I love history! I love to read and study it.
I believe that we can learn from the past and often the past repeats itself (often because we haven't paid attention to it and so we make the same mistakes)
Today I would like to bring your attention to an incident that took place 111 years ago TODAY!
On December 17th, 1903, one hundred and eleven years ago this year to the day, Orville Wright piloted the first powered airplane that he and his brother, Wilbur Wright, had made.
The flight took place in Kitty Hawk, Ohio.
The Wright's plane was named Wright Flyer I, cost $1,000, had a 40-foot wingspan and weighed about 600 pounds without the pilot.
The flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.
Wilbur also piloted the craft that day and of their 4 flights he piloted the longest which covered 852 feet in 59 seconds.
Now, some will argue that there were others that had flown powered airplane. A Brazilian-born aviator named Alberto Santos-Dumont was the first to "publicly" fly at a Paris exhibition on 1906. And a man named Samuel Langley believed his plan was invented before the Wrights' plane was. And it may have been, but it failed its first test.
One reason for the confusion was that the Wrights kept some secrecy about their flights in 1903 for the fear that others would steal their technology before it was patented.
In any case, this day is one that changed the way we do things in our world today.
This is an interesting video about the Wright brothers. It has some footage of some of their flights...I do not believe that the footage is of their first flight though.
This is also a very interesting account of the first flights, some of it told by Orville Wright himself.
I hope you enjoyed this little history lesson!
