 Bill Hadden flying the Wright Model B simulator | « Previous | Page 2 of 4 | Next » Learning to fly the Wright aircraft was not easy, then as today. The standard controls for the Wright machines were three controls columns: two tandem elevator controls on either side of a single wing-warping/rudder stick. The controls are counter-intuitive: to turn the airplane left or right one has to move the warping stick forward and backward. The elevator control also moves forward and backward to pitch the airplane up and down. At the Wright school, students practiced these confusing controls on a machine called the 'balancer'-an older Flyer that had been converted into a precursor of the flight simulator. Moving the sticks on the balancer approximated the movement of the airplane in flight. Today, a modern flight simulator of the Model B has been developed based on wind tunnel analysis of the Model B's airfoil, propeller, and the performance of the Wright engine. Although more sophisticated, its function is essentially the same as the balancer. |
