BONUS READ

The Wright brothers Orville Wright conquered the challenge of UP IN flies over Fort Myer, Virginia, flight in four years; in a 1908 public demonstration. convincing the world took longer THEBY DAVID MCCULLOUGH FROMAIR THE WRIGHT BROTHERS

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NE OF THE GREAT unsolved challenges of the 19th engine warmed up. century was controlled human flight. Prominent At 10:35 a.m., Orville slipped engineers, scientists and original thinkers, including the rope restraining the flyer and it headed forward, but not Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, worked very fast, because of the fierce on the problem. None succeeded. headwind. Wilbur had no trou- For more than 50 years, would-be “conquerers of ble keeping up. The total time the air” and their flying machines served as a continuous source of comic airborne was twelve seconds. relief. Among the ideas flooding the U.S. Patent Office was a gigantic, By 11 a.m. the wind had eased O off somewhat. Wilbur took a fishlike machine, propelled by exploding pellets of nitroglycerine. turn and “went off like a bird” “It is a fact,” The Washington Post later declared, “that man can’t fly.” for 175 feet. Orville went again, In no way did any of this discourage brothers Wilbur and Orville flying 200 feet. Near noon, on Wright, owners of a bicycle business in Dayton, Ohio. Nor did the fact the fourth test, Wilbur flew 852 that they had no college education, no formal technical training, no feet through the air in 59 sec- onds, reaching an airspeed of financial backers and little money of their own. Or the possibility that 31 miles per hour. they could be killed. By 1903, their flying machine was ready. Turning Point To their friends in History they were Orv (right) ON DECEMBER 17, 1903, Wilbur, 36, force of 20 to 27 miles per hour, far hey had done it. and Will (left), and Orville, 32, hung a white bedsheet from ideal. It had taken four industrious and on the side of the shed at Kitty Hawk With everything in place, the broth- years, in which virtually on the Carolina coast. It was the sig- ers stood close talking low under an Tthey endured violent inseparable. chine took off under its nal to the men at the Life-Saving Sta- immense overcast sky. Wilbur, at 5 storms, accidents, public own power into the air in tion that their help was needed. Only foot 10, was lean. Orville was a bit indifference or ridicule, and full flight, sailed forward with five men showed up. As Orville later stouter but with the same gray-blue clouds of mosquitoes at their remote no loss of speed, and landed at a point explained, many were apparently eyes. Dressed in their dark caps and sand dune testing ground. No matter. as high as that from which it started. It unwilling to face the “rigors of a cold dark winter jackets, beneath which There was talk of going again, but was one of the turning points in his- December wind to see another flying they wore their customary white shirts, a sudden gust caught the Flyer and tory, the beginning of change for the machine not fly.” starched collars, and dark ties, they tossed it along the sand. It was a total world far greater than any of those The day was freezing cold. Skims could as well have been back home in wreck. The men walked back to the present could possibly have imagined. of ice covered several nearby ponds. Dayton chatting on a street corner. Life-Saving Station. Wilbur and Orville In Dayton, older brother Lorin took Working together, they and the men The two shook hands. Orville posi- ate lunch, then walked four miles to the brothers’ telegram to Frank Tuni- hauled the Flyer to the 60-foot launch- tioned himself on his stomach at the the weather station to send a telegram son, city editor at the Dayton Daily ing track, four two-by-fours sheathed controls, while Wilbur stood at the tip home. “SUCCESS,” it began. Journal. “Fifty-seven seconds,* hey?” with a metal strip and laid end-to-end of the lower right wing of the biplane, Success it most certainly was. And on a flat, level stretch. It ran straight ready to help keep the machine in bal- more. The flights that morning were *A mistake in the telegram’s transmission

into the wind, blowing at nearly a gale ance. Minutes passed while the gas & UNDERWOOD/CORBIS ©UNDERWOOD PHOTO: IMAGES © SSPL/GETTY PHOTO: the first ever in which a piloted ma- caused 59 seconds to become 57.

