The Wright Model R was a single-seat

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

built by the Wright Company in

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, United States, in 1910. Also known as the Roadster or the Baby Wright, it was designed for speed and altitude competitions.

Design

The Wright Model R was derived from the Wright Model B, and was a two-bay biplane with rear-mounted twin

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

s mounted in front of a single

elevator An elevator (American English) or lift (Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems suc ...

and carried on wire-braced wood booms behind the wing. It was powered by a Wright four-cylinder inline water-cooled engine driving a pair of pusher propellers via chains.

Operational history

Two examples were flown at the International Aviation Tournament at

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in November 1910, one being a standard model flown by Alec Ogilvie and the other being a special competition model known as the Baby Grand, which had a V-8 engine and a reduced

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

of 21 ft 5 in (6.53 m). Orville Wright succeeded in flying the Baby Grand at a speed of nearly . Both aircraft were entered for the second Gordon Bennett Trophy competition which was held at the meeting, but the Baby Grand, flown by Walter Brookins, suffered an engine failure during a trial flight on the race day and crashed heavily. Ogilvie's aircraft also had engine problems, having to make a stop of nearly an hour to make repairs, but was nevertheless placed third."The American International Meeting"
''Flight'' 5 November 1910 Ogilvie also flew his aircraft in the 1912 Gordon Bennet competition, re-engined with a N.E.C. engine.

Specifications

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * McFarland, Marvin (ed), ''The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright'' vol. 2. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953, p. 1199. * Munson, Kenneth, ''Pioneer Aircraft 1903-1914''. London: Blandford, 1969.

External links

"Mr Ogilvie's Wright Biplane"
''Flight'' 28 January 1911. {{Wright aircraft Model R Wright aircraft">Model R 1910s United States experimental aircraft Single-engined twin-prop pusher aircraft">1910s United States experimental aircraft">Wright aircraft">Model R 1910s United States experimental aircraft Single-engined twin-prop pusher aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1910