Kitty Hawk Flight

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On a coastal sand dune at Kitty Hawk, NC on December 17, 1903, two brothers realized mankind’s dream to fly. Not as well known is the part their sister, Katharine, played in their success. Two years earlier in 1901, the prospect of success had not seemed so sure. After Wilbur and Orville’s glider experiments at Kitty Hawk, they returned thoroughly discouraged. Their glider didn’t fly as their calculations on wing lift had predicted. A frustrated Wilbur proclaimed, “Man won’t be flying for a thousand years.”
Shortly after returning home to Dayton, Wilbur received a letter from Octave Chanute, the President of the Western Engineering Society, inviting him to speak at their upcoming meeting of the society. Wilbur knew Chanute and had had previous …show more content…
The pools around their camp were icing up, and the break in the weather might be their last chance of the season. Words were impossible over the engine's roar, so they shook hands and Orville positioned himself on the flyer. Then, on a remote, sandy beach, in the year 1903, he broke our bond to the earth. He flew. It lasted only 12 seconds, and the distance of the flight was less than the length of an airliner. But for the first time, a manned, heavier-than-air machine left the ground by its own power, moved forward under control without losing speed, and landed on a point as high as that from which it started. Within two generations we had taken to the air for routine travel, seen an aircraft break the sound barrier, and watched a man walk on the moon. Without the Wright brothers’ invention, Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart would not have made their solo trans-Atlantic flights until much later. Aircraft would not have been as effective in the world wars, and jet and rocket engines would have been developed later as well. Their planes attracted contracts from the armed forces. The military’s use of planes in warfare changed the essence of combat. All aeroplanes, commercial, military, or otherwise, evolved from the Kitty Hawk Flyer. There are numerous monuments throughout the United States commemorating the historic flight sites and honouring the achievements of Orville and Wilbur. Aeroplanes also appeared as toys and models. The Wright Flyer is also an antecedent to the space shuttle. The Wright brothers made powered flight possible. However, no one will ever know if humans would have been able to fly without the
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