An Historical and Applied Aerodynamic Study of the Wright Brothers' Wind Tunnel Test Program and Application to Successful Manned Flight

Abstract

Based on the most accurate surviving description of the Wright Brothers' wind tunnel, a replica was constructed and used to determine the effect flow quality and experimental method had on the Brothers' results, and whether those results were useful in a quantitative sense. The research incorporated static and total pressure measurements, velocity surveys across the jet, and quantitative flow visualization. Velocity surveys involved high resolution dynamic pressure measurements along the horizontal and vertical test section axes. Particle image velocimetry provided velocity magnitudes, turbulence intensities, and vorticity measurements in the test section. Force measurements on an airfoil model supported the conclusions regarding the effect of flow characteristics on aerodynamic measurements.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 18, 2005
Accession Number
ADA437187

Entities

People

  • Michael G. Dodson

Organizations

  • United States Naval Academy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aeronautical Engineering
  • Aircrafts
  • Boundary Layer
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Flow Visualization
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Measurement
  • Mechanics
  • Pressure Distribution
  • Pressure Measurement
  • Test Methods
  • Three Dimensional
  • Two Dimensional
  • Wind Tunnel Tests
  • Wind Tunnels

Readers

  • Control Systems Engineering.
  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.
  • Systems Analysis and Design