Wing Warping

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Wing Warping

see caption
Wilbur Wright built this kite in 1899 to test whether warping the wings would roll the craft right and left. The kite was controlled from the ground by four cables attached to two sticks.

Wing warping consists of the twisting motion of the wings of an aircraft to produce lateral control. The entire wing structure twists slightly in a helical motion in the desired direction. The Wright brothers first thought of this concept in 1899 when Wilbur, looking for a way to control the roll of an aircraft, twisted a long, narrow box and believed he could apply the motion to an aircraft's wings. The brothers first used this method of control successfully in a kite that they built that year. On the kite, they used ropes that they pulled on from the ground. When they implemented the method in a glider and later in their powered aircraft, they used cables that the pilot pulled on to twist the wings.

In 1899, Wilbur Wright used a long narrow box to come up with the idea of wing warping.
In 1899, Wilbur Wright used a long narrow box to come up with the idea of wing warping.

Other pioneer aircraft designers also used this method of control on early aircraft. The young French engineer Robert Esnault-Pelterie replaced wing warping in 1904 with the aileron on a copy he made of a Wright glider. Henry Farman was the first to use the aileron as an integral part of the wing structure in place of wing warping in 1908.