December 1, 2003, Lebanon, NH, USA

Fluent Inc., world leaders in commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, announced today the results from a study that was undertaken as part of the centennial celebration of the first powered flight by Wilbur and Orville Wright in Kitty Hawk, NC. The project has been carried out in association with the Los Angeles Branch of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to re-evaluate the original 1903 Wright Flyer aircraft with modern technologies not available to the Wright Brothers 100 years ago. The AIAA-LA chapter has built two full-scale replicas of the original Wright Brothers’ aircraft from the Smithsonian blue prints, and plans to fly their newest replica on Dec. 17, the anniversary of the original flight. To contribute to the AIAA-LA’s safety analysis of the replica, Fluent modeled the airflow around the aircraft’s propellers for a range of flight conditions, to reveal some of their aerodynamic secrets.

Dr. Christoph Hiemcke, an aerospace CFD engineer at Fluent Inc’s headquarters in Lebanon, New Hampshire, carried out a full CFD analysis of the Wright Flyer propeller blade based on a copy of the original blueprints by Louis B. Christman. The propellers used for the 1903 flight were made of laminated spruce, and were hand-carved by Wilbur Wright during the winter of 1902/3, while Orville Wright was working on the engine. Dr. Hiemcke’s simulations showed that the blades did indeed perform very well for a wide range of operating speeds. The AIAA-LA engineers used the aerodynamic loads predicted from the CFD simulations to do a structural analysis of the blade for their replica aircraft, which will fly above the historic speed during their re-enactment flight to ensure the safety of the pilot. The original Wright Flyer in 1903 produced about 67 lb of thrust at 350 RPM; the CFD predictions agreed well with these measurements.

Speaking about his work, Dr. Hiemcke said “The Wright brothers were revolutionary aerospace pioneers using leading-edge technology and scientific methods way ahead of their time to produce the successful first flight that we are celebrating this year. Our work has confirmed the high efficiency of their original propeller, but also how close they were to stall conditions given the engine they used!” He adds that “their aircraft actually came in 75 lbs heavier than their original plan, but because their propeller was more efficient than they predicted and they had good headwind conditions that day in December 1903, they were able to produce the first successful powered flight by a man. If they were alive today, there is no doubt that they would have used CFD to improve their designs.”

About Fluent

Fluent is the world's largest provider of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software and consulting services. Fluent's software is used for simulation, visualization, and analysis of fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, and chemical reactions. It is a vital part of the computer-aided engineering (CAE) process for companies around the world and is deployed in nearly every manufacturing industry. Using Fluent's software, product development, design, and research engineers build virtual prototypes and simulate the performance of proposed and existing designs, allowing them to improve design quality while reducing cost and speeding time to market. Fluent's corporate headquarters are located in Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA, with offices in Belgium, England, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan and Sweden. Its CFD software is also available around the world through joint ventures, partnerships, and distributors in Korea, Australia, Brazil, China, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Middle East, and most European countries.

FLUENT® is a registered trademark of Fluent Inc.

Graphics Available

Graphic images and accompanying captions to support this release can be found on the web at http://www.fluent.com/about/news/pr/index.htm by following the links to this release. Fluent Inc. grants permission for use of these graphics and their captions in conjunction with any or all of this press release.

For more information, contact:

Jennifer Correa Fluent Inc. 10 Cavendish Court Lebanon, NH 03766 (800) 445-4454 Ext. 668 jrc@fluent.com

Additional Resources

For more information on the AIAA-LA Wright Flyer project go to: http://www.wrightflyer.org/

For more information on the AIAA go to: http://www.aiaa.org/

CFD Postprocessing was carried out by Advantage CFD: http://www.advantage-cfd.co.uk/

using ENSIGHT software from CEI International: http://www.ceintl.com/