They put the propellers in the rear and the elevators in the front. That’s backwards to the way aircraft are designed today.
Today the propeller is in the front because that’s where the undisturbed air is. The propeller is most effective in the front but the elevators are in the back, not like Wilbur and Orville designed them. Why was that?
Because they were trying to figure out how to get the aircraft to go up, not forward. they put the controls for altitude up front where they would be most effective. They couldn’t put the propellers and the elevators up front so they put them in back of the wings and drove them by chains.
But they flew! They get all of the credit because they did it.
Later designers knew the aircraft would go up so they put the power, the propeller up front where it is more powerful because its operating in undisturbed air. The Wright brothers changed the direction of humanity with their intellects and perseverance. We are most grateful. Because of them I went to 92 countries. Without them I never would have been out of Pennsylvania. Well, perhaps to New Jersey and New York but they aren’t countries.
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