Flying bicycles : How the Wright brothers invented the airplane
نویسندگان
چکیده
This paper explores the ways in which Wilbur and Orville Wright thought as they tackled the problem of designing and constructing a heavierthan-air craft that would fly under its own power and under their control. It argues that their use of analogy and their use of knowledge in diagnostic reasoning lies outside the scope of current psychological theories and their computer implementations. They used analogies based on mental models of one system, such as the wings, to help them to develop theories of another system, such as the propellers. They were also skilled reasoners, who were adept at finding counterexamples to arguments.
منابع مشابه
Wright Brothers: First Aeronautical Engineers and Test Pilots
Sir George Cayley invented the conventional configuration of the airplane at the turn of the 19 century. Otto Lilienthal realized that building a successful aircraft meant learning how to fly: he became the first hang glider pilot and also the first flight fatality. The Wright Brothers absorbed all that was known in aeronautics before them, but then added their own discoveries and developed the...
متن کاملWorld War I: an air war of consequence.
On December 17, 1903, the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright flew the world's first successful airplane, following this with the first military airplane in 1908. (The 1908 Flyer was built by the brothers in response to a 1907 requirements specification for a 2-place aircraft capable of flying at 40 mph and able to be broken down and transported in a horse-drawn wagon. Technically, since it cras...
متن کاملThe "automatic stabilizer" and angle of attack assessor: human factors contributions of the Wright brothers.
The Wright brothers followed their invention of the first practical airplane (1903) with a second epochal invention, the angle of attack sensor and aircraft stabilizer (1908). Both inventions were patented and details of each are contained in the respective patents for these two aeronautical advances. This paper emphasizes how the angle of attack sensor actuated an "automatic stabilizer." This ...
متن کاملRealities at the leading edge of research.
When the Wright brothers set out to invent a flying machine at the end of the nineteenth century, they knew they were facing quite a challenge. Not only was it a daunting task to accomplish powered flight but also to overcome the ideology, morality and sensibility of their time, when most people believed that human flight was neither possible nor natural. Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke...
متن کاملWhat the Wright Brothers Did and Did Not Understand About Flight Mechanics—In Modern Terms
When the Wright Brothers began their work at the end of the 19 century there were no theories of aerodynamics or of flight mechanics. Data were available for the lift and drag of certain kinds of airfoils, mostly thin and highly cambered imitations of birds’ wings. The theory of airfoils began in 1902, but had no practical consequences until World War I, and was unknown to the Wrights and their...
متن کامل