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about the German gliding enthusiast tem of cords whereby the operator on Otto Lilienthal, who had recently been the ground, using sticks in both hands, killed in an accident. Much that he could control the wings. read he read aloud to Orville. The test demonstrated the efficiency Lilienthal took his lessons from the of their system on control. With “wing birds. He wrote that the secret of “the warping,” or “wing twisting,” Wilbur art of flight” was in their arched or had already made an immensely im- vaulted wings, by which they could portant advance toward their goal. Dec. 17, 1903: ride the wind. Wilbur’s reading on the The central objective was to solve Orville goes flight of birds became intense. the problem of equilibrium, or bal- airborne in the Flyer, On May 30, 1899, Wilbur wrote to ance in flight, the all-important factor. as Wilbur runs alongside. the Smithsonian Institution in Wash- The difficulty was not to get into the air ington to ask for published papers but to stay there. The chief need was on the subject of human flight. “I am skill rather than machinery—and skill about to begin a systematic study of came only from experience in the air. he said. “It if had been 57 minutes, father and sister, with whom the bach- the subject in preparation for practical A year later, in August 1900, the then it might have been a news item.” elor brothers lived, they had tremen- work,” he wrote. From the list of books brothers built a full-sized glider that Elsewhere in the country, a ludi- dous energy. Working hard was a way and generous supply of pamphlets on they intended to reassemble and fly crously inaccurate account appeared of life. Modest, with no yearning for aviation forwarded to him, he and Or- first as a kite, then, if all went well, fly on the front page of the Norfolk Vir- the limelight, they were at their best ville both began studying in earnest. themselves. ginian-Pilot under a banner head- and happiest working together on their The dream had taken hold. Idle cu- The “soaring machine” consisted of line: “Flying Machine Soars 3 Miles in own projects. riosity had been transformed into the two fixed wings, one above the other, Teeth of High Wind Over Sand Hills The times were alive with invention, active zeal of workers. They would de- each measuring 17 long by five feet and Waves at Kitty Hawk on Carolina technical innovations, new ideas of ev- sign and build their own experimental wide. It had warping controls and a Coast.” Variations appeared in The ery kind: the “Kodak” box camera, the glider-kite. movable, forward rudder of 12 square Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, first electric sewing machine, the first feet. It weighed slightly less than and The New York Times, among oth- motor cars built in America, all in the An Important Early 50 pounds. The total cost of all the ers, but little happened as a conse- past dozen years. Advance pieces—the ribs of ash, wires, cloth to quence. When bicycles became a craze ev- heir first aircraft, a flying kite cover the wings—was not more than As for the reaction in Dayton, prob- erywhere, the brothers, then in their with a wingspan of five feet, $15. ably not one person in a hundred twenties, opened a small bicycle busi- was a biplane, with double All was packed up for shipment believed the brothers had actually ness. Orville loved bicycles the most. Twings, one over the other. Observing east to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, a flown in their machine, or if they had, When sales grew slack Wilbur turned birds in flight, it had occurred to Wil- remote spot on the Outer Banks, a it could only have been a fluke. restless, uncertain what to make of his bur that a bird adjusted its wings so narrow chain of sandbars and islands life. as to present the tip of one wing at a along the coast. Wind was the essen- The Dream Takes Hold In the summer of 1896, Orville, 25, raised angle, the other at a lowered tial, and Kitty Hawk had steady winds To their friends in Dayton, they were was struck by typhoid. It was a month angle, thus its balance was controlled as well as soft sand beaches on the Will and Orv, ever industrious and vir- before he could sit up in bed. During by “utilizing dynamic reactions of the chance of an “upset.”

tually inseparable. Like their preacher this time Wilbur had begun reading MUSEUM AIR AND SPACE OF SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL COURTESY PHOTO: air.” So, included in the kite was a sys- They moved into a tent at Kitty

