The Wright brothers named Wilbur and Orville were born in the late 1880’s and are widely termed to as the fathers’ of modern aircraft in the essence that they were the first human beings to ever model an airplane which could actually fly despite of its large weight. Wilbur was the first of the two brothers to acquire interest in gliders after reading an article covering a German national who had piloted a glider. It was then after writing to the Smithsonian institution regarding aeronautical research that Wilbur realized that all flying apparatus had to be organized in every one of the 3 axes of movement. These axes namely yaw, roll, and pitch if fully integrated while constructing a flying machine would ensure total control of the machine in flight (U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission).
In late 1900, Wilbur constructed his original first glider which weighed about 50 pounds; the mechanism of wing warping was incorporated into the 17 feet ling wingspan. This formed the first glider to be piloted and afterwards the brothers planned to construct a larger glider, with refined landing gear and controls (Wright 1903 Aircraft Engine).
It was after this incident of failure to control the glider that the 2 brothers decided to hunt for an engine which would generate about 8 horsepower and weighing fewer than 200 pounds. It was failure of the motor manufacturers that prompted them to design and built their own engine from scratch. They first designed propeller wings after carrying out several tests on different sized propellers on a wing tunnel. It was in early 1903 when they tested their first hand-built full-sized wing propeller which covered about 17 feet full span with tips being enclosed in muslin to maintain the timber from splitting. In order to prevent the outcome of torque, they made the two propellers to rotate in opposing directions where this occurred by transverse one of the constructed drive chains. Then after coupling the propellers with the motor they had constructed by the application of effectual chain drive transmission, they found out that the propellers gave out a joint thrust of about 90 pounds (400 Newton). This power was actually adequate to allow the aircraft ascend on its own control, land, and also fly (Wright Bros).
Due to the failure of all the motor manufacturers, the two brothers decided to design their own engine which was composed of 4-level cylinders, covering about 201 cubic inches, its weight was around 150 pounds, and produced roughly about 12.5 horsepower. They built up the engine’s crankcase out of aluminum to reduce weight and the engine was water cooled whereas the fuel was fed to the engine through gravity from a container raised some feet on top of the engine. The 1903 flyer was then transported to Kitty Hawk were assembling took place and it was on December 17th, 1903 that Orville first flew the flyer where the flight lasted for barely 12 seconds but he had made history as the first man to fly on a (U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission).
The fully built Wright brothers’ engine had lots of design changes from other engines which were being constructed by motor manufacturers. For the engine to produce thrust the brothers constructed two counter revolving propellers which were to be placed as the rear side of the Flyer. They further designed and constructed a gas powered interior combustion engine which would be used to turn the two propellers. The engine’s level inline cylinders were fitted into a spread aluminum crankcase and this case broadened to make a water casing in the region of the whole cylinder barrels. Incorporation of the aluminum technology into plane construction formed an essential basis on the overall craft industry since the metal was known for being light in weight (Wright 1903 Aircraft Engine).
Evidently many prior gliders were not installed with propellers therefore the wrights’ came up with the decision to put the assumptions that the propeller was a revolving wing. With their physics thoughts came into agreement to apply their ideas into making 2 slow rotating large propellers as this pact had much efficiency, and these propellers had to be built to spin in opposing directions so as to neutralize gyroscopic effect produced by the spinning blades. Another design which was incorporated into the system was the chain and sprocket array which formed the transmission connection between the engine and the steel rotary shafts. In addition so as to ensure that the blades revolved in opposing ways, they warped one chain to take the figure 8 (The Wright Brothers).
The first military flyer was purchased by the U.S. army in 1909 and the plane had more or less the same engine components as the first flyer of 1903. Aircrafts like pipe archer, piper 6X, piper arrow, piper meridian use the same system of piston propulsion in their engines as initiated by the Wright brothers (New and Used Aircraft for Sale).