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Comprehension Questions
Chapter 2: Five Years to Flight: 1903
Answer Key
| Directions |
After reading Chapter 2, Five Years to Flight: 1899, answer
each question using complete sentences. Back up your answers by using
information from the book. |
1. How did Wilbur get information about flight?
He wrote a letter to The Smithsonian Institution requesting all the
information they had acquired on flight.
How would we go about finding information on flight today?
We could use these resources:
library, Internet or Web, Flight Associations or agencies (FAA or NASA),
books, magazines, newspapers, videos, CD-ROMs.
2. Why do you think Wilbur suddenly decided to head in a new direction?
Perhaps he was bored with the cycle shop and needed a change or a
new problem to solve or challenge in his life.
3. On a separate piece of paper, create a chart that summarizes each
of the 13 aeronautical entries mentioned by the author. Use the headings
below to help plan your chart.
| Individual |
Time Period |
Place |
Achievement |
| Daedalus |
legend |
Greece |
made wings of feather and wax and flew, but crashed |
| Chinese |
500 BC |
China |
propeller driven toy kites |
| R. Bacon |
1200 |
England |
wrote about ornithopters (flapping wing devices) |
| St. Joseph |
1600 |
Italy |
said to fly using spiritual powers |
| da Vinci |
1300 |
Italy |
designed plans for flying machine |
| Danti |
1490 |
Italy |
tower jumper |
| Oliver |
1000 |
England |
tower jumper |
| Bocqueville |
1742 |
France |
human glider |
| Montgolfier |
1783 |
France |
hot air balloon |
| Cayley |
1804 |
England |
glider |
| Henson/Stringfellow |
1844 |
England |
fixed wing flying machine with propellers-(model) |
| Stringfellow |
1844 |
England |
improved the model above, but made it smaller |
| Lilienthal |
1890s |
German |
man-carrying gliders |
| Chanute |
1890s |
US |
designed gliders and wrote a book which compiled all aeronautical
research acquired |
| Hargrave |
1893 |
Australian |
developed box kite used to research aircraft wings |
| Langley |
1896 |
US |
built scale models of flying machines (aerodomes) |
4. After the Wright Brothers read through all the material, what three
problems did they decide needed to be solved in order to have a successful
flight? List them.
- Wings are needed to lift an airplane into the air.
- An engine had to move the airplane through the air once it was airborne.
- The pilot needed to be able to control the aircraft's movement
once it was airborne.
5. Which one of the three problems seemed to the brothers to be the
toughest to solve? Why do you think it was so tough to solve?
The problem of control. No one else seemed to have designed a way
to control an aircraft, because most of the inventors of the time were
still trying to get an aircraft to fly.
6. How did the brothers go about solving the problems?
They created systematic experiments- each experiment led to another.
They were observant and kept detailed records of the results. They did
not want to experiment by trial and error.
7. What two problems did they work on first and what were the solutions
for each?
| Problem 1: |
They first wanted to figure out how to control the aircraft's
balance so that it would not tip and crash in a gust of wind. |
| Solution: |
To balance the wing lift they put a smaller, flat horizontal
flap in front of the wings which could be raised and lowered. They
called it a "horizontal rudder" (it was used like the present-day
control surface: elevator). It controlled the pressure of air moving
along the wings to keep the pressure balanced from front to back. |
| Problem 2: |
Side-to-side balance of the aircraft. |
| Solution: |
Twist the wingtips so that one would twist upward and the other
would twist downward to counterbalance any change in the airflow.
They called this "wing warping." |
8. How did they try out their ideas?
They created a boxkite structure with bamboo struts and wires attached
to the wing tips and flew it like a kite. They manipulated the wingtips
with the wires to control and balance the kite.
9. What kind of test site did the brothers look for? Where did they
go to find this information?
test site: steady winds and smooth, treeless surface
source: Weather Bureau
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