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 ...
Ping
We visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial this past May. Very much worth our time.
https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/index.htm
There is no “allegedly” about it.
The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, alpha sort:
Wow. 120 years.
Time sure flies!!!
More of that damn white supremacy!
Oh, but they were white. Surely they must have stolen flying from some non-white inventor somewhere or other.
The Wright Brothers were black.
I see what you did there.
I agree. In addition the museum in Dayton, Ohio, is worth a visit.
https://www.nps.gov/daav/index.htm
I had fun flying the Wright brothers flyer when Microsoft came out whit their flight simulator. It was fairly accurate in flight characteristics and pretty hard to get it off the ground I remember. But the graphics were good and it did give you a sense of what it would have been like to make that first flight. :)
OBX has some wicked winds
December 18th flight was delayed due to crew staffing issues and a trend was born...
;]
And gay!
Haven’t been there, but did visit USAF Museum @ Wright-Pat. Buckt list place.
The balloonists were attached to the Corps of Engineers, which was headquartered in Washington, DC. The very first Army flights were conducted at Ft. Myer, across the river from DC in Arlington, VA. Ft. Myer, however, was already hemmed in by urban development and was far too small to provide a safe test area. They looked for a better location and settled on College Park, at the time a trolley line suburb of DC and still rural enough to provide the necessary space.
This is how College Park, MD, became home to the Army's very first flight school, with Wilber Wright himself training the first pilots. It's also part of the reason why the College Park Airport is the oldest general aviation airport in the U.S. in continuous operation.
The museum is small but there is a lot of early aviation history there. If you are visiting DC and are tired your usual pilgrimage to the Black Lives Matter plaza downtown, check it out. You don't even need to drive; the Museum is just a couple of blocks from the College Park metro station.
I believe Samuel Langley spent around $80K of taxpayer money, and failed. He blamed insufficient funding. The Bishop’s Boys spent $5,000 OF THEIR OWN MONEY. And the rest is history.
The government-funded R101 airship went well over budget, never got tested properly, and went down in flames on its first real flight. It was an earlier example of what happens when you let the politicians overrule the engineers. Like the Challenger disaster. The privately-funded R100 met its objectives, and didn’t kill anyone. For much less money.
NASA’s Space Launch System, a political boondoggle driven by the need to distribute boodle to the maximum number of congressional districts, costs 1000 X as much per orbited pound as the anticipated cost of the SpaceX Starship. Some damn body’s making a buck!
Notice “on this day,” not on this date.
My wife and I were there on April 27. Just missed you.
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