WRIGHT BROTHERS DAY—DECEMBER 17TH
Posted on 10 January 2021
Wilbur Wright (left), 38 years old. Orville Wright (right), age 34 years old. Photographed in 1905. Approximately two years after their life-changing first flight.
“MY BROTHER CLIMBED INTO THE MACHINE. THE MOTOR WAS STARTED. WITH A SHORT DASH DOWN THE RUNWAY, THE MACHINE LIFTED INTO THE AIR AND WAS FLYING. IT WAS ONLY A FLIGHT OF TWELVE SECONDS, AND IT WAS UNCERTAIN, WAVY, CREEPING SORT OF FLIGHT AT BEST; BUT IT WAS A REAL FLIGHT AT LAST AND NOT A GLIDE.”
December 17th
Wilbur and Orville Wright make the world’s first free, controlled, and sustained flights in power-driven, heavier-than-air machine. The four trial flights are witnessed by John T. Daniels, W. S. Dough, and A. D. Etheridge, from the Kill Devil Life Saving Station; W. C. Brinkley, of Manteo, and Johnny Moore, from Nags Head.
10:35 a.m.
First trial by Orville
Time: 12 seconds.
Distance: 120 feet.
Speed: between 7 and 8 miles per hour.
11:00 a.m.
Second trial by Wilbur
Time: approximately 12 seconds.
Distance: approximately 175 feet.
11:40 a.m.
Third trial by Orville
Time: 15 seconds.
Distance: a little over 200 feet.
12:00 p.m.
Fourth trial by Wilbur
Time 59 seconds.
Distance: 852 feet.
Headwinds: 21 m.p.h.
The photograph of the first successful flight was taken by John T. Daniels, one of the witnesses, with Orville Wright’s camera.
Orville’s telegram to his father announcing successful flights transmitted by Joseph J. Dosher, then in charge of Weather Bureau Station at Kitty Hawk, NC, to Weather Bureau Station in Norfolk, VA, in charge of James Gray, who turned it over to Western Union for transmission to Dayton, OH.
