The quest to go higher, faster, and farther during the first halfcentury of aviation. Hi, im jeremy kinney. Were going to go through a tour of some artifacts that really stand out in terms of this story of higher, faster, and farther in the history of aviation. But first i want to talk about the air and space museum overall. The air and space museum has over 8 million visitors a year between the National Mall building and the stephen f. Udvarhazy center. Were looking at over 500 aircraft and helicopters. Of those aircraft, about 67 are on display on the National Mall building. So, what supports these artifacts is up to 60,000 individual small and medium artifacts. But what were going to talk about today is the story of higher, faster, and farther, which is scene sooen as a cliche in many ways throughout the history of aviation but actually has a real meaning to it, in which we look at the people who made this quest of flying in the third dimension a reality. And so, the idea of flying the highest altitude, the fastest speed and the longest distances tells us a lot about the Technical Development of the airplane but also the reinvention of what the Wright Brothers do. And thats what id like to talk to you about in terms of the airplanes and the people that you can only see at the smithsonian that tells that story. So, behind me you see the wright flyer, the worlds first airplane. On the morning of december 17th, 1903, at 10 35 a. M. , Orville Wright at the controls takes flight for 120 feet. That is the first time a man has entered into the air in a powered flying machine. At the end of the day, after four flights where orville and wilbur alternate, the fourth flight with wilbur at the controls, 852 feet, 30 Miles Per Hour at an altitude of 30 feet. And they usher in this aerial age, the age of aviation. And how they came to create that moment is very important, because not only do the Wright Brothers invent the airplane, but they invent aeronautical engineering, the processes that are needed to create actual flying machines. So, beginning in 1899, wilbur and Orville Wright wilburs the older, orvilles the younger they are unmarried. They own a bicycle shop. They run a printing business. They are yankee mechanics. They know tools and they know mechanical devices. And they take that interest in applying to printing presses, to bicycles, and they apply it to solving the problem of building a flying machine. So, in 1899, they write the Smithsonian Institution, and they ask for all of the literature on flight. And they learn about these predecessors like george cayley, father of aerial navigation. They learn about samuel langley, who is going to be the secretary of the smithsonian and going to be a competitor. They learn about Octave Chanute, the connection between europe and the United States. But what sets the Wright Brothers apart is that they break the problem down. They have to look at an airplane as a system of systems, looking at propulsion, structures, control, and aerodynamics, the science of flight. And so, between 1899 and 1902, they start flying gliders. They start with kites. They had their gliders. And by 1902, they have a controllable glider in which theyve made this new fundamental contribution called wing warping. Rather than using your weight to shift the balance of the actual glider, they actually have a mechanical system where they can twist the wings. How they come to that conclusion is that the brothers always complemented each other as intellectuals. And so, they argued, how are we going to control this airplane . How are we going to make it move in the air . How are we going to keep it from flying in just a Straight Line . And its one day in the bicycle shop that wilbur is talking to a customer and has an innertube box for a bicycle tire, and hes twisting it as hes talking to this individual. And he sees in his minds eye and the Wright Brothers are all about nonverbal thinking, a minds eye, envisioning what the actual dimension, the threedimensional technology is. And he says, well, if we start twisting the wings of our glider, we can control it. You lift one wing up, the other goes down, it will turn. And so, thats how they come up with these new ideas about what the airplane is. They create the worlds first working wind tunnel to actually do the math of previous experimenters like john smeithen, and they find out hes actually wrong with the colilsion of width on the wings and they calculate it to do the work, so they design wings that are capable of creating lift. So, by 1902, they have a working glider, where theyre flying for up to, you know, almost 30 seconds from the dunes of kitty hawk, north carolina, the kill devil hills, in which theyve traveled there because its the one spot in america that has consistent winds as well as isolation, so they can work in peace without distraction. So, through 1902 and 1903, they add the last big part of the airplane. So, theyve done the wings, the aerodynamics. Theyve done the structure, which has been influenced by Octave Chanute in the pratt trust, what you see in railroad bridges of the 1th century. And then you look at the control system, the wing warping, so the last ingredient is the propulsion system. And they acknowledge its going to be reciprocating piston engine. So, orville and charlie taylor, their mechanic in the bike shop, create a horizontal force on their 12horsepower engine. And they know they need that much power to generate the thrust of the propellers. And its another very specific choice the Wright Brothers make is that its going to have propellers on their new flying machine. So, how do propellers work . They figure they can go to existing data on ship propellers, and that doesnt give them any answers. So, the same sort of intellectual giveandtake the brothers are