100 years on, science still can't get Kitty Hawk to fly

They transformed the course of the twentieth century and are regarded as heroic pioneers of the aviation age. But the Wright brothers were more than just gifted engineers, it turns out.

They were extremely lucky young men who should have been killed when their rickety plane, the Kitty Hawk, made its pioneering flight on 17 December, 1903.

This is the stark view of Nasa engineers and aviation enthusiasts who are trying to rebuild the muslin-winged biplane in time for the centenary of Orville and Wilbur's historic flight. It was a deathtrap on wings.

Despite the incredible care the group has taken to rebuild the craft using the brothers' original plans, it has simply been unable to fly it. Now the Wright Experience has just completed a two-week stint using the massive wind tunnel at Nasa's Langley research centre to find the source of the aircraft's problems.

'What we discovered was very simple,' said Dr Drew Landman, the manager of the wind tunnel project. 'The pair were extremely lucky not to have broken their necks.'

The wind tunnel tests showed the Kitty Hawk - named after the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, where its maiden flight took place - behaves like a glass marble rolling on a plate. Press the elevator stick and it simply slides all over the place. One gust of wind and it could easily have been up-ended.

'Of course, that is not a problem with aircraft nowadays because we have 100 years of accumulated aviation experience and know how to correct for such problems,' added Landman. 'Orville and Wilbur had to learn the hard way, though frankly it was a miracle they got the chance.'

In fact, the Wrights flew their plane not once but four times on that historic day, which - staggeringly - was also extremely breezy.

Orville and Wilbur built one of the world's first wind tunnels and tested more than 200 wing shapes and sizes in it before developing a series of gliders to act as test craft. Then they added a lightweight, four-cylinder 12hp engine to their plane - and changed the world.

Now the Wright Experience group merely has to learn how to fly the craft. 'It is not going to be easy,' added Landman. 'We have earmarked four pilots. One will be picked for the big day. However, we are not going to let him up there without giving him extra help. We are going to build a Kitty Hawk simulator, a bit like the ones they have for commercial pilots. A few weeks in that should make things happen.

'I know Orville and Wilbur didn't have that advantage, but we certainly can't rely on being as lucky as them.'