editio (September 19, 2003, Two)

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Program Summary

December 17, 1903, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina: Orville Wright takes control of the Wright Flyer, successfully lifting off and staying aloft for 12 seconds, traveling 120 feet in the air. Before the day is out, brother Wilbur completes a 59-second flight of 852 feet. They’ve done it: the first manned flight of a heavier-than-air machine.

The centennial of this historic event will be celebrated this December. Part of the celebration will be the attempted flight of a faithfully recreated 1903 Wright Flyer. Of course, the bicycle shop owners from Dayton, Ohio, will be at the center of the commemoration. Their approach to solving the problem of powered flight, their experiments with wind and mechanics, their focus on being able to control the craft, and their sheer determination make them a fascinating study. But they weren’t alone in the quest for flight.

Ira’s guests talk about other inventors who were tackling human flight concurrently with the Wrights. What was known about the physics of flight in the early 1900s? Who were the major players in the race to fly? Why did the Wrights succeed? And how did we get from Kitty Hawk to the Moon in just 66 years? Delve into these questions and more with the activities and links that follow. The sky’s the limit!

Guests

August 1, 2003
Paul Hoffman, Woodstock, New York; former editor-in-chief of “Discover” magazine; fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and author of “Wings of Madness: Albert Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight,” (Hyperion Books, 2003)

Jack Carpenter, San Juan Capistrano, California; author of “Pendulum II: The Story of America's Three Aviation Pioneers: Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright, and Glenn Curtiss,” (ABC Books/Jack Carpenter)

Mike Lavelle, Museum of Flight consultant; aviation maintenance manager for the Boeing Company, Seattle, Washington

September 5, 2003
George Larson, editor-in-chief of the Smithsonian’s “Air and Space” magazine,Washington, DC

James Tobin, Ann Arbor, Michigan; historian and author of“To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight,” (Free Press, 2003)

Related Links and Resources

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics: History of Flight
Experimental Aircraft Association’s Countdown to Kitty Hawk
Discovery.com: The Centennial of Flight
Flying Machines
NASA’s Re-Living the Wright Way
National Air and Space Museum’s The Wright Brothers: Invention of the Aerial Age
National Geographic.com, November 9, 2001: “Wright Brothers’ Path to First Flight Being Re-Created”
PBS’s “Chasing the Sun”
PBS’s “NOVA”: “Wright Brothers’ Flying Machine”

Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company, a virtual museum of pioneer aviation
The Wright Experience

For Discussion:

• First a vocabulary flight list. What is an airfoil? What is lift? What are pitch, roll, and yaw? How are these things important in flight?
• It took nearly 2000 years of effort between the invention of kites that carried people aloft and powered, manned flight. But once the Wrights flew, it only took 66 years to reach the Moon. What historical and technological changes allowed such a leap?
• What were some of the problems the Wrights had to overcome to get their Flyer off the ground?
• Describe the Wrights’ approach to solving problems. How were their methods scientific? How did the Wrights’ methods differ from other inventors working to achieve flight?
• What problems have those seeking to rebuild and fly a replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer encountered? They have many advanced technologies available to them that the Wrights never dreamed of. Do you think these advantages will help them succeed in recreating the Flyer and the flight?
• How has flight changed the world? What are benefits of human flight? What negatives can you see in it?

Activities

Model students. Your students can build models of the Wright gliders and 1903 Flyer with the help of “Learning to Fly: The Wright Brothers’ Adventure,” a 116-page guide for teachers of grades 6–9, available for free download in PDF format. Using simple materials such as Styrofoam trays and toothpicks, students can build and conduct test flights of the gliders and plane. The 23 activities cover everything from the Wrights themselves to the culture of the times and the value of a dollar at the turn of the century. This excellent, cross-curricular guide is a must and can form the core of any unit on the Wrights and early flight.

Return to the fold. In the spirit of the Wrights, students can experiment with airplane designs of their own by making and testing paper airplanes. NASA’s Glenn Research Center’s Learning Technologies Project offers a Paper Airplane Activity that features experiments using the free FoilSim II software that tests the lift of different wing shapes. Additional activities to make and test different types of paper planes and about how the force of air helps a plane fly are found on the site’s Aerospace Lessons and Activities page. At NASA’s Laboratories of Flight: Wind Tunnels page, you will find a Teacher’s Guide. If you’re ambitious, you can even build a wind tunnel using instructions on the site to test your students’ plane designs. Another simple wind tunnel design is at Not Quite Wright Wind Tunnel.

Get interactive. To help teachers take advantage of NASA’s Web-based, interactive offerings, it has produced “Centennial of Flight Toolkit” for K­–­12 that you can download in free PDF format. This guide collects NASA’s Internet-based activities around the first flight theme and aids teachers and students in exploring them and sharing their findings.

More activities. NASA’s Re-Living the Wright Way Activities page lists links to numerous teacher guides and activities free for download. The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission has posted an Educators’ Flight Plan with a timeline, resources, and, most interesting, copies of original letters and other documents written by and about the Wrights and their flight attempts.

First flight fun. To commemorate the first flight, let students have some fun. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics: History of Flight site is just the place to find lots to do. First, students can take the stick at the 1903 Wright Flyer Simulation. You’ll need the Shockwave plug-in, which you can download free on the site, for this and other interactives. Experience pitch, roll, and yaw aboard the Space Shuttle on the site’s Interactive Activities page. Negotiate the Wright Flyer Maze. Even make an Edible Wright Flyer out of graham crackers and pretzels.

Get with the program. There are several excellent documentaries due out this fall about the first flight, and each comes with accompanying educational materials.

“Chasing the Sun” is a new PBS series. Lesson plans for grades 6–8 are on the site’s Resources page, and background on the Wrights, their plane, and aviation history link from the main page. Check the site or your local TV listings for the series air dates and times.

“The Wright Brothers: First in Flight” first aired September 19, 2003, on the Discovery Channel and will repeat September 27, 2003, at 6 p.m. Interactives on the page allow students to see the Wrights’ Kitty Hawk cabin, take a virtual flight in the 1903 Flyer, and view movies of the story. Thanks to the Ford Motor Company and Discovery Channel School, every middle school library in the country will get a free “Spirit of Flight” Classroom Video Kit, which is a companion to the program. The kit contains two, one-hour videos, a poster, teacher’s guide, and student magazine. You can also download the printed materials and view a history of flight timeline at Discovery’s Centennial of Flight page. Activities in this kit cover not only the Wrights’ accomplishments, but also examine 100 years of transportation since 1903 and encourage students to imagine what the future of flight might hold.

“Wright Brothers’ Flying Machine” is a “NOVA” program set to air November 11, 2003, at 8 p.m. on PBS. The program’s companion Web site offers slide shows, interactives, and a teacher’s guide.

Use the search box below to perform a Google search within any of the specifc sites or general domains mentioned in this Activities section.

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