First Flight

Here, from historian Sherwood Harris, is the vivid story of how two shy, conservative brothers from Dayton, Ohio, Orville and Wilbur Wright, became the first people in the world to achieve powered flight. On December 17, they made four flights - of 120, 175, 180, and 852 feet - and they took photographs to prove it, including perhaps the most dramatic aviation picture of all time, showing the first flight just an instant after it became airborne with Orville at the controls.