History: That First Flight - 1903

A dream as old as history had become a reality at a place called Kitty Hawk North Carolina.

At 10.35 Orville Wright launched the Wright machine, which was called the flyer, from a 40 foot wooden rail, laid out on level ground near to their camp at Kill Devil hill. With Orville at the controls the Flyer rose into a strong buffeting head wind for a flight distance of 120 feet, which lasted 12 seconds. This was witnessed by five unimpressed local men and Orville’s brother Wilbur, but the Wright brothers were delighted they believed they had found the key to building a practical flying machine.

They made four flights that day and the last flight by Wilbur lasted 59 seconds and he flew a distance of 852 feet. The flyer was then damaged by a gust of wind which flipped the light flying machine over and the brother had to cancel their fifth flight of the day. The brother decided to call it a day and telegraph their father in Dayton with the news.

The brother’s scientific approach to building a flying machine enabled them to succeed where other had failed. The Wright brothers never took risks and tested their machines until they grasped the theory of aerodynamics. The winter months were spent at their bicycle repair shop in Dayton developing a suitable engine and propeller to power the Flyer.

Finding out that Samuel Langley with his machine Aerodrome had crashed. on December 8th, prompted the Wright brothers to return to Kitty Hawk on December 14th and with the modified Flyer attempt to fly their machine but due to Wilbur not being used to the flying controls, the flyer crashed. Repairs were completed and on February 5th 1904 with light winds and near perfect conditions history was made.

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