Popular Woodworking 2003-06 № 134, страница 68

Popular Woodworking 2003-06 № 134, страница 68

Will and Orv had to know a lot about woodworking to build this world-changing project.

It flies. This contraption actually flies. I'm standing at the base of a sand dune in the North Carolina Outerbanks, just south of Kitty Hawk. At the top of the dune, Lt. Cmdr. Klas Ohman, USN (call sign: "Santa") has just been launched into the air aboard a replica of the 1902 Wright Glider - the aircraft in which Wilbur and Orville Wright learned to fly. Santa follows the slope of the dune at a slow, stately pace. This glider cruises at 18 miles per hour, and the wind is blowing upslope

at just more than 15 miles per hour. Santa's launchers follow behind him at an easy trot.

For Santa, however, the flight is far from leisurely. The 1902 glider is a primitive flying machine with unfamiliar, rudimentary controls. The pilot must work frantically to keep it in the air - Santa's cockpit workload is every bit as consuming as the F-18 Hornets he flies from the decks of the USS Kitty Hawk. In fact, flying the 1902 glider is a humbling experience for the four military test pilots

by Nick Engler

Nick Engler is the author of more than 50 books on woodworking and is a passionate pilot. He is leading the Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co. on an expedition in aviation archaeology to build and fly all six of the experimental airplanes the Wright brothers designed between 1899 and 1905 in their quest for a practical airplane.

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Popular Woodworking June 2003