How I built and flew a Wright Brothers aeroplane

[MrMental135]

I almost cryed when the glider crashed but i pulled my self together.

[MrJdsenior]

You are nuts, and that is so cool. Good luck, be careful, and thanks for posting the vid.....enjoyed it ;-)

[ADMIRAL4488]

Cool :D My dream is this too, from my childhood

[cheerfu11]

cong for ur hard work

iwant to make 1

[magna59]

Congratulations......i'm not sure what i'm more inspired by your enthusiasm or your madness......or your feline quality......the requirment for nine lives ! Keep at it ! But have a care.

[AirplaneFreak1000]

a few sticks some cloth and string

poof u have a plane made for falling to the ground quickly

[kmarccoco]

Thats awesome Tom!!!!!!

[jkl12397]

I have got a few questions and comments. did u put the pivot point of the elevator in the middle of the elevator, or slightly forward? I know the wright brothers had trouble with that because of winds hitting the elevator, making it almost uncontrollable.I have a suggestion that would theoretically make it more controllabe and may give you better lift, the wright brothers also realized this problem of uncontrollability, as they said in their journal.

[Gig540]

@jkl12397 your exactly right about the pivot point on the elevator. I had similar problems on some scratch built RC planes I made before. Now I always mount the pivot point a bit ahead of the halfway point.

By the way This was a great video would like to see some more!

[glenmann62]

That was so cool ! My dream is also to build one but in an ultralight configuration, a 1/2 scale of the original which so far i have not seen ! , My hats off to you for fulfilling and getting your dream off the ground ,hopefully one day my dream will be a reality just as your was too you! Thank you for showing your build, glenn

[homebuiltindoorplane]

I remember you! What a great video, thank you so much for your efforts. Always a passion of mine, the wright airplanes. Thanks again and best wishes to you!

[gyromeister89]

do you reckon you could you let us know about any "formal"sources of Wright flyer series technical information (drawings, material descriptions etc) that you used for your projects ?

..or did you have no choice but to patiently gather bits and pieces of info over a long period ?

[TheTommytwang]

The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum are a valuable source of archives and blueprints and microfilm.

There are now a few more books available too.

[gyromeister89]

thanks alot for that. I can't imagine that any other person on the planet is doing what you are doing - amazing stuff

[cyrilgiraud]

sublime

pour reussir l impossible il faut penser a l impensable

[blowinganddrifting]

Wow !! TO cool. what happend to the plane, were is it now?

Dean

[TheTommytwang]

I still have it and it still can fly.

[Luis0985]

I´ll be following your development of the 1911 Wright aeroplane :-)

[TheTommytwang]

Stay close to your dreams.

[lewississ]

nice... but your 100 years late. haha.

[staffslad1]

Hi  tomivicevich

I have watched both your blogs ref: home made plane. I would like to say you must be a brave man, especially when you tipped up in your glider. The world needs more people like you; it is an inspiration to see. Well done or as they say in England (the best of British to you)

Terry (Staffslad1)

[TheTommytwang]

Thank you Terry. It's nice to have giants to stand on.

[videomonkey2009]

Very good Im so jealous. Engine in video looks large abd heavy. I think I would have maybe used a motorcycle engine but what do I knwo. How long did whole project take to build?

[tomivicevich]

Originally, it took one year to build. But, it's been a work in progress since 2003.

The vw engine looks a lot like the original engine, and besides, I can use bio-diesel for fuel. It smells like a "happy meal".

[loocky44]

Nice job, congratulations!

I have two questions:

how much power had your replica?

How much it weights?

[tomivicevich]

Thanks for your questions.

I have a vw diesel that delivers about 52 hp. I don't run it full bore so I get about 45 hp. The original got about 32 hp.

My aeroplane weighs about 920 lbs.

[russ68y]

great project.lotta spruce,and glue. have you considered the use of the rotax 503,or 582 engine?theyre both light in weight,and should give you more than enough power.just a thought.  russ68y

[WAYTOPLUTO]

The story of the Wright brothers as the investors of the airplane is one of those big lies in history. It is just another attempt by Americans to claim everything for themselves. Santos Dumont's airplane took off by itself; it did not need a catapult. The Wright brothers invented a glider.

[adiintel]

haha wd man :) keep up the gw

[caldera3000]

Great video but man, that's called ground effect! It flew but.........not high enough. Put a powerfull engine and you'll see!

