Humankind Finally Flies

The Wright brothers achieve the impossible. For the first time in known history man achieves the ability of flight. On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright piloted the first engine powered airplane over a Kitty Hawk Beach in North Carolina.

"I found the control of the front rudder quite difficult on account of its being balanced too near the center and thus had a tendency to turn itself when started so that the rudder was turned too far on one side and then too far on the other. As a result the machine would rise suddenly to about 10 ft. and then as suddenly, on turning the rudder, dart for the ground," said Orville Wright.

The first flight lasted less than 15 seconds, but the machine powered aircraft flew over a span of 120 feet. However, a subsequent slight piloted by Wilbur lasted 59 seconds and flew over 852 feet, a record breaking distance of a man-made aircraft. A strong gust of natural wind aided Wilbur on the distance he was able to achieve on the third trial. 

With the aid of the station men present they were able to physically carry the machine back to the starting point for each new test. By the fourth test, Wilbur was able to travel between 3-4 hundred feet with much better control than the previous tests. The tests continued in this manner until the aircraft reached 8 hundred feet and suddenly crashed into the sand. Some of the staring mechanisms suffered damage, but the mainframe was largely unharmed.