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Hawk, living mainly on local eggs, to- face. They devised and built a small- Altogether, in two months on the wise, the other, counterclockwise, so matoes and biscuits. Birds filled the air. scale wind tunnel six feet long and 16 Outer Banks they made nearly a thou- the spinning of the one would balance Wilbur devoted hours to studying their inches square, powered by a gasoline sand glides and resolved the last major that of the other. movements in the wind. engine. For nearly two months, they control problem. They had acquired That summer the brothers were Their experiments began October 3. tested some 38 wing surfaces—hack- the knowledge and the skill to fly. They working harder than ever to get every- On October 19, they dragged the glider, saw blades cut and hammered into a could soar, they could float, they could thing right with the new machine. By with the help of a local man, four miles variety of shapes and thicknesses—at dive and rise, circle and glide and land, September the new Flyer was crated to Kill Devil Hills, three prominent angles from 0 to 45 degrees in winds all with assurance. Now they had only and on the train. The brothers felt con- sand dunes where Wilbur made one up to 27 miles per hour. It was a slow, to build a motor. fident of success. flight after another. They had hoped tedious process, but, as Orville wrote, Then on December 8, in Washing- to learn much of value there and they “those metal models told us how to Getting It Right ton, D.C., came a test of the Smithso- had. They felt they had found the way build.” n January 1903, Charlie Taylor, the nian’s motor-powered airship, called forward. They began building the new glider bicycle shop mechanic, went to “The Great Aerodrome,” capable of car- In July 1901, they returned to Kitty the next spring. With each wing mea- work on a gasoline engine and rying one operator. It had cost nearly Hawk for experiments with a larger suring 32 by five feet, Machine No. 3 I glider. The size and curve of its wings was by far the largest glider yet built. At were greater, based on measurements Kitty Hawk that autumn of 1902, they calculated by Otto Lilienthal. made nearly 50 glides in three days. THE BROTHERS HAD ACQUIRED THE But the machine did not perform Unable to sleep one night, Orville KNOWLEDGE AND THE SKILL TO FLY. as expected. Wilbur had to use the suddenly had an idea: the rear rud- full power of the rudder to keep from der, instead of being in a fixed posi- NOW THEY HAD ONLY TO BUILD A MOTOR. plowing into the ground or rising so tion, should be hinged, movable. At high as to lose headway. Something breakfast, Wilbur declared he liked was “radically wrong.” the idea, then surprised Orville: why six weeks later he had it finished. $70,000 to build, the greater part of More troubling, their wing-warping not simplify the pilot’s job by connect- Amazingly simple and crude, the it from the Smithsonian and the U.S. system of which the brothers were so ing control of the rudder with those of four-cylinder motor was intended to War Department. In comparison, the proud was not responding as expected. the wing warping? deliver eight horsepower and carry brothers’ total expenses for everything On the train back to Ohio, they were Work began on the change that 675 pounds, the estimated combined from 1900 to 1903 came to a little less as down in spirit as they had ever been. day. The glider hereafter would have weight of the flying machine and an than $1,000, paid from the profits of It was not just that their machine had a single movable rudder five feet high. operator. A one-gallon fuel tank was to their bicycle business. performed so poorly, but that so many The operator, stretched on his stomach, be suspended from a wing strut, and The test failed, with the Smithson- of the long-established, supposedly re- would operate both the rudder and gasoline fed down a tube to the engine. ian airship plunging into the Potomac liable calculations and tables were, in a the warping of the wings by means of During testing, the first engine River no more than 20 feet from where word, “worthless.” a new wooden “hip cradle.” Thus no block cracked. They ordered a second, it was launched. hands were needed, only movement which worked fine and delivered an Brainstorm of the hips. unexpected twelve horsepower. A Crash Shakes Orville That autumn the brothers set out to In ten days of practice, they in- Two propellers were positioned be- On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and achieve accurate measurements of creased their record for distance to tween the two wings just to the rear of Orville Wright showed without a the “lift” and “drag” of a wing’s sur- more than 600 feet. They were elated. the operator. One would turn clock- doubt that man could fly and if the