[VteBarack08]

Yo that's sick, I wanna build and fly one like the Wright Brothers' plane! Are you an aeronautical engineer or something???

[tomivicevich]

I've always built things and have always been fascinated by flight and studied aeronautical engineering enough to build the aeroplane. Passion for the project allowed me to complete it.

[gratziani2003]

very nice!

[ericgoujon]

100% congratulations...!

[joselucasdenada2008]

mais uma prova que os irmãos não voaram, VIVA Santos Dumont o PAI DA AVIAÇÂO

[PAZZOOOO34545]

3.50 min looool

[krimskrams]

er... aside everyone admiring you... what the hell happened to the poor chap at 3:50?! that looked pretty nasty! talk about sacrifices in the march of technology...

[tomivicevich]

A broken ankle and a broken airplane...yes, sacrifices must be made.

[theTruthNotLies]

Why don't you make the Santos Dumont plane? It was the first plane ever to fly...

[daniel010101]

That's true. 14 BIS was the first real plane.

[davfritz]

Are you CRAZY?!! If you spent that much time on your vegetable garden, just think how big your pumpkins would grow!

[tomivicevich]

Actually Davfritz, I do need to spend more time in my vegetable garden. You see, my aeroplane's engine is a diesel and I can use bio-diesel fuel which can come from anyone's garden.

Thanks for watching,

Tom

[davfritz]

Well, I was only being funny........ when I was younger I would have killed to be a part of such a truely wonderful project. Can I ask, is it 1005 to scale?

[tomivicevich]

With the exception of the engine and a little epoxy glue, it's pretty authentic and to full scale.

[samueledeganello]

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! YESS!!! SURE!!!!! HOW Tom thumb in the middle earth giants........see soon little boy.........p.s you are allways graet!!!!

[samueledeganello]

you are an genius!!....great video!!!!

[tomivicevich]

Thank you Samuel, but I'm only standing on the shoulders of giants.

Check out my other video "'flying a wright brothers aeroplane".

[dabaco28]

Great video!!!

only one question... I'm going to do some research about the Wright Flyer and one of my intentions is to build a reproduction. I would be interested in knowing the approximated cost of the necessary materials to make it. Could you give me some information, please?

[tomivicevich]

It's hard to give an exact figure as many things were donated, however a rough estimate would be under $20,000

[dabaco28]

Thank you a lot!!!

[SaoMir1]

this was awesome. my dream was always to fly just like this, unprotected from the harsh conditions of the sky, not completely enclosed in a jumbo jet. i will try and do this one day if i can. thanks for the inspiration.

[tomivicevich]

Thank you SaoMir,

Never give up your dreams.

[freesk8]

Wonderful! Amazing!

Let's hear it for the power of dreams!

That forward, canard elevator is really a twitchy thing, ain't it!

[Jadethedoula]

Wow! Thanks for a great video. We are homeschoolers studying the Wright Brothers, and were so inspired by your movie.

It really allowed us to experience the excitement and beauty of the first flight.

Stella (age 8) says:

your plane was fantastic.

[tomivicevich]

Thank you for your comments, you too Stella. I found the Wright Brothers very inspiring to me. With out giving up, after much trial and error, they achieved their dream of flight. A dream we all share.

[oswhiteboymc]

very cool

[driftability]

Wow looks hard to fly!.

[tomivicevich]

see how it flies in my other video

[sammiexxx21]

The first person to fly a powered, heavier than air vehicle (aeroplane) was Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, (who is more famous for his machine gun). On Tuesday 31st July 1894 at Baldwyn's Park (formerly the site of a mental hospital, now a housing estate) in the London Borough of Bexley, his flyer was launched for the first time and successfully flew.

[jasas2255]

mais uma prova que os irmãos não voaram!

[zagyex]

Congratulations. It is really amazing.

[tomivicevich]

thanks

[WelshWebb]

Correction. It was a Wright III.

[WelshWebb]

Well, keep trying. Back in the early 1980's, a fellow in Dayton Ohio successfully constructed a working replica of (I believe) a Wright B. I use to see him cut lazy circles in the sky when I attended school at Wright State. Seeing such fuctional replicas is animprotant reminder to us where we've been and how far we've come. May you soar long and high.

[sakemonkey]

This is amazing; you are truly a Renaissance man.