“With that brief flight, the first ever made by a heavier-than-air machine, man was freed from the bonds that held him close to Mother Earth from the beginning of time, and glimpsed the realization of his oldest, boldest dream ... the conquest of the air.”
The moment when that homemade plane rose from the ground was akin to others that heralded epochs in the progress of mankind. Crude as it was, that first plane represented an almost incredible amount of preparation. Gliders had been designed, constructed and flown to gain technical data and piloting technique; a satisfactory system of control had been discovered; a wind tunnel and balance had been built to amplify flight data; an aircraft engine sufficiently light in weight had been developed; and finally an aeroplane had been designed and built. All these things were accomplished in about three years. As one challenge followed another, the Wrights met them all and from their first flight went on to the further development of their invention.
The engines used in the first Wright planes were built by Orville and Wilbur and had four cylinders. This is the original engine from the 1903 plane.
The restored 1905 Wright plane in Wright Hall.
The Wrights learn to fly
Although the first flight took place at Kitty Hawk, the Wrights themselves always said that they really learned to fly on Huffman Prairie east of Dayton on the present site of Wright-Patterson Field. Having proved that they could fly even if for a maximum of less than a minute, they now set out to build a more practical and useful machine. They reasoned that if they could fly 852 feet against a 20-mile wind as they did in the fourth flight at Kitty Hawk, it should be possible to build a plane which would fly much farther.
The plane in which the first flight was made was called the Kitty Hawk. Construction of its immediate successor began in January, 1904. It was much the same as the one flown at Kitty Hawk but there were a number of changes and the construction was more sturdy throughout. This plane was equipped with an entirely new engine. Because of a shortage of spruce in Dayton they changed to white pine for spar construction, thinking it would be equally good. However, the pine broke in actual use and the wings had to be entirely rebuilt.
