Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903 was a desolate, windy, sandy beach populated by a few hardy souls and a tough-as-nails Life Saving Service team whose job it was to save those whose ships had floundered on the shoals around Cape Hatteras . It was close to Christmas and Wilbur and Orville Wright were supposed to be home in Ohio to be with their families over the holidays. Time was running out but there was a break in the weather. This was their chance. They dressed in their best clothes that morning: ties, suit jackets and hats - ready for their first flight. Men from the Life Saving Service were there, ready to help with anything and to be the only witnesses to their flight.
‘Hey, John, can you take this picture with the camera for us?’ Wilbur asked
John Daniels, one of the Life Saving crew, admitted that he had never seen a camera before.
‘That’s OK, all you need to do is to squeeze this bulb when we get off the ground.’ Wilbur replied.
Orville got into the plane and positioned himself between the two bars that controlled the wings. He put his hand on the control for the front ‘elevator’ wings and his other hand on the front bar, to hold on for dear life when the plane took off. He started the motor. Wilbur held onto the wing and ran with it as the motor revved up. As the plane gathered speed, he let go, the plane lifted off and flew - 12 seconds and 120 feet. The second flight was 12 seconds and 175 feet. The third was 15 seconds, 200 feet but the 4th was 59 seconds and 852 feet.
‘WOW! Damned if they ain’t flew’ said one of the crew.
Breathlessly, Wilbur turned to John, ‘ Did you see that? Did you get the picture?’ he asked.
‘Oh, no, I forgot.’
Then, as they all stood around marveling at what they had just done, the wind caught the plane, turned it, rolled it over and damaged it beyond repair. It also hit John Daniels - the first airplane accident victim. They forgot to tie down the plane.
Oh, no, the first ever airplane flight and no picture and no plane. But, when the Wrights got home and developed their pictures, they found this one picture - John had squeezed the bulb for this memorable picture. Plus, they could always make another plane. And John was OK.
4 years and countless hours thinking and working on an airplane that could fly and they had done it. They had done the impossible. They had flown and controlled the flight. What an amazing accomplishment.
Our first stop out here on Cape Hatteras was at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. Now, I know that they were the first to fly but I suppose I didn’t really understand how they really did it. This memorial does a wonderful job of explaining the problems they conquered, how their airplane worked and why they were the first.
We got there in time to wander through the museum there before the Ranger talk at 1:00. And what a talk it was. He was so good and we were so enthralled with his talk that we attended his second one at 3:00. He stood in a circular auditorium in front of a model of the Wright Brothers airplane and explained how it flew and how they had put their ideas into operation.
Who would have thought that two guys who owned a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, without a high school diploma between them would be the first to fly? But they did. They were the first, right here in Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Hey, the first question is why would they choose here? It’s remote, there were no roads through the island, you have to take a boat to even get out to the island and there were few people around. But, the Outer Banks had something that few other places had - wind and sand. Wind to help them understand flight, sand for a soft landing in case they didn’t understand flight well enough. Finally, it is remote so no one can see what they are doing and steal their idea. Perfect place.
Once of twice they had to go home to Ohio for some tool or some piece of metal. I’m not sure why they had to go so far: there’s a Lowes right next to the Wright Bros Memorial, where they were camped out to help them with all their mechanical needs and supplies.
It took them 3 years, to perfect their ideas and build a flying machine. They spent summers in the bicycle shop when business was booming and winters in Kill Devil Hills where they could experiment. But they weren’t just selling bicycles in the summer, they were noodling away at their theories and ideas, building, trying things out, watching birds fly. Here’s a picture of a display showing all the different aerofoils they tried. They weren’t just lucky, they worked very hard.
I don’t pretend to understand all of flight but I was intrigued by the Ranger’s analogies. There are 3 things that a pilot in a plane needs to control: pitch: the up and down of the plane, roll; the rotation of the wings for lateral control and yaw: the ability to turn. My favorite part of his speech was when he was describing yaw, how a plane turns. He said look at little birds - they flap their wings like mad and turn, but the Wrights didn’t think that was how a plane would turn. Ah - how about the turkey vulture? If it wants to turn left, it lifts its right wing and lowers its left, when it wants to turn right, it lifts its left wing and lowers its right. Aha. That’s what we can do with our airplane. We’ll just warp the wings a bit and turn.
In 1900, when they first came down here, they had a glider and practiced with that to see how it operated. Mostly they used it as a kite just to see how it operated in the wind.
In 1901, they actually tried using the glider as a glider. (By the way, their glider didn’t just fly to the top of the hill for the second flight, it was carried up there by the Life Saving Service team than was also on the island.) But they had problems with control and went back to Ohio and built a wind tunnel to see how things really operated in the wind.
In 1902, they returned and flew a glider pretty successfully. Now, we need power to keep the plane in the air.
In 1903, they put an engine on it and tried it out.
We wandered through the museum, checking out the displays. I met Kameron at this mini diorama. She really likes things like this. Look at the little footprints she said. ‘I like the details.’ We talked about for a bit they she told me that I had to see Pearl Harbor. She is originally from Hawaii and has seen it several times.
The Memorial has a 60’ granite Monument to Flight at the top of Big Kill Devil Hill where they perfected their glider skills.
There is a reconstructed hanger where they kept their plane, ate and often slept in burlap slings hanging from the ceiling.
There’s a large boulder at the site where the plane took off and markers along a walkway marking each flight. We walked these distances, wondering at how short the flights were and how far they had come.
In back of the Monument is this absolutely cool sculpture in bronze and steel. There’s Orville in the plane, there’s Wilbur who’s just let go of the wing, there are the Life Saving Team and there’s John Oliver, the photographer and accident victim.
There is also an airstrip where planes can land and pilots can pay their homage to the men who gave them their wings.
It took thousands of years for man to fly 12 seconds, but only 66 years after that for man to reach the moon.
The inscription at the base of the Monument to Flight says ‘In commemoration of the conquest of the air by the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright, conceived by genius, achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith.’ Pretty well says it all.
‘After hearing two eyewitness accounts of the same accident, you begin to wonder about history.’
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