Wright Brothers And The First Flight

Flight is almost a universal human aspiration, at some point a in person’s life they will wish to elevate themselves above their environment. The Wright brothers invented and flew the first airplane in 1903, according to many online sources, it was recognized as 'the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight.’ Airplanes are important because they are capable of transporting parcels as well as people to and from different destinations across the planet. Before the dawn of safe and convenient travel by airplane, journeys took much longer and were more difficult. The invention of airplanes did not come without trials and failures; however, over the years a lot has been done to perfect these machines and the industry by; henceforth becoming the safest form of transportation helping to propel us towards the future; even though, these inventions have harmed our planet on an environmental level. Wilbur Wright was born on April 16th, 1867 in Millville, Indiana and his younger brother Orville Wright on August 19th, 1871 in Dayton, Ohio. A bright and studios child Wilbur excelled in school, with dreams of going to YALE University after high school. In 1885 an accident happened that would change the course of his life and plunged him into depression causing him to not get his high school diploma and retreated to his family home. In 1889 the brothers started their own newspaper, the West Side News. Wilbur edited the paper and Orville was the publisher. The brothers also shared a passion for bicycles — a new craze that was sweeping the country. In 1892, Wilbur and Orville opened a bike shop, fixing bicycles and later selling their own designs. Within their spare time the brothers became obsessed with another form of transportation, flying. Always working on different mechanical projects and keeping up with scientific research, the Wright brothers closely followed the research of German aviator Otto Lilienthal.

When Lilienthal died in a glider crash, the brothers decided to start their own experiments with flight. It is very seldom in history to see anybody take such a complicated problem as the Wright brothers did and make such tremendous progress in a very brief time. In 1901 the brothers gathered all the aerodynamic data they needed to build a successful flying machine and flew the largest glider ever flown in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina however, many problems occurred, so they decided to build a wind tunnel based on Francis Wenham research to test a variety of wing shape and there effect on lift. In 1902 they built their last glider based on this data. They had identified a wing shape that was efficient, producing the expected lift and engineered controls that were responsive, the glider would also use a trailing rudder for yaw enabling the brothers to navigate in all three dimensions. Following their success, the brothers moved on to powered flight. They needed a powerful yet light enough engine for their airplane, but no automobile could supply an engine that fitted their criteria, so they had to design and built their own engine. The flyer was designed in a biplane configuration. After two attempts to fly their new engine powered glider, one of which resulted a minor crash, Orville Wright took the flyer on a twelve second sustained flight on December 17, 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This is the first successful controlled powered and sustained heavier than air flight in history. On November 9, 1904 Wilbur Wright broke that record after flying for more than five minutes.