off Topic but I have to wonder if Obama would have funded them.
100 year old film!!This film clip is fascinating and in very good condition for its age being as it shows the Wright Bros demonstrating the Flyer to a group of European officers and officials in 1909. Only runs for 4 minutes. The shots of the plane in flight are the best I have ever seen of this machine showing a degree of speed and smoothness I did not think would have been possible. Excellent starting sequence with the linen covered props and easy start but the outstanding sequence being the take off along the rail. You can't see the actual weight drop to pull it along the rail but in some shots you see the tower. It is clear that the aircraft was unstable because you can see Wright was pretty busy on the elevon and the amount of deflection to correct a pitch excursion was significant. The small piece of string on the forward elevon was put there by the Wrights to ascertain degree of side slip. The aircraft basically turned flat, and although they eventually put in a form of wing warping to add control in the roll axis it was always a difficult plane to handle in turns. They kept it as flat as possible because any side slip over a certain angle was unrecoverable. This was the two seat version as you can see and designed for a hopeful military use. It could only fly in very calm conditions. I saw the replica fly at Temora a few years ago.The in flight shots were something else again and possibly the earliest aerial movie shots ever taken. When you think he had to fly the plane and also hand crank the camera, I think it must have been fixed in position as the camera stays motionless and in any case cameras were heavy in those times and the plane had little spare capacity but I could be wrong. Note the take off ramp. Loved the old Italian Roman ruins in the final shots the approach speed was very slow in deed.Thought you might be interested in this film clip from the Austrian archives about the Wright Brothers demonstrating their plane in Italy in 1909. What is even more fantastic is there was an on-board camera on the Wright plane and the last part of this film shows it. Wilbur Wright is at the controls on both of the flights. It's a GREAT video considering it's 100 years old and the quality/weight of the equipment of that day.
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