Wright Flyer Connected to Launching Derrick, France, 1908-1909
01
Artifact Overview
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 Details
Artifact
Negative (Photograph)
Subject Date
1908-1909
Creators
Collection Title
Location
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
Keywords |
|---|
02
Related Content
SetThe Wrights: Wowing the World
- 20 Artifacts
Wilbur Wright's many demonstration flights in France in 1908 and 1909 were spectacular events. Some in Europe had begun to doubt the Wrights' achievement at Kill Devil Hills. When Wilbur took to the skies over Le Mans, demonstrating more control and achieving more distance than his rivals, crowds flocked to watch his apparent mastery of the airplane. The skeptics were silenced.