gnashing at each other. Theyre really going at it. And they realize that a propeller is a rotating wing in a halical path. So they take their wind tunnel data, they adapt it to the design of a propeller, and they design two propellers that are capable of producing up to 67 to 70 thrust for that 12horsepower engine. You see the two propellers on the back of the wings, pushair configurati configurations what its called. They wanted the propellers to push in the opposite direction, counter rotating. So taking their knowledge of in a workshop, where you switch the belt going from the power system to the roof, you can see one of the chains twisted on the drive system of the flyer, what they called our flyer. And so, that last degree, the propulsion system, enables the brothers to go to kitty hawk in the late fall, early winter of 1903, where they start readying their flying program. They have a crash. Theyre down for a couple of days. But its december 17th, 1903, that they actually fly this airplane that you see behind me. And its that moment, that reaching of that actual getting into the air under the power and looking at all of the technology here in terms of, you have your aluminum engine, you have spruce propellers and spruce structural members, you have metal fittings, and you have mussel fabric, called pride of the west, according to the brand. So, that all comes together in the system of the airplane that they create. And so, after those four flights, a big wind comes up at kitty hawk. And the flyer tumbles. Its demolished. So, but they claimed success. They pack it up and they go back to dayton, where theyre from, and they send a telegram to their father success four flights, and they make the announcement. And thats really the quiet way of saying that the aerial age has emerged. By 1905, in an improved flyer, wilbur and orville are flying up to half an hour, for long distances and figure eight over huffman prairie, just outside of dayton, ohio. And so, the 03 flyer, as its going to be called, is forgotten, and it sits in crates. It goes through a flood, where all the crates have been soaked with water and mud. And then orville is starting to reassemble the airplane and put it on different displays through the 1920s. And in 1926, it goes to england, where its at the science museum. And during world war ii, its actually stored west of london, during the blitz, during the attacks on england. But it comes to 1948, when orville with great fanfare donates the wright flyer to the Smithsonian Institution, and its been on public display, whether its at the old arts and industries building, in the classic tin shed that existed for so many years. And with the opening of the national air and space museum in 1976, the wright flyer went on display. And in 2003, in the centennial of the Wright Brothers first flight, this gallery was open to tell that story of the making of the first airplane, and with it, aeronautical engineering. What you see here is the original airplane, the wright flyer. But it has been restored and things have been changed over the years. So, the fabric that you see there is not the original fabric from 1903, but its actually been applied in the same sewing methods and construction as the 1903 airplane. So, orville removed the fabric, and they made the airplane look better for when it went to england. But in the 1980s, this airplane underwent a restoration. So, the spruce structural members, the engine, one of the propellers, thats all original. Over in the corner of the gallery is one of the original propellers, youll see, because when the airplane took its tumble, it cracked and split that and broke that propeller. Weve just left the Wright Brothers invention of the aerial age gallery and now were in legend, memory and the great war in the air, the great world war i gallery. And the engine behind me is a spad13. And in many ways, this is what the configuration that the french and the rest of the aeronautical Community Takes what the Wright Brothers create in 1903, and they make it their own. So, this is a 1917 design, and its the highest performance french fighter of world war i. And what that means is that it can go 130 Miles Per Hour, so 100 miles an hour faster than a wright flyer, but its also just a large strutandwirebraced airplane, just like the wright flyer, but its now in what would be called the tractor configuration, where the engine and propeller are in the front, theres a central fuselage. And take note of that french word, fuselage. With two biplane wings, and imnaj of the horizontal and vertical stabilizer and you have ailerons on top, more of the french influence. The Wright Brothers bring it to the world, there are french and other experimenters that are flying airplanes, but the french really run with it, and they take a lead, as well as other nations. Utits the epitome of the strutandwire brace conf configuration that the Wright Brothers create, but its been improved and enhanced. Now, a spad13 is the product of a designer named louis bechereau and develops the spad fighters. The spad7 is important in combat over france and the western front in world war i, but its the spad13 that reflects the epitome of french performance fighter design. It has very thin air flows, like the wright flyer, and that allows it to go very fast. And its fabric covered, but its that engine, the Hispano Suiza 220 horsepower v8 engine thats the core of it. You see the radiator shutters and it looks like a round engine, but theres actually a v8 engine underneath the cowling. And by cowling, what i mean is that theres a tightfitting metal covering over the engine and it makes it all streamline. It allows the air to flow over it more efficiently. So, mark burkett of the spannosweeza company which the translation, spanishswiss has developed a series