STORY SO FAR: Wilbur Wright has decided that the three things needed to build a flying machine are: wings that will create lift, a light and powerful engine, and a way to control the machine in the air. The first two problems Wilbur considers solved. To solve the third, he has been studying birds.

"Let's go," Orville said."I'm thinking," said Wilbur.The brothers were in their workshop, surrounded by all the bits and pieces of bicycle anatomy: wheels, chains, gears, and frames. Both brothers wore blue aprons, and both held paintbrushes. They had been painting bicycle frames all morning."Think less," Orv said. "Paint more.""I'm thinking," Wilbur said, "that birds are a little like windmills."Orville looked up. "I've painted five frames and you've painted three," he said, "because birds are like windmills?""How does a bird keep its balance in the air?" Wilbur asked. "Say that a bird is gliding in a steady wind. Not flapping, just gliding. Now, say the direction of the wind changes. It forces the bird to roll right. How does the bird restore its balance?""When I finish this frame it's going to be six to three.""They move the tips of their wings," Wilbur said, "so that the wingtips meet the air at different angles. A bird being rolled right raises the tip on its right wing, and lowers the tip on its left wing. Then the right wing creates more lift than the left wing. So the right wing rises. The left wing drops. And the bird rolls left. In other words, it turns-"Orville saw where Wilbur was going. "I get it," he said. "It turns like a windmill spins.""Exactly," said Wilbur.Orville stopped painting. "But what about the idea of building a machine that doesn't roll? That can't roll, that has stability? Wouldn't a machine like that be easier to control?"Wilbur shook his head. "That's an argument that some people make," he said. "But those people are thinking too much about the ways that vehicles move on the ground. Those people can't imagine why you would want a machine in the air to roll, simply because there's almost no machine on the ground that rolls.""Almost?"Wilbur asked, "What's the most unstable vehicle you can think of?"Orville paused. He shrugged. He waved his paintbrush in a circle, as if to take in the whole room. "The bicycle.""And how do you balance a bicycle? How do you control it? Think about how you lean when you make a turn. You don't get rid of the bicycle's instability. You use it."Orville set down his brush. "So if birds use rolling," he said, "rather than avoid it..."Wilbur could see Orville's attention sharpening at the chance for mechanical invention. "If a person built a glider," Wilbur said, "just for experiments . . . or a kite. If a person built a kite, and wanted to rig the wings so that he could change their angles, like the tips of a bird's wings-""The wings would need to rotate," Orville said. "The machine would have a center section, with the wings attached with cogs, or gears.""You'd probably want to connect the wings," said Wilbur, "so that when you lift one-""You automatically lower the other."Orville made a rough drawing, but the brothers saw a catch: lightweight gears couldn't support wings. Sturdier gears might, but they were heavier, and so required larger wings, which required still heavier gears, and so on. The brothers were stuck.Meanwhile, the business of the Wright Cycle Company went on. Customers came in for air for their cycles, to have chains replaced, to look at new bikes.One day a girl came in for a new inner tube. Wilbur opened the ends of one of the slight rectangular boxes in which the tubes were packed, pulled out the new tube, and did the work. The girl paid and left, and Orville toyed absentmindedly with the empty box. He drummed it on his palm. He pressed it flat and let it spring back open. He pressed opposite corners on one side of the box and then the other pair of opposite corners on the other side. A twist moved through the box.Suddenly an idea, a connection, rushed into Wilbur's mind. His thoughts went far from inner tubes and bicycles, and back to his conversation with Orville. The idea seemed almost too simple, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.That evening he explained his idea to Orville. "Instead of a glider made up of different units," he said, "rigged together with gears, why not a single unit, capable of flexing? Not a box, of course. A biplane glider. If we reinforce the structure in some places and hinge it in others, the whole thing could slightly twist."Orville understood. He nodded. "The different ends would present themselves to the air at different angles," he said. "Like a bird's wings."It would work, Wilbur thought. It would really work. He would try the idea as a kite, of course. But if the kite worked, he would build a glider. He knew that already. Wilbur felt a surge of excitement. Standing in his home on Hawthorn Street, a pasteboard box in his hands, he imagined what it would be like to fly.<b>Coming Monday, November 13th – Chapter Six,</b>

Text and illustrations copyright &Copy; 2003 by Brian FlocaSponsored in part by Inventing Flight, Dayton, OhioReprinted by permission of Breakfast Serials, Inc.www.breakfastserials.com