# Wright Flyer



## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Thought I'd share my Flyer here.

For some reason around new years I wanted to build a Wright Flyer with all the rigging, thought about one of the balsa kits but they were too big, so got the Revell 1/39 plastic model. 

I know the rigging should be black but that wouldn't stand out, so used silver colored string.

Minimal changes to the kit, drilled some holes for the rigging and shaved down the round hubs on the props so they look more like the real ones. Also shaved down some of the spar attachments to the wings where I could so they don't stand out as much.

Picts attached:


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Cool. Given its age (1950s) the old Monogram kit (now Revell) isn't 
"bad". With some TLC it can look quite nice.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Didn't know this is the same kit sold since the 50s.

I thought about cutting down those white attachment points on the bottom main wing, but it would have made assembly much harder than I was willing to spend time on. I really was just wanting a 3D view of the rigging after looking at lots of old photos of the flyer. The way they tied the wing warping and rudder together was interesting. And the crazy front elevator was also an interesting design with how the 2 wings pivot.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Yup this, the tiny Ideal/Ringo/Glencoe kit, and the rare Tonka kit are, I think, the only Wright Flyer plastic kits. Monogram sold the kit for decades and now its sold under the Revell name. 

The Wrights had some interesting ideas and also got hung up on some less than practical points. Despite their initial success, they stagnated and spent most of their time in fruitless legal battles over their designs.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

It does seem like after using fairly good scientific method to get in the air, then got stuck on certain ideas and lost that innovative edge. Trying to patent every little part of their design didn't help, hard to innovate and come up with new designs when you are devoting so much time to the old ones. Somewhere I saw a patent application for the C shaped hooks they used at the end of each spar between the wings....


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

That is what killed the Wrights... given that they did not invent the first airplane or even the first powered plane, their main claim to fame was making the first practical one. But, a lot of other people came up with similar and better ideas around the same time. While pioneers like Glenn Curtiss, Bleriot, DuMont, etc. made bigger, better planes, the Wrights bogged themselves down in a futile legal morass. In a lot of ways they were a one shot wonder after their initial success. When they had no competition, they were on top, but in a couple of years they were forgotten.


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