History
¨ Were the Wright Brothers given any awards?
¨ Did Wilbur Wright have any kids and did he ever get married?
¨ When, where and how did Wilbur Wright die?
¨ What is the history and rules of the pole vault event in
Track and Field?
¨ Did the Wright Brothers have a favorite childhood story?
¨ Origin of the term "dog-fight"
¨ How do we, as the human race,
know what is true and what is a lie?
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QUESTION:
Were the Wright Brothers given any awards?
ANSWER from Steve Englehart on 24 January 2007:
At first, the brothers not only got no awards, many people refused to believe they had even flown. Later, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC officially announced that one of their people had flown first. This made the brothers so angry that when the Smithsonian asked if they could have a copy of the Wrights' airplane to put next to the Smithsonian's, the Wrights refused. It was only after World War II that the Smithsonian admitted the Wrights were the first to fly, and then the plane went to them, where you can still see it today. So that reward was very late in coming. Otherwise, the brothers occasionally received commendations from the foreign governments they sold planes to. And - though not an award - the first men to land on the moon took a piece of the fabric from the first airplane's wing with them on their space ride.
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QUESTION:
Did Wilbur Wright have any kids and did he ever get married?
ANSWER from Steve Englehart
on 9 December 2005:
I'm sorry to say that Wilbur never married or had kids. The Wrights were
a close-knit family - the brothers' father was alive and they had both other
brothers and a sister - so the brothers never felt lonely. In addition,
they were devoted to building the best bicycle for their bicycle business,
then devoted to solving the riddle of flight. And once they solved it,
there were endless legal wars with competitors - which led to his early death. So
Wilbur never had time to turn his attention to the ladies.
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QUESTION:
When, where and how did Wilbur Wright die?
ANSWER from Steve Englehart
on 1 December 2005:
Wilbur died May 30, 1912. I imagine he was at home in Ohio but I'm not
sure. He died of typhoid fever, but he was also under stress from other
inventors claiming THEY had invented the aeroplane and suing the Wrights. A
month before he died, he wrote, "It is rather amusing, after having been
called fools and fakers for six or eight years, to find now that people knew
exactly how to fly all the time."
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QUESTION:
What is the history and rules of the pole vault event in Track and Field?
ANSWER from Scott Davis
on 8 November 2005:
Pole vaulting has been around for over 100 years. The athlete runs down
a runway with a pole and plants the pole in a small rectangular box. The
athlete then swings up on the pole and tries to get over the bar without knocking
it off. The poles used today are fiberglass and they bend when planted
which acts like a whip to help the athlete get much higher. The world
record now for men is over 20 feet!! For women, a Russian lady has gone
over 16 feet!!
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QUESTION:
Did the Wright Brothers have a favorite childhood story?
ANSWER from Steve Englehart
on 20 January 2005:
I've looked through all my reference material and I can't find anything about
their favorite story. As noted in our book (Countdown to Flight!),
they loved little mechanical things like the helicopter, and they took the
Bible very seriously (with their father being a minister).
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QUESTION:
Where, what and when did the origin of the term "dog-fight" begin relating
to aircraft?
ANSWER from Bob Raab on
20 January 2004:
I do not have an historical reference for the term "dog fight", however,
I do know that it comes from WW I, and having seen dogs fight I can
understand the comparison. Dogs chase each others tails, are up, down,
around and around, and rolling all about. In WW I the aircraft speeds
were less then 100 mph, so they remained in close proximity during a fight,
and to an observer on the ground the similarity to dogs fighting would come
easily. With the speeds and armaments of jet aircraft the engagement
is spread over miles so the term may not be as appropriate, but is still used. Prior
to the Vietnam War, and due to the development of missiles, it was thought
that the "dog fight" was a thing of the past, and the primary fighter
of that day, the F4 Phantom, was designed without guns.
A pilot can get a missile "lock on" at
night, in the clouds, and miles before he can see his enemy. However,
the rules of engagement as applied in Vietnam, required that the
pilot have visual identification before he could fire. In many
instances he didn't get a visual until he was too close to fire a
missile, taking away the advantage of surprise and the advantage
of high tech armaments. So a gun was designed for the F4 and
the dog fight was reborn. Modern day fighters have guns and
missiles, and the dog fight is an integral part of fighter pilot
training. Dog fight training begins with simple acrobatics
to accustom the pilot in controlling the aircraft in any attitude,
nose straight down, straight up, upside down, etc. In advanced
training you spend hours in simulated aerial combat with another
aircraft, each trying to get into firing position on the other. Next
to landing on and taking off from an aircraft carrier, it's the most
fun thing to do in an airplane.
Another term you may come across related
to aircraft dogfights is "lead the target". For example,
if my aircraft is approaching the enemy from the side, I have to
aim well ahead of the other aircraft since it will take, say, 1 second
for a bullet to reach the target. A football quarterback does
the same thing. He has to lead his receiver since the receiver
is running his position will change while the ball is in the air. If
an aircraft is moving at 300 mph it will travel 420 feet before the
bullet gets to where I aimed. Therefore I have to estimate
the target's speed in miles per hour, multiply that by 1.4, and aim
or "lead the target" by that many feet. In the old
days, WWI and early WWII, that is how it was done. Today, since
everything is so fast the pilot doesn't have time to think about
that, and since it is very difficult to estimate aircraft speed,
there is a computerized gun sight that "leads the target" for
you.
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QUESTION:
I feel, and from what I have read,
our whole history is a lie. How do we, as the human race, know
what is true and what is a lie? When is the truth going to be told
as it really is, that we are not alone in this universe, and that life
as it seems on this planet is only an illusion?
ANSWER from Michelle Mock
on 23 June 2004:
The thing about history is that
it is all a matter of perspective. The written word attempts
to record what has happened but it is sprinkled with the bias and perspective
of the person writing. So, we have to read and interpret what
we read and form our own opinions about Truth. There are obviously
facts in history that can not be disputed (although some will claim
that events never happened at all). We have to use our own thinking
power and decide for ourselves what is real and what is illusion.
When you look at the sky on a clear night,
you see many dots of light. Many of those dots of light are
stars just like our own sun, which could have planets just like our
Earth orbiting around. Certainly, many scientists and others
believe that we are not alone in this universe. Many also believe
that our definition of life, and intelligent life as well, is not
necessarily the only definition of life. This is why we explore
our universe. We are curious about what is out there. We
want to learn more about our beginnings.
Your letter brings up two points worth
noting:
1) Do not believe everything you read. People
can pretty much write anything and it does not have to be true. Even
reliable sources write from a certain perspective so people will
disagree. [Beware of people who spout garbage just to cause
controversy.]
2) We don't know if there is life
beyond our planet but we keep looking.
Many will disagree with this answer, and
they have that right, these only my opinions.
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