Wright Brothers' Flyer (1903)

The Wright brothers inaugurated the aerial age with the world's first successful flights of a powered heavier-than-air flying machine. The Wright Flyer was the product of a sophisticated four-year program of research and development conducted by Wilbur and Orville Wright beginning in 1899. After building and testing three full-sized gliders, the Wrights' first powered airplane flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, making a 12-second flight, traveling 120 ft, with Orville piloting. The best flight of the day, with Wilbur at the controls, covered 852 ft in 59 seconds.

The Wrights pioneered many of the basic tenets and techniques of modern aeronautical engineering, such as the use of a wind tunnel and flight testing as design tools. Their seminal accomplishment encompassed not only the breakthrough first flight of an airplane, but also the equally important achievement of establishing the foundation of aeronautical engineering.

The Wright brothers had many problems with their flyer designs. The first of these that the brothers would have to learn to fly the airplane in three dimensions -- it could not be chauffeured about like an automobile. Also, its light weight made the flyer vulnerable to wind. It was just barely capable of flight. Its four-cylinder engine had just enough horsepower to get the Flyer airborne and sustain it for each of the four short flights, the only ones it ever made. During its the last flight, a gust of wind lifted up the Wright Flyer and it went crashing across the sand. It was severely damaged and would never be flown again. However, the Wright brothers accomplished what they set out to do. They demonstrated that basic techniques could in fact fly heavier-than-air aircrafts. It proved the Wrights' theories, and this classic airplane set them a decade in advance of all other inventors pursuing the dream of flight.

Sadly, the vast majority of people, especially in Europe, continued to consider the Wrights liars. The Wrights, properly insulted, stopped flying in November 1905 and did not resume until 1908. When they resumed, it was with a style and grace that amazed the aviation world.

An Interesting Fact:

Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, made an arrangement with the National U.S. Air Force Museum to take a small piece of wood from the propeller of the Wright Brother's 1903 Flyer, as well as a 8x13 inch piece of muslin fabric from the left wing, with him into space.