Last weekend I watched a program on a number of teams working to build and fly replicas of the 1903 Wright Flyer. Each team made a certain number of concessions to airworthiness and at least one team was building a model that looked like it had a throttle control. Did the original flyer have a throttle, or did it run at full power all the time?
The 1903 engine ran at full power all the time. The Wrights saw no need for throttling it.
It didn’t have much in the way of controls, but it did have a throttle.
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one lever controlling the forward elevators, one lever for the throttle and the "cradle’ for the wing-warping system
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From: http://www.midcontinentcontrols.com/trade-shows/trade-show_pages/flyer.html
I didn’t see the program, but I’m aware of one flyer that is fairly authentic, with the only change being the addition of a seat belt. Some of the flyer is guesswork however, as the one hanging in the smithsonian is not the original 1903 flyer.
Everything I’ve read about that engine says it ran at a single speed. Perhaps the “throttle” was a simple on-off fuel valve?
Actually this site says it didn’t. The above link must only apply to the reproduction.
MS Flight sim 2004 has a fairly well done version of the Wright flyer, it has a throttle but I believe the real deal did not.
Thanks for all the replies. So…, if a reproduction has a throttle, is it likely to do any good? If the airplane is seriously underpowered it seems like the option of throttling down wouldn’t really come into play. I suppose it could be helpful in landing, but the experience of the teams they showed on the program suggested that landings weren’t really planned ahead of time, but just sort of happened.
If the first flyer didn’t have a throttle, when did the Wrights first add one? The 1909 flyer was certainly capable of longer flights, so I’d assume that by that point they had added the feature.
I saw a program about someone trying to reproduce the first Wright flyer exactly, with re-designs made to subsequent versions being wright out. His engine was being custom made in Germany, and according to the show, generated only 16hp. Given that the engine itself was about the size of a decent tower computer and made of cast steel, I’d imagine the rather poor power to weight ratio would have you wanting full on power all the time.
Besides that, the first flyer apparently ran at almost stall speed all the time, so should you ever decide not to give-'er, you’d likely end up augering that baby in.
I have no idea, but after improving both the power plant and lifting ability of their craft, I can imagine having a throttle becoming a desirable option.