The free flight of the birds in the air has always lured man to scale up through the sky, rove into its mysteries and unleashed himself in the space. The mysteries in the sky are thrilling even to think about. Quite early in history, man started wondering if he could fly like birds and move from horizon to horizon. Stories are there in the myths of almost all cultures on earth, that tell about man’s dream to fly like birds in the sky.
And today, the sky is no more a big deal for man. Man has moved beyond the airspace, and landed on the moon. Planets are under his watch and vigil as objects of study and research. Flight, a boon technology man invented, has made it all possible.
The story of the first powered flight goes back to the Wright Brothers. By powered flight, we mean a flight aided by an automatic engine. The two brothers Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright were the first to successfully fly an airplane even though for a short duration.
Wilbur and Orville Wright, who were the first to open the long deserted lanes of the air to mankind, were born in Dayton, Ohio. Their father, a clergyman and later a bishop, spent his spare time reading scientific books and inventing. He attempted to invent an improved typewriter. However, he never finished doing so. He inspired an interest in scientific principles in the Wright brothers by giving them toys which would stimulate their curiosity. One of these toys was a helicopter model, which would rise and flutter in the air.
After making several helicopters models of their own, the Wright brothers started making original models of kites, and Orville Wright, the younger brother, attained an exceptional skill in flying them. Orville and Wilbur Wright also designed and built their own bicycles and astonishing their neighbors by public appearances on a specially designed tandem.
The boys continued to be interested in mechanical things and flight. Orville sold kites at school to made money. Wilbur started reading all he could about how birds flew and machines worked.
Though the boys were good students, neither of them graduated from high school. Wilbur was hit in the face with a baseball bat when he was a teenager and suffered from irregular heartbeats the rest of his life. He stayed at home for awhile, during which, their mother developed tuberculosis. Tuberculosis those days was considered a killer disease, as its cure had not been invented yet. Wilbur recovered himself and then stayed at home to care for his mother. Orville left high school on his own, to start a printing business. He and Wilbur designed a printing press that worked very well. The two later sold the printing business and opened a bicycle shop. They were both very good mechanics and could fix just about anything anyone asked them to fix. They inherited this skill and desire from their mother, who was from the family of mechanics.
The work with the bicycles made them think that with skill, an unstable device like a flying machine could be controlled. They tried to test this conviction with gliders that boosted their spirit up. Already inquisitive as they were their insight in cycle and gliders prepared them for one of the greatest inventions ever made by man: the flight.
They wanted to develop a machine that could fly with an automated engine, and could be controlled manually. However they chose to start with gliders.
The brothers began their experimentation in flight in 1896 at their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. They selected the beach at Kitty Hawk as their proving ground because of the constant wind that added lift to their craft. In 1902 they came to the beach with their glider and made more than 700 successful flights.
Having perfected glided flight, the next step was to move to powered flight. No automobile manufacturer could supply an engine both light enough and powerful enough for their needs. So they designed and built their own. All of their hard work, experimentation and innovation came together that December day as they took to the sky and forever changed the course of history. The brothers notified several newspapers prior to their historic flight, but only one – a local journal – made mention of the event.
So when the first powered flight was successful in history, the Wright brothers got a tremendous boost in their confidence. Starting from the first 12 seconds flight in December 1903, in the machine named Flyer, they managed to fly for over 5 minutes just 11 months later. The machine was named Flyer-II this time.
The story of Flyer –I goes like this. The brothers built a larger version of their 1902 glider, and added propellers and power. On 14 December they tossed a coin to determine that Wilbur would be the pilot. A crew lugged the plane up a big hill and laid about 30 meters of away. The plane went too fast down the track, and Orville, running alongside to hold it steady, could not keep up. A wing hit the ground and the plane broke. However, the Wrights now knew that it would work.
In two days the plane had been repaired, and on 17December 1903 the wind was right. It was Orville’s turn to be the pilot this time. They had realized that it would be better to lay the track on flat ground, and Wilbur was able to remain running alongside keeping the right wing steady. The plane lifted off the monorail and flew for 12 seconds, travelling over 37 meters (120 feet). It was the first controlled, sustained flight in a heavier-than-air craft.
The brothers made three more flights that day, covering more distance each time. The final flight was by Wilbur, travelling about 177 1/2 meters (852 feet) in 59 seconds. The Wright brothers launched humankind into the age of flight.
Their efforts received a setback when in 1908; a passenger was killed when he was flying with Orville Wright in their two-seater plane due to a crash landing, but they continued to improve upon their invention. Just after 8 years of their first flight going 120 feet, their plane now crossed the whole of United States. Of course this was not a continuous flight but took 84 days in which the aircraft landed and took-off nearly 70 times, yet it was the platform for further development in aviation.