An aeroplane was born.
On 17th December 1903, near Kill Devil Hills in the vicinity of Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, for the first time in history a heavier-than-air powered aircraft, successfully took from the ground. It was the Wilbur and Orville Wright’s aeroplane, called Flyer I.
During the first, historic flight that lasted 12 seconds, the aircraft, with Orville Wright at the controls, covered the distance of 37 metres (120 feet). Later that day, the Wright brothers performed three more trials, improving the results consecutively by 53 metres (175 feet), 61 metres (200 feet) and finally, 260 metres (852 feet), with the longest of flights lasting 59 seconds.
During the last landing the front elevator supports were damaged. The Wright brothers planned to fix it, but unfortunately, soon the Flyer I sustained more, substantial damage, because of a heavy wind gust and was never flown again.
However, the Wrights didn’t give up and kept working on their further aircraft projects, resulting in completing the Flyer II (with the first flight performed in May of 1904) and the Flyer III (the first flight on 23rd June 1905).
Photo: ´Seconds into the first airplane flight, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; December 17, 1903´, for the first time published in 1908, via Wikipedia (Public Domain)
