Year: 1902

January 5. Wilbur sends Chanute data sheets resulting from wind tunnel tests with instructions for making computations.

January 19. Wilbur sends Chanute photograph and description of Wright pressure-testing instrument, i.e., the lift balance used in the Wright wind tunnel.

February 22. Scientific American publishes account of 1901 gliding experiments by Wrights, based on Wilbur’s paper “Some Aeronautical Experiments.”

March 18 – 21. Wilbur goes to Huntington, Ind., to defend his father in case involving a layman’s misuse of church funds.          

Subsequent trips were made in 1902 by Wilbur to Huntington on May 9 – 15, on August 5 – 9, and on November 24.

August. Wrights complete construction of parts for their 1902 glider, which was designed on the basis of the wind tunnel calculations. Wilbur uses family sewing machine to sew needed cloth wing covering on which pattern has been marked by Orville.

The wings of this machine measured 32 feet from tip to tip, and five feet from front to rear. The wing area totaled 305 square feet.

August 25. Wrights leave for Kitty Hawk, arriving in Norfolk and Elizabeth City, N.C., on August 26 and at the Kitty Hawk camp on August 28.

August 29 – September 7. Orville and Wilbur construct their camp, drill well, and obtain needed food supplies and equipment.

September 8 – 19. Wright 1902 glider, a biplane with forward monoplane elevator and a fixed double rear fin, assembled and made ready for flying.

September 15. The 1901 glider is dismantled and destroyed to make room for a new glider. The uprights are used n the new machine.

September 19 – October 24. The Wrights make 700 – 1,000 glides, increasing their record for distance to 622 1/2 ft., for time to 26 seconds, and for angel of descent to 5° for a glide of 156 ft.

Orville stated in a deposition given in Dayton on January 13, 1920, in a patent suit that the flights of 1902 demonstrated the lateral stability as well as the fact that their tables of air pressure derived from their wind tunnel tests enabled them to calculate in advance the performance of their flying machine.

September 30. Lorin Wright arrives at Kitty Hawk from Dayton for visit with brothers, remains until October 13, and witnesses some of the gliding experiments.

October 1. George A. Spratt arrives at Kitty Hawk to participate for second time in Wright gliding experiments, remaining until October 20.

October 4, 6. Wrights modify their 1902 glider by replacing fixed double rear fin with a rear rudder linked with the wing-warping control to counteract warp-drag.

October 5. Chanute and his assistant, Augustus M. Herring, arrive at Kitty Hawk to join Wrights in gliding experiments.

Chanute and Herring remained until October 14 and conducted unsuccessful tests on the multiple-wing machine built by Charles Lamson for Chanute, which had arrived in camp on September 24.

October 18. In his first letter to the Wrights, Samuel Pierpont Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, inquires about experiments at Kitty Hawk and particularly about their use of “special curved surfaces and the like.”

October 28. Wrights leave Kitty Hawk, arriving in Dayton on October 31.

November. Orville plans to construct a new testing machine with intent to conduct new series of measurements to aid in design of their airplane.

December. Wrights conduct propeller experiments and begin construction of their 1903 four-cylinder engine.

December 15. Wrights commence plans for a new flying machine to be equipped with motor and propellers by conducting propeller experiment using 28-inch diameter screw.

December 24. Patrick Alexander, prominent member of Aeronautical society of Great Britain, calls on Wrights in Dayton with letter of introduction from Chanute.