guzziguy Posted August 19, 2013 Report Share Posted August 19, 2013 This morning I was watching "Wright Brothers: First in Flight", an interesting, historical TV show. I highly recommend it if you are at all interested in flight and/or history. After their first successful flight, they walked 4 miles to telegraph the news back to Dayton, OH. I wondered why they walked. It was 1903 so I can believe that they didn't have an automobile and there probably wasn't a suitable road for one on Kitty Hawk. But why didn't they have horses or a wagon? Then I remembered that they were bicycle builders. So my question of the day is "Why didn't the Wright brothers ride bicycles to the telegraph office? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahame Posted August 19, 2013 Report Share Posted August 19, 2013 Because, to badly mangle a line from Captain Lockheed And the Starfighters: interview They were too much of a professional Bicycle Engineer to ride a machine of their own invention? (having already proved they were amateur Aeronautical Engineers, by definition) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreadhead Posted August 19, 2013 Report Share Posted August 19, 2013 Because the soft sandy ground meant that they could not ride a 1903 era bike? I assume you'd just get bogged down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voltron Posted August 19, 2013 Report Share Posted August 19, 2013 (edited) Exactly. Just go to 5:30 of this video for an example: Edited August 19, 2013 by Voltron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agile_one Posted August 19, 2013 Report Share Posted August 19, 2013 ^^^ Nailed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guzziguy Posted August 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2013 That's pretty funny, Grahame. Because the soft sandy ground meant that they could not ride a 1903 era bike? I assume you'd just get bogged down. 1903 bikes were modern bikes. This site shows that bikes have changed very little since the Wrights' 1898 St. Clair model. Modern sand bikes are basically regular bikes changed to allow very large tires. There's no reason the Wrights couldn't have built one. I'm sure that they could have had big fat tires made. Akron was the world center of tire production in 1903. The Wrights went to Kitty Hawk enough times to recognize the need for a sand bike if it interested them to build one. The video is great. Maybe Brent should buy a sand bike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarlSeibert Posted August 20, 2013 Report Share Posted August 20, 2013 I suspect that dune was a lot bigger then. It's really effin' soft sand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guzziguy Posted August 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2013 @ Jacob - I don't know either. I was just wondering. I'll try to remember to ask them in the afterlife. @ Carl - Was it dune all or most of the way to the telegraph office? Maybe the Wrights were so focused on the flying machine that they never gave a thought about what they would do once it flew. Not knowing is one of the reasons I called this an offbeat question. Hopefully other people will have some too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigguy Posted August 20, 2013 Report Share Posted August 20, 2013 They used all the bike parts to make the airplane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manaox2 Posted August 20, 2013 Report Share Posted August 20, 2013 Kitty hawk at least today has large dunes and soft deep sand that would probably take ATV or dirt bikes for it to be practical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agile_one Posted August 20, 2013 Report Share Posted August 20, 2013 They used all the bike parts to make the airplane I'm with Lloyd on this one ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torpedo Posted August 20, 2013 Report Share Posted August 20, 2013 (edited) We not even know if they could ride a bike, designing them doesn't imply being able to ride. Maybe they could ride, but not over soft sand. Edited August 20, 2013 by Torpedo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted August 20, 2013 Report Share Posted August 20, 2013 They probably didn't have any complete bikes, bunch of half-finished ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarlSeibert Posted August 21, 2013 Report Share Posted August 21, 2013 The dune at Kitty Hawk is one mighty big pile of very loose sand. I'm going to assume that at that time, it was basically all dune and beach outside of whatever little settlement there was. Stands of beach vegetation wouldn't have made any easier, either. North Carolina sugar sand is fierce stuff. A few years ago, our then international correspondent and I rather spectacularly buried a rental car in it after a hurricane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emooze Posted August 21, 2013 Report Share Posted August 21, 2013 ...and the Wright-PAtterson museum is one of my favorite places (though less so, since it has been dumbed down over the last 10 years). You'll probably be less happy to hear that the Air Force One and R&D Hangers have been closed due to furloughs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grawk Posted August 21, 2013 Report Share Posted August 21, 2013 furloughs aren't done there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catscratch Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 Well if they wanted a bike, they probably could have used something like this (boring steampunk technogeekery warning): Though to be fair, in 1903, this may have been a little old school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironbut Posted August 23, 2013 Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 Hate to get back on topic but my guess is that they had to carry a bunch of stuff to the site (maybe even the whole airplane?) and bikes were out of the question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.