Wright Flyer Replica and Early Flight Exhibit
Photo: John T. Daniels, public domain (cropped)
A stop on Hiller Aviation Museum: Unofficial Guide, a free self-guided tour.
This area covers the first decades of flight, including a replica of the Wright Flyer, in which Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first powered, controlled airplane flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903.
The Wrights' key insight was control. Their airplane could be steered in three ways: pitch, with the elevator in front; yaw, with the rudder behind; and roll, by twisting, or warping, the wingtips. Modern airplanes still use the same three controls, with different hardware.
The pilot lay flat on the lower wing and shifted his hips in a cradle to warp the wings and turn the rudder.
The area also covers others who worked on flight before and alongside the Wrights, such as the German glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal.
More on Wikipedia: Wright Flyer · Otto Lilienthal
Stops on this tour
- Boeing 747-100 Cockpit and Forward Fuselage
- Hiller Flying Platform
- Boeing Condor High-Altitude Reconnaissance UAV
- NASA AD-1 Oblique Wing Research Aircraft
- Wright Flyer Replica and Early Flight Exhibit
- Black Diamond - 1910 California Pioneer Aircraft
- Grumman HU-16 Albatross Amphibious Aircraft
- Boeing 737-200 Cockpit
- Flight Sim Zone
- Women in Aviation Gallery
- Aircraft Engine Collection
- Lockheed YO-3 Quiet Star
- San Francisco Airport Control Tower Beacon
- Drone Plex and Future of Flight Exhibit
- Michael King Smith Research Library and Museum Store