The Wright Brothers

“As scientists, they discovered the secret of flight. As inventors, builders and flyers, they brought aviation to the world.”

On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the first power-driven heavier-than-air machine ever to achieve sustained flight rose from its starting track and in 12 seconds soared through the air for a distance of 120 feet. Short as this flight was, it nevertheless marked the beginning of man’s conquest of the air. Orville Wright was at the controls; Wilbur Wright balanced the machine at the take-off. This picture records for posterity an epochal event witnessed by just seven men, the Wright brothers themselves and five others who, more than they knew, stood that day on the threshold of history. The Age of Flight, with its miracle of service, began in an obscure little bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. Here two devoted brothers, working amid tires, wheels and air pumps, dreamed that man could fly in a heavier-than-air machine. The names of these two brothers who wrote themselves indelibly into history, were Wilbur and Orville Wright.

The story of the Wright brothers is an inspiring narrative of success. Wilbur and Orville combined to a rare degree the searching intelligence of the scientist, the ability to visualize of the inventor, and the practical craftsmanship of the builder. In addition they had great personal courage.

The Wright brothers were by no means the first who sought the secret of flight. Particularly in Europe, able men had delved deep and risked much in the effort to fly like a bird. Certain theories of aerodynamics had been developed and were generally accepted as accurate. One of the major setbacks to the hopes of the Wrights was the discovery, through their own experiments, that these previously accepted theories were incorrect.

This meant that they had to start from the beginning and develop their own tables of air pressures. Two developments of the Wrights made it possible to build an aeroplane that would fly. One was a crude wind tunnel and the other was an ingenious set of balances made out of old hack saw blades and bicycle spokes. With these comparatively crude instruments, they compiled data which made flight possible.