subject: How The Wright Brothers Would Have Taken Off With Castors? [print this page] The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were real American heroes, pushing the limits of technology to the absolute max to not only make history but also to make a name for themselves that was based solely on the merit of achievement. Of course, both brothers have been dead for a number of years now but they became famous for inventing, building and flying the very first airplane. Without them, we would not be able to choose a destination at any time of the day or not and simply fly there. We would not be able to navigate the globe. We would not be able to explore the world as and when we wanted to. Instead, we may well still be limited to travel by sea. However, had they used all of the available technology around at that time then they may well have been able to push their inventions even further. Imagine, for example, that they had used castors.
This introduction was probably unnecessary because the vast majority of people know what they are but how they could have been used to help invent the first airplane may still be a mystery to you so read on to find out how.
The Wright brothers actually made their first flight on December 17, 1903 after trying repeatedly to come up with a model that would be able to support their weight when gliding through the air. They had previously designed glider after glider to test their theories but had failed to get them off the ground for a number of years. Why? Because they had no real method of building up speed other than running and jumping off a platform. Had they added castors to these early gliders then they would have been able to see just how useful the industrial wheels would have been in enabling them to support the frame of the glider and build up speed at the same time. The castor was invented in the late 19th Century so it was certainly a possibility.
Forgetting the earlier gliders that the Wright brothers made for a moment and moving onto the first airplane though, castors would have certainly made the model far more efficient and may have been able to get it off the ground quicker. The powered flight actually launched on runners, which were highly unreliable and a little unpredictable. It would have been no surprise had they broken prior to take off.
Castors like the BZP series (125mm to 250mm available from BIL Castors and Wheels) would never have broken. Designed to withstand heavy loads, such as 225kg to 800kg, they would have supported the brothers weight as well as that of the plane without the worry that they would let them down. Think about how you would feel if the wheels on a plane you were in broke. The Wright brothers had that fear ahead of their flight but, had they made the most of their resources, they could have taken off with confidence!
