Calculating the Wright stuff.

With the temperature just above freezing and winds blowing steadily at more than 20 miles per hour, the weather on Dec. 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, N.C., appeared decidedly unfavorable for flying -- especially for attempting the first flight in a heavier-than-air, powered and manned plane. But Wilbur and Orville Wright decided to go ahead, and the rest is history.

The Wright brothers had every reason to expect that their flyer would get off the ground, contends mathematician Robert N. McCullough of Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich. "I believe that the main reason for their confidence was mathematics."

In developing their aircraft, the Wright brothers carried out extensive experimental work and a large number of calculations. To obtain the details, McCullough delved into the published edition of their collected papers. He found that by the time the two men were ready for test their aircraft, they had all the necessary mathematical formulas and data on aerodynamic forces to calculate in advance that flight was possible. In many cases, that information came from their own wind-tunnel tests.

Whether the Wright brothers actually made the necessary calculation on that day at Kitty Hawk isn't known, McCullough says. But the numerous calculations they had performed in the months preceding the historic flight certainly would have told them that they had a reasonable chance of success.