Wright Flyer Connected to Launching Derrick, France, 1908-1909

Summary

The Wright brothers' early airplanes had no wheels, just simple landing skids. To achieve takeoff, they devised a clever catapult system. The airplane was attached, with cables and pulleys, to a weight suspended in a tower. When the weight fell, it pulled the plane along a wooden rail fast enough to generate the necessary lift.

The Wright brothers' early airplanes had no wheels, just simple landing skids. To achieve takeoff, they devised a clever catapult system. The airplane was attached, with cables and pulleys, to a weight suspended in a tower. When the weight fell, it pulled the plane along a wooden rail fast enough to generate the necessary lift.

Artifact

Negative (Photograph)

Subject Date

1908-1909

Collection Title

Leon Bollee Photographs 

 On Exhibit

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

2000.53.108

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Glass (Material)

Technique

Gelatin dry plate process

Color

Black-and-white (Colors)

Dimensions

Height: 5.000 in

Width: 7.000 in

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