The 1901 Glider
The 1901 glider
In 1901, the Wright Brothers returned to Kitty Hawk with a new glider that they had built at their bicycle shop. Their new aircraft had the same basic design as the 1900 aircraft, but it was larger to provide more lift to carry a pilot in lighter winds. In fact, it was the largest glider ever built and weighed about 100 pounds without the pilot.
Even though the new glider had flown up to 300 feet in a single glide, it did not perform as well as the brothers had expected. It only developed one-third of the lift that was predicted by data from Otto Lilienthal, and the drag was greater than predicted. The brothers modified the curvature of the wing, but this only slightly improved the glider’s flight. Their test flights that year ended with a crash that rewarded Wilbur for his efforts with bruises and a black eye. At the end of 1901, the brothers were frustrated, and Wilbur remarked that humans would never learn to fly within the brothers’ lifetimes.