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In the first 10 years of powered flight there were many people building and test-flying airplanes. In the United States and Europe these planes were built to be very stable (safe). A very stable aircraft was easy to fly, but it was sluggish (slow) and difficult to maneuver (turn). When the aircraft was designed to be very stable, it actually impeded (blocked) the pilot's ability to make quick changes in direction. The Wright brothers, however, designed aircraft that were inherently (mainly) unstable. These were planes that had to be controlled at every instant of flight. Their goal was to have quick and easy maneuverability, but it made their airplanes very difficult to fly. New pilots required very long periods of training in order to fly their planes. The unstable planes were also more dangerous to fly. On the morning of January 13, 1908, Henri Farman flew his Voisin-Farman I-bis biplane on a long, more-or-less circular path around a field in France. The flight took 1 minute and 28 seconds for one circle. It was the longest flight in Europe, at that point. It was also the first circular flight. The Voisin-Farman biplane had only a very basic rudder. Farman had to swing the airplane around by its tail in order to make a long, flat turn. During the turn, the wings remained parallel, or aligned with the ground. Just seven months later, on August 8, 1908, in another field in France, Wilbur Wright made his first public flight in Europe. He and his brother had been working in secret for years. Aviation pioneers from all over Europe had come to see if the rumors about the Wright brothers and their plane were true. Flying the new Wright type A biplane, Wilbur took off, made two graceful circles above the field and landed after 1 minute and 45 seconds of flight. Using their patented design of twisting the wingtips (called wing warping), Wilbur was able to bank and turn easily. The European aviators were amazed and quickly admitted that the Wright brothers' designs were superior. The European designers quickly adopted the Wright brothers' patented concepts for control using the wing warping and rudders. But, they were unwilling to give up the idea of a stable aircraft. They wanted good control with easy flying characteristics. So they expanded on the Wright brother's plans by adding movable surfaces on the wings near the tips. Using ailerons, (from the French word for the tips of a bird's wings) instead of wing warping, maintained (kept) the desired stability and control. The new designs were able to make the turns that Wilbur had demonstrated so clearly that year, but much more safely and easily. By 1910, the European planes began to surpass the Wright's machines.
The concept of inherent (built-in) stability for airplane design became
the basic feature for all successful aircraft up to the 1970's. Oddly
enough, newer designs for fighter aircraft have gone back to the Wright
borther's idea of inherently unstable aircraft.
Now, control surfaces, on fighter airplanes, must again be adjusted at
all times. The difference this time is the use of computers to
constantly monitor and electronically change the control surfaces. This
makes it less taxing (stressful) on the pilot because much of the work
is done electronically. The principle of inherent stability in airplane
design is changing because of the increased use of the computer.
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