Posted on 12/17/2023 1:21:58 PM PST by DoodleBob
The world's first flight officially took off from North Carolina’s Outer Banks on this day in history, Dec. 17, 1903.
The Wright brothers were allegedly the first to successfully fly a powered and controlled airplane in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, after years of experimenting with the concept of flight.
Brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright began testing out flying in 1899, while Samuel Langley of the Smithsonian did the same, according to the National Park Service (NPS).
Langley’s attempts were underwritten by the War Department yet were unsuccessful, since his efforts relied on the brute power of the machines to keep suspended in air.
But the Wrights’ vision that humans would have to oversee operating the planes themselves solved the issue, NPS recorded.
The duo developed a concept called "wing warping," according to History.com.
That concept emulated the angle of bird wings.
Wilbur Wright famously said, "It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill."
The brothers took more than 1,000 glides from the top of Big Kill Devil Hill, which made the Wrights the first true pilots, NPS said.
…
Wilbur Wright won the opportunity to fly first in a coin toss — so it was little brother Orville Wright’s turn to give it a go.
Even though the 27mph winds weren’t ideal, the pair signaled the volunteers from a nearby lifesaving station that they were about to try again.
…
Orville Wright released the restraining wire at 10:35 a.m. as he moved down the rail and left the ground.
Lifesaving station employee John Daniels snapped the iconic photo of the Wright plane taking off on a preset camera.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“..Surely they must have stolen flying from some non-white inventor somewhere or other....”
Why yes. Yes, they did. Don’tchaknow: allegedly from some little-known, sub-saharan desert, African, migrant tribe that would annually migrate their entire tribe, including the little ones, across the entire desert by use of bird wings.
The white supremacists saw it, stole it, brought it to America and capitalized on it.
I agree. I have been to the College Park Airport and museum. I live near where some of the Civil War Era balloon flights occurred.
Indeed. No CREDIBLE prior claims have been made.
On April 17, 1944, Howard Hughes and TWA (Trans World Airlines) president Jack Frye flew a prototype Lockheed Constellation airliner from Burbank, California, to Washington, D.C., in 6 hours and 58 minutes, breaking the transcontinental speed record, and averaging 331mph.
On April 26, during the return trip, the aircraft stopped at Wright Field in Dayton to pick up a very special passenger: Orville Wright.
https://www.daytonlocal.com/blog/history/orville-wrights-final-flight.asp
Let me recommend All Blood Runs Red, about the heroic life of Eugene Bullard. One issue discussed was how much progress in aviation happened in France, since American progress was hamstrung by the legal shenanigans of the Bishop's Boys.
https://www.amazon.com/All-Blood-Runs-Red-Bullard_Boxer/dp/133501666X/
Yeah, the Wrights were furious. The whole thing reads like a spy novel at times. Even Henry Ford got involved, on Curtiss’ side. In the late ‘20s the federal government stepped in to force a settlement on the Wrights, which is why there is a Curtiss-Wright Corporation making all sorts of defense stuff today.
Curtiss was a real genius. He invented all sorts of stuff, and almost never bothered with patents. My personal favorite Curtiss invention is the motorcycle twistgrip for throttle control.
Another bone I have to pick with that maroon: The Wrights’ gliders certainly did not make them “the first airplane pilots”.
Just for starters, Otto Lilienthal had been flying hang gliders in Germany for years. The Wrights used a great deal of his data in developing their own “Flyer”.
Octave Chanute was another aviation researcher who was flying man-carrying biplane gliders on the dunes of Lake Michigan in the 1890s. The Wrights’ “Flyer” copied his biplane design.
article was written by morons:
1. their’s was the first HEAVIER than air flight, not first flight ...
2. their machine’s wings were SHAPED like bird wings not “angled” like bird wings ...
.
Oh wow... Cool factoid!
And Wilbur lost his baggage.......................
I think there’s a nice photo of Orville, Howard, and Kelly Johnson taken inside the plane, in the memoir “More Than My Share”.
Thank you!
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