of automobile engines in the prewar era. He adapts this to the aeronautical application by taking two of his inline four engines, makes it into a v8. And what he does thats unique is instead of having separate cylinders attached to the crank case, he casts a row of cylinders out of a solid piece of aluminum, and he has cooling passages in those aluminum blocks that allows improved cooling and more power. So, instead of a rotary engine, you know, doing 120, 110 horsepower, youre looking at 200, 220 horsepower with these engines by the time theyre introduced in the spad 13. Now, theres always a technological pushpull over the western front in world war i, in which the germans have an advantage with their thick airfoiled tubular steel fuselaged aircraft like the fokker divv in this gallery, but the spad13 is the french answer to that airplane. Its not as mufaneuverable, butt has the speed and can dive away. So theyll take this airplane and develop new Group Fighter tactics in response to the german Group Fighter tactics. This generation of significant highscoring french aces flying these airplanes and the french squaders. This becomes as the highest performance airplane, it has two 30caliber machine guns flying through the propeller and the ability for these airplanes to fly fast and dive and climb away and come back and attack that gives the french Fighter Squadron an advantage. One of the major Technological Innovations for Fighter Aircraft in world war i is the creation of a gun synchronizer system. That means you can mount a machine gun right in front of the pilot with a sight, and you can fight and as you point the airplane, you can point your machine guns and hit your target. The problem with that is you have a spinning wood propeller in the way. And so, the creation of a mechanical linkage set up to a cam on the propeller shaft, as the propeller blade crosses in front of the two machine guns, or one machine gun, it actually turns off the machine gun. And then as the propeller blade is passed, the machine gun turns back on. As this proceeds into 1918 and the entry of the United States into the war, you have American Air Service pilots coming into the western front, and theyre being equipped with french aircraft. Theres not a frontlineready american fighter for the conflict. And this particular spad13 that you see here, that is in American Air Service markings. It was built by one of the manufacturers contracted to make spads. There were 8,400 spads made total. And the 22nd aero squadron was assigned this airplane. And a young pilot named ray brooks painted the name of his fiancees college on there, smith college. And he had three previous airplanes, so its smith iv. And he goes into combat with this airplane. He scores one aerial kill in this particular spad13. Some other pilots in the same squadron shoot down at least five more. And so, this spad13 flew with the first generation of american combat pilots. Now, ray brooks flies this you know, he names this airplane after his fiancees school. And most people when they name their airplane after their girlfriends themselves, but he actually made a conscious decision. He didnt want to have this airplane damaged sitting at the end of the field and have the mechanic saying, well, ruthies damaged, weve got to fix her. He wanted to actually keep her out of that situation. And so, he names it after her college. Smith iv is in its 1918 camouflage, but you also see along the fuselage and wings of smith iv are these small, black squares that have german crosses on them, and those represent bullet holes that are shot through the fabric from combat. So, those are small, little indications of this being a combat airplane and surviving. The squares would have been applied by ground mechanics in the field because theres no need to completely recover the airplane. And one of the interesting advantages of a strutandwirebraced, fabriccovered airplane, is that if the bullet just goes through the fabric, it just passes through the other side, so all it needs to be is patched, and thats what the job of the mechanic would be, is just to patch that, to restore the integrity, and theyd keep fighting. Now, at the end of world war i, you know, in november of 1918, this airplane is set aside by the Army Air Service and brought back to the United States. As to display what type of aircraft americans flew, which is a highperformance french fighter. But its also given to the Smithsonian Institution, where it stays in the collection for decades. And its not until the 1980s that the airplane is fully restored and put on display in the world war i gallery. And so, if you look at this panel right here, you can see fabric from that original airplane right here on display. So, the fabric you see here is not original. Its restored fabric. But nonetheless, this is one of four remaining spads in the world, and it tells that story of how the Wright Brothers original airplane was maximized and changed, but still essentially the same in terms of the materials and the propulsion system and the systems that make it up. But it was a formidable combat fighter of world war i. So, from the spad13 of 1918 and world war i, were going to now look at an air racer of the 1920s that even pushed further the envelope especially faster in the story of higher, faster, and farther. Behind me now is the curtis r3c2 racer in the Barron Hilton pioneers of flight gallery. This is an air racer. But whats unique about it is that it is built by a national government, the United States, to compete in International Air racing against the air forces of other countries, Great Britain and italy, primarily, who are there to win a prize, the schneider cup. And so, this technology is built in the name of performance, making pursuit or Fighter Airplanes better. But what re