The lift balance
Image credit: Library of Congress

What happened next?

The Wrights' analysis of their flights left them convinced that the Lilienthal lift tables they had trusted were in error. They proceeded to devise a series of instruments to test the accuracy of the data, each of which was designed to measure the lifting ability of a curved surface against a flat plate placed in a stream of moving air.

The evolution of these devices resulted in the first use of a wind tunnel for aerodynamic research and design. The hundreds of tests carried out by the Wrights not only led them to their revolutionary glider of 1902, but established the fundamental practices of wind tunnel testing which has been in aerodynamic engineering ever since.