*Ø* Blogmanac | The flight of fantasy
By Ray Comiskey
One hundred years ago today, the Wright brothers made aviation history on a North Carolina beach
"There were only five curious locals on the beach that morning, which was hardly surprising. It was a cold, bleak, windy December day, and a couple of bicycle manufacturers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, were attempting to do something that had never been achieved before in human history - piloted, powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine.
"To the casually interested, the odds must have seemed stacked against them. In a widely publicised attempt only nine days earlier, Samuel Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, saw his steam-powered machine, heavily financed by the US government, break up almost immediately on take off. His pilot finished up in Washington's Potomac River. The stinging shame, which clung to Langley and the Smithsonian for years afterwards, was to lead to a feud between the institute and the Wright brothers that lasted almost 40 years.
"The Wrights had already had their own failures. On December 14th they made an attempt to fly, tossing a coin for the honour of who would try first. Wilbur won, but their machine failed, which was why it was Orville who got into the unpromising-looking Flyer three days later. At 10.35 on the morning of December 17th, he took off on a stretch of sand just north of Big Kill Devil Hill near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and flew for 12 seconds, covering 120 feet. Later that day, alternating at the controls, they made three more flights. The next two covered 175 and 200 feet respectively. On the final flight of the day, Wilbur stayed up for 59 seconds and covered an astonishing 852 feet, before a crash from an altitude of 30 feet put an end to the day's work.
"Behind that achievement, however, were no gifted amateurs. The brothers, focused, methodical, practical and intelligent, had been fascinated by the problem of making a flying machine ever since they were boys, when their father, Milton, a minister and later a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, brought them home a toy "hélicoptère".
"For the next few years, Wilbur, born in Milville, Indiana in 1867, and Orville, born in Dayton, Ohio in 1871, tried to build a toy flying machine. Largely unsuccessful, they turned to kite making. Orville also started his own printing business in 1888, where, with Wilbur's help, he designed and built a printing press. After their mother, Susan, died in 1889, they sold the printing business and opened a shop to sell and repair bicycles. Brilliant at anything mechanical, they saw the business expand into manufacturing and, crucially, the money it generated helped support their early aeronautical research and experiments ...
"For better or worse a new era was emphatically launched. Little more than five years later, planes were in action over the trenches of the first World War, first for reconnaissance and guiding artillery fire, and finally for dogfighting; sometimes even with pistols at eyeball distance. The rest is civil and military aviation history."
Source: The Irish Times
By Ray Comiskey
"There were only five curious locals on the beach that morning, which was hardly surprising. It was a cold, bleak, windy December day, and a couple of bicycle manufacturers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, were attempting to do something that had never been achieved before in human history - piloted, powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine.
"To the casually interested, the odds must have seemed stacked against them. In a widely publicised attempt only nine days earlier, Samuel Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, saw his steam-powered machine, heavily financed by the US government, break up almost immediately on take off. His pilot finished up in Washington's Potomac River. The stinging shame, which clung to Langley and the Smithsonian for years afterwards, was to lead to a feud between the institute and the Wright brothers that lasted almost 40 years.
"The Wrights had already had their own failures. On December 14th they made an attempt to fly, tossing a coin for the honour of who would try first. Wilbur won, but their machine failed, which was why it was Orville who got into the unpromising-looking Flyer three days later. At 10.35 on the morning of December 17th, he took off on a stretch of sand just north of Big Kill Devil Hill near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and flew for 12 seconds, covering 120 feet. Later that day, alternating at the controls, they made three more flights. The next two covered 175 and 200 feet respectively. On the final flight of the day, Wilbur stayed up for 59 seconds and covered an astonishing 852 feet, before a crash from an altitude of 30 feet put an end to the day's work.
"Behind that achievement, however, were no gifted amateurs. The brothers, focused, methodical, practical and intelligent, had been fascinated by the problem of making a flying machine ever since they were boys, when their father, Milton, a minister and later a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, brought them home a toy "hélicoptère".
"For the next few years, Wilbur, born in Milville, Indiana in 1867, and Orville, born in Dayton, Ohio in 1871, tried to build a toy flying machine. Largely unsuccessful, they turned to kite making. Orville also started his own printing business in 1888, where, with Wilbur's help, he designed and built a printing press. After their mother, Susan, died in 1889, they sold the printing business and opened a shop to sell and repair bicycles. Brilliant at anything mechanical, they saw the business expand into manufacturing and, crucially, the money it generated helped support their early aeronautical research and experiments ...
"For better or worse a new era was emphatically launched. Little more than five years later, planes were in action over the trenches of the first World War, first for reconnaissance and guiding artillery fire, and finally for dogfighting; sometimes even with pistols at eyeball distance. The rest is civil and military aviation history."
Source: The Irish Times
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