THE KNOWLEDGE MEDIA INSTITUTE

History of Flight

Key events

Flights of fancy

Models

Aerodynamics

How planes fly

Historical development

Aero-engines

Flyers

Cayley

Lilienthal

Phillips

The Wright Brothers

Santos-Dumont

Cody

Links

About FirstFlight

Accessibility

The Wright Brothers - experiments - bicycle balance

Many replicas are based on the idea of a modern front-pannier arrangement, where the carrier is attached to the handle bars and front wheel. The carrier on an old-fashioned delivery bike, quite common at the time of the Wright Brothers, is instead bolted securely to the main frame.



This arrangement would be less likely to disturb the delicate balance point measurement as the rider lets go of the wheel (whilst riding at full speed with only one hand on the handlebars).

back