First to fly
In 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first powered flight with a heavier than air machine. This was a great achievement in the history of flight. Flying became then something possible.
For many centuries, human beings always wanted to escape from the ground and fly freely like a bird, many flying machines invented experience failures in taking flight but with research and development of aeronautical technology, the flying machines invented by mankind learned to stay aloft despite the earth gravity.
The Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were working in the bicycle business in Dayton OH when their interest for flight began. They inquired in the Smithsonian foundation for aeronautical principles and queried the US Weather Bureau about a place where testing flying objects would be possible. They chose Kitty Hawk in North Carolina because that area was sandy and hilly, thus a practicable place for them to do their experiences.
It was in 1899 that they traveled from Dayton to Kitty Hawk. They built in 1900 their first glider and started testing the capability of their invention to fly by observing the speed and direction of the clouds in the sky. They built a year later another glider to pursue further flight testing. They found out that flight was achieved by an airflow around the wing, they reasoned that the pilot of the flying machine had to move sideways to balance the center of gravity should the airflow increase the lift on one wing and not the other, so they invented the device called flight controls. The flight controls showed that it helped them move upwards, downwards, to the left and to the right while staying aloft. But another question arises: how would the new invented flying device move forward should there be no wind? They found a solution: they built with the help of a colleague from Dayton a 12 hp engine with gasoline and reasoned that a blade held vertically and spinning around an axis would create a force that would make the craft move forward. All their research subject and study were put together, this is how the flying machine called "airplane" was invented. This was the beginning in the development of aeronautical technology.
In September of 1903 the Flyer machine was ready for testing but in flight failures and corrections to the Flyer led to a three-month delay until flight was finally achieved on December 17th 1903 in Kitty Hawk NC, a very important date and place in the history of flight. The Wright Brothers made four successful flights that day. The first flight was controlled by Orville while Wilbur stayed on the ground, a distance of 120 feet was covered without touching the ground. The last flight of the day, controlled by Wilbur, covered a distance of more than 200 feet. No flying machine at that time ever flew that far nonstop. Orville and Wilbur Wright are pilots, and they hold the distinction of inventing the first flying machine heavier than air.
For many centuries, human beings always wanted to escape from the ground and fly freely like a bird, many flying machines invented experience failures in taking flight but with research and development of aeronautical technology, the flying machines invented by mankind learned to stay aloft despite the earth gravity.
The Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were working in the bicycle business in Dayton OH when their interest for flight began. They inquired in the Smithsonian foundation for aeronautical principles and queried the US Weather Bureau about a place where testing flying objects would be possible. They chose Kitty Hawk in North Carolina because that area was sandy and hilly, thus a practicable place for them to do their experiences.
It was in 1899 that they traveled from Dayton to Kitty Hawk. They built in 1900 their first glider and started testing the capability of their invention to fly by observing the speed and direction of the clouds in the sky. They built a year later another glider to pursue further flight testing. They found out that flight was achieved by an airflow around the wing, they reasoned that the pilot of the flying machine had to move sideways to balance the center of gravity should the airflow increase the lift on one wing and not the other, so they invented the device called flight controls. The flight controls showed that it helped them move upwards, downwards, to the left and to the right while staying aloft. But another question arises: how would the new invented flying device move forward should there be no wind? They found a solution: they built with the help of a colleague from Dayton a 12 hp engine with gasoline and reasoned that a blade held vertically and spinning around an axis would create a force that would make the craft move forward. All their research subject and study were put together, this is how the flying machine called "airplane" was invented. This was the beginning in the development of aeronautical technology.
In September of 1903 the Flyer machine was ready for testing but in flight failures and corrections to the Flyer led to a three-month delay until flight was finally achieved on December 17th 1903 in Kitty Hawk NC, a very important date and place in the history of flight. The Wright Brothers made four successful flights that day. The first flight was controlled by Orville while Wilbur stayed on the ground, a distance of 120 feet was covered without touching the ground. The last flight of the day, controlled by Wilbur, covered a distance of more than 200 feet. No flying machine at that time ever flew that far nonstop. Orville and Wilbur Wright are pilots, and they hold the distinction of inventing the first flying machine heavier than air.