1234567890 1234567890 [[1L]] | 06•2016 06•2016 [[2R]] | | READER’S DIGEST Wilbur takes world did not know it, they did. But he was unable to fly for another month. wind speed they also understood how much they To “render us independent of wind,” measurements; had still to do to master the art of they designed and built a catapult Orville (left) launching themselves safety into the consisting of a 20-foot tent-shaped looks on. air, of banking and turning a motor- tower with metal weights hung by a propelled machine, and landing safely. single rope over a pulley at the apex. To cut expenses, they found a prac- The rope was hitched on to the front of tice field close to home: Huffman the Flyer. When all was ready, the pi- Prairie, an 84-acre cow pasture. The lot would release the rope, the weights brothers invited friends and neighbors would drop, the machine would be to come and watch. The press would pulled rapidly down to the end of the be welcome too. track, then shoot into the air. On Monday, May 23, 1904, some 50 Soon, Wilbur could take off with no spectators gathered at Huffman Prai- difficulties and flew longer distances rie. But there was too little wind, and than ever. On September 15 he flew a it had to be postponed. Motor or not, half-mile and succeeded in turning a wind was still essential. half-circle, a major accomplishment. On Wednesday, when the crowd No reporters bothered to attend; nor and counseled the brothers. Further- ceived a formal rejection, a “flat turn gathered again, rain caused another did public interest increase. more, as patriotic Americans, they down,” to Wilbur and Orville. Serious cancellation. The morning after, there On September 20, Wilbur flew the would be ashamed to offer it to a for- correspondence with the British War was more rain. Then, during a brief powered Flyer II in a complete circle, eign government without their own Office began. lull in the afternoon, the brothers de- flying low, no more than 20 to 25 feet country having a first chance. In June, test flights of Flyer III, a cided to “make a start.” With Orville at above the ground. When the engine Local congressman Robert Nevin machine more sturdily built than its the controls, the Flyer II rose a mere was shut off, the apparatus glided to suggested that Wilbur write a pro- predecessors, got under way. It would eight feet and came down at once. the ground and alighted on skids. posal for the Secretary of War. The prove to be the first practical airplane. Something was wrong with the motor. letter, dated January 18, 1905, and That summer and autumn the It was hardly a premiere to stir excite- “A Flat Turn Down” signed by both Wilbur and Orville, brothers, by experiment and change, ment or silence the doubters. n October 1904, an officer of the stated that their efforts of the past five truly learned to fly. At last, with a Almost nothing went right for the British Army’s Balloon Section years had produced a flying machine plane they could rely on, they could brothers for the next three months. appeared in Dayton and invited that “not only flies through the air at take pleasure in the very experience At last, on August 13, to their utter Ithem to submit a proposal for the sale high speed, but it also lands without of traveling through the air in a motor- amazement, Wilbur flew a thousand of their Flyer II to the British govern- being wrecked.” During 1904 they had driven machine. Wilbur was to say, feet, farther than any of the flights at ment. made 105 flights, and brought flying “More than anything else the sensa- Kitty Hawk. Few took any interest. They were unwilling to comply, to the point where it could be of great tion is one of perfect peace, mingled On a flight on August 24, hit by a partly because they were “not ready practical use in various ways, “one of with the excitement that strains every sudden gust of wind, Orville smashed to begin considering what we will do which is that of scouting and carrying nerve to the utmost.” into the ground at 30 miles an hour. with our baby now that we have it,” as messages in time of war.” On October 5, 1905, before more Though he suffered no broken bones, Wilbur confided to Octave Chanute, Congressman Nevin forwarded the than a dozen witnesses, Wilbur cir-

he was so badly shaken and bruised a civil engineer who had befriended IMAGES © FOTOSEARCH/GETTY PHOTO: letter to the War Department. He re- cled the pasture 30 times, landing

