Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer

The Wrights combined their wing-warping control concept and the structural design of the Chanute-Herring glider in their first aircraft, a biplane kite with a 5-foot wingspan, built in July 1899.

To allow for wing-warping, they left the kite unbraced between the front and rear struts (vertical posts). It was controlled with four lines running from the top and bottom of the front outer struts to a pair of sticks held by the operator. Tilting the sticks in opposite directions caused the wing structure to twist.

No photographs exist of the 1899 kite; only a sketch of it illustrating wing-warping, drawn by Wilbur in 1912.

 Display Status

This object is on display in Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age
Object Details
Type CRAFT-Kites Owner Rick Young
 Physical Description A biplane kite with square upper and lower wings and canard. Materials Wood
Fabric
 Inventory Number I20031236002 Credit Line On Loan from Rick Young, Richmond, VA Data Source National Air and Space Museum Restrictions & Rights Usage conditions apply
For more information, visit the Smithsonians Terms of Use.