A Brief History of Flight

Octave Chanute, by Gregory and Arthur

Octave Chanute was an expert in the field of railroad construction. He knew how to build railroad bridges. Chanute experimented with box kites and found that the basic method of strengthening railroad bridges worked to make his kits strong. When Chanute started experimenting with gliders, he used the box kite method to strengthen the wings. he shared what he learned with others. The "Wright" brothers used his design to make their biplane. Some of Chanute's ideas are used today in aircraft construction.

(biplane: a glider or airplane with two wings, one above the other.)

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