October 2023 Auction Ends Thursday, October 26th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/26/2023
Exceptional typed letter signed by Orville Wright, with detailed analysis on the aeronautical engineering allowing for human flight, especially as it relates to the size of a flight-worthy craft. Wright argues that there is no limit to the size, as long as the weight load is distributed properly, but that at the present time, it's not possible due to landing gear technology. He concludes by noting that the largest natural flying creature was the Pterodactyl, and that animal was only thirty pounds and a ''poor flyer.''
Letter is dated 11 May 1917, composed on Wright's personal stationery, and signed in black fountain pen. Lengthy letter reads in small part, ''I have your very interesting letter of May 5th...[regarding] an interview with me quoted by Mr. Burton J. Hendrick in Harper's Magazine of April...The structure of a flying machine upon which its strength depends, is that of a bridge. The greater portion of the total weight of the machine itself, as well as all of the load carriers, is usually located approximately centrally between the two wing tips. I explained to Mr. Hendrick that if the weight of the motive power and of the load to be carried could be equally distributed over the entire surface of the machine, there would be no limit to the size a machine could be built and still be strong enough to support its own weight in the air. But unfortunately such a machine would have no strength in landing with any type of landing gear known at the present time. In other words, in landing, some provision would have to be made so that every part of the machine would come in contact with the ground at the same time.
You are probably aware that there is a limit, with the materials possessed at the present time, beyond which a bridge span cannot even support its own weight...Nature has never succeeded in building a large creature which could fly. I believe the Pterodactyl, which was the largest, weighed only in the neighborhood of thirty pounds, and evidently was but a poor flyer. The theory, which I state in the interview, I think, has been fully borne out by the experience of all the flying machine manufacturers...[signed] Orville Wright''.
Two page letter on two separate sheets measures 7.25'' x 10.25''. Some foxing, toning, minor creasing, staple puncture at upper left, and slight smudging to signature. Overall in very good condition.
Orville Wright Letter Signed from 1917 -- ''...there would be no limit to the size a machine could be built and still be strong enough to support its own weight in the air...''
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