One hundred twenty years ago next Sunday - December 17, 1903 - history was made by two unknown brothers who changed the world on an isolated sand dune off the windswept coast of North Carolina. Bachelors Wilbur and Orville Wright were in the bicycle business back in Dayton, Ohio, but had been conducting aeronautical experiments for three years, and testing gliders to prove their theory that powered, heavier-than-air flight was possible. The ability of the Wright brothers to analyze a heretofore unsolved problem and move toward a solution was apparent from the start. They realized that their successful airplane would require wings to generate lift, a propulsion system to move it through the air, and a system to control the craft in flight. With the major aerodynamic and control problems behind them, the brothers pressed forward with the construction of their first powered machine. They designed and built a four-cylinder internal-combustion engine with the assistance of Charles Taylor, a machinist whom they employed in their bicycle shop (and who would therefore become the world’s first airplane mechanic). Here’s more about that momentous event and what came next.
Beginning in September of 1903, the Wright brothers returned to the camp they had set up near Kill Devil Hills and spent seven weeks assembling, testing, and repairing their powered machine. Wilbur made the first attempt at powered flight on December 14, but he stalled the aircraft on takeoff and damaged the forward section of the machine. Three days were spent making repairs and waiting for the return of good weather. Then, at about 10:35 on the morning of December 17, Orville made the first successful flight, covering 120 feet through the air in 12 seconds. (The length of that first flight would fit within the fuselage of a Boeing 747). Wilbur next flew 175 feet in 12 seconds on his first attempt, followed by Orville’s second effort of 200 feet in 15 seconds. During the fourth and final flight of the day, Wilbur flew 852 feet over the sand in 59 seconds. The four flights were witnessed and photographed by local citizens, proving for the first time in history, that a heavier-than-air machine had demonstrated powered and sustained flight under the pilot's complete control.
The brothers were determined to move from the marginal success of their first flights to a practical airplane. Over the next several years, the Wrights built and flew two more aircraft from Huffman Prairie, a pasture near their Dayton hometown. They continued to improve the design of their machine during these years, gaining skill and confidence in the air. By October of 1905, the brothers could remain aloft for up to 39 minutes at a time, performing circles and other maneuvers. Then, no longer able to hide the extent of their success from the press, and concerned that the essential features of their machine would be understood and copied by knowledgeable observers, the Wrights decided to cease flying and remain on the ground until their invention was protected by patents and they had negotiated a contract for its sale.
The claim made by the Wright brothers to have flown was widely doubted during the years 1906–07. During that period, a handful of European and American pioneers struggled into the air in machines that were actually designed on the basis of an incomplete understanding of the Wright’s technology. Meanwhile, the brothers, confident they retained a commanding lead over their rivals, continued to negotiate with financiers and government purchasing agents in both the US and Europe. In February of 1908 the Wrights signed a contract for the sale of an airplane to the US Army. They would receive $25,000 (about $836,000 in today’s dollars) for delivering a machine capable of flying for at least one hour with a pilot and passenger at an average speed of 40 miles per hour.
The following month, they signed a second agreement with a group of French investors interested in building and selling Wright machines under license. With the new aircraft that they would fly in America and France ready for assembly, the Wright brothers returned to Kill Devil Hills in May of 1908, where they made 22 flights with their old 1905 machine, modified with upright seating and hand controls. On May 14, Wilbur carried aloft the first airplane passenger—mechanic Charles Furnas. Wilbur then sailed to France, where he captured the Europeans' admiration with his first public flight; which took place over the Hunaudières Race Course near Le Mans on August 8, 1908. During the months that followed, the continent's elite traveled to watch Wilbur fly at several locations in both France and Italy.
Orville began the US Army trials at Fort Myer, Virginia, with a flight on September 3, 1908. Fourteen days later, a split propeller precipitated a crash that badly injured him and killed his passenger, Lieut. Thomas E. Selfridge. During the course of his recovery, Orville and his sister Katharine visited Wilbur in Europe. Together, the brothers later returned to Fort Myer to complete the Army trials in 1909. Having exceeded the required speed of 40 miles per hour, the Wrights earned a bonus of $5,000 beyond their $25,000 contract price. Following their successful Fort Myer trials, Orville traveled to Germany, where he flew at Berlin and Potsdam. Wilbur made several important flights as part of New York City’s Hudson-Fulton Celebration, then went to College Park, Maryland, where he taught the first three US Army officers to fly. After the summer of 1909, Wilbur focused his energies on business and legal activities. He took the lead in bringing a series of lawsuits in both the US and Europe against rival aircraft builders whom the brothers believed had infringed upon their patent rights. The era of the lawsuits came to an effective end however, in 1917, when the Wright patents expired in France and the US Government created a patent pool in the interest of national defense.
Exhausted by business and legal concerns and suffering from typhoid fever, Wilbur passed away early on the morning of May 30, 1912. Orville then assumed leadership of the Wright Company, remaining with the firm until 1915, when he sold his interest in the company to a group of financiers. One of the most celebrated Americans of his time, Orville received honorary degrees and awards from universities and organizations across America and Europe. He disliked public speaking, however, and enjoyed nothing more than spending time with friends and family in the privacy of his home and laboratory in Dayton or at his Canadian vacation retreat on Georgian Bay. During the last four decades of his life he devoted considerable energy to defending the legitimacy of the Wright brothers as the inventors of the airplane. A long-running feud with the leadership of the Smithsonian Institution was particularly noteworthy. During the years prior to World War I, Smithsonian officials claimed that the third secretary of the institution, Samuel Langley, had constructed a machine “capable” of flight prior to the Wrights’ success in December of 1903. Unable to obtain a retraction of this claim by 1928, Orville lent the restored 1903 airplane to the Science Museum in London and did not consent to bringing the airplane back to the US until after the Smithsonian offered an apology in 1942.
On January 27, 1948, Orville suffered a heart attack and passed away three days later in a Dayton hospital. There is perhaps no better epitaph for both of the Wright brothers than the words crafted by a group of their friends to appear as a label identifying the 1903 Wright airplane on display at the Smithsonian: “By original scientific research, the Wright brothers discovered the principles of human flight. As inventors, builders and flyers, they further developed the aeroplane, taught man to fly, and opened the era of aviation.”
Until next time…safe travels.
Wow, those guys were amazing! They certainly changed the world and flight as we know it. Thanks again for the info.
Hard to credit that it was only 120 years ago that we took to the air! Wow!