Imagine living in a country were some adventurous people were driving about in four-wheeled bicycles with engines when most people still drove horses and buggies. Then imagine climbing into a wood and cloth contraption with an engine and two propellers, starting it up, taking off, and flying???!!! Wilbur Wright had this experience on December 17, 1903, near the Kill Devil Hills, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. He flew in the Wright Flyer, (sometimes called Flyer 1), designed by himself and his brother Orville. His first flight was only 120 ft. in 12 seconds, but later in the day on the fourth and last flight of the Flyer 1, he made the distance of 852 feet! The Flyer 1 had been made resembling the gliders they had built and tested a Kitty Hawk in previous years, with the addition of an engine. It had room for one person, was 40 ft. wide and 21 ft. long, with a top speed of 30 mph. The U.S. Smithsonian Institution described the machine as: “...the first powered, ‘heavier-than-air’ machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard.” Other flying contraptions had not been controlled, had not made longer flights, or had not been powered by an engine. This was a triumph for the Wright brothers. A couple days before, Samuel P. Langley’s Aerodrome had failed to fly, resulting in reporters predicting that flight would not be accomplished for another hundred years. Imagine their surprise when they learned later that the Wright’s had flown a few days after the crash of the Aerodrome! Flight has progressed amazingly! In less than 110 years planes are now flying at speeds of over 15,000 mph! That is 500 times faster than the Wright’s plane could fly. It still amazes me that the Wrights unlocked so many more secrets to flying than others, with much less money, and with homemade tools! Nowadays, we see and hear planes all the time, but they are a reminder of the perseverance and ingenuity of the Wright brothers and of the Flyer 1.
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