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Alberto Santos- cal service in less than several years were men of ample private means for Dumont’s motor- does not worry us,” Wilbur replied. whom the costs of their aviation pur- powered flight “We understand how much yet re- suits were of little concern. didn’t worry the mains for them to do.” “It seems that to the genius of Wrights. Early in 1907, the Wrights made France is reserved the glorious mis- a deal with Flint & Company for the sion of initiating the world into the sales rights of their plane outside the conquest of the air,” said the president United States. By May 18 Wilbur, who of the Aéro-Club. To his eminent fel- had just turned 40, was on his way to low member of the club Ernest Arch- Paris for business sessions arranged deacon, the Wright Flyer was no more by the company’s European represen- than a “phantom machine.” tative, Hart Berg. With the onset of the new year, The prospects for an agreement all that the brothers had worked to looked encouraging. In general out- achieve in the way of sales agree- line, the Wrights were to receive ments began to happen. In February $350,000 for their Flyer, once a public 1908 their bid of $25,000 for a Flyer demonstration was made in France. was at last accepted by the War De- only when his gas ran out. By the time were to receive one million francs, or In November, the brothers, now re- partment. In March, the brothers the experiments ended, the brothers $200,000, for one machine, provided united in Paris, joined large crowds signed an agreement with a French thought it time to put Flyer III on the demonstration flights fulfilled certain at Issy-les-Moulineaux, southwest company with the understanding market. requirements. Five thousand dollars of Paris, to watch a demonstration that public demonstrations in France A correspondent for a German was to be deposited in a New York put on by the French aviator Henri would follow by midsummer. aeronautical journal had come to bank in escrow. However future nego- Farman, considered Europe’s out- Huffman Prairie and began a series of tiations went, the $5,000 would more standing pilot. Farman flew a biplane A Bewildering Spectacle articles on the brothers. The French than cover all the expenses they had made by a French aircraft manufac- either brother had flown a were beginning to make enquiries. had since first going to Kitty Hawk. turer, Voisin Freres, which had formed plane for two and a half years. Prodded by Octave Chanute to try only that year. Many of Farman’s trials “A little practice” was called for. one more time to rouse interest in “Phantom machine” were unsuccessful, but in one flight NTest flights at Kitty Hawk got started Washington, the brothers wrote again. On November 12, 1906. Brazilian avia- he covered more than half a mile and on May 6. Orville went first and flew But the response from Washington tion pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont, flew an almost complete circle. over 1000 feet, then Wilbur took off was the same. flying what looked like a motor-pow- French aviation enthusiasts had no and flew more than 2000 feet. Progress with the English having ered hodge-podge of box kites, made doubt, however, that France was now A stream of reporters kept arriving, stalled, Wilbur and Orville agreed a public flight in France covering 722 clearly in the lead. France could boast hanging about on the hills with field on terms with a syndicate of wealthy feet. French aviation enthusiasts went of other French aviators beside Henri glasses and telescopes. “We were all French businessmen, but the decid- wild with excitement. Farman, including Léon Delagrange, seasoned campaigners in the field of ing authority would be the French “I fancy that he is now very nearly who also flew a Voisin biplane, and unexpected events,” wrote one corre- military. The syndicate would pur- where you were in 1904,” wrote Cha- Louis Blériot, who had taught him- spondent, “but for all that, this spec- chase a Wright Flyer as a gift to the nute to Wilbur. “Fear that others will self to fly in a monoplane of his own tacle of men flying was so startling, so

French government. The brothers produce a machine capable of practi- PHOTO: © ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES design. Most of the pilots in France bewildering to the senses, that we all

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stood like so many marble men.” suitable. A prominent automobile his left arm. ing Ernest Archdeacon, who was busy Early on the morning of May 14 manufacturer named Léon Bollée of- Yet despite everything, by the first proclaiming all that was “wrong” with the onlookers were treated to a sight fered Wilbur use of a large room at his days of August he was seeing to the the Wright plane. On hand, too, were never before seen anywhere—two factory in which to assemble the Flyer, finishing touches on a machine recon- reporters and correspondents from men in a motor-powered flying ma- and the help of some workers. structed from the smashed and broken Paris, London, and New York, all wait- chine. The Flyer had been modified Wilbur arrived back in Le Mans late remains of the original, an airplane ing for what could well be one of the to carry two operators sitting up side on June 16, 1908, eager to get started that was thus different from those he biggest stories of the time. by side, and Wilbur took a mechanic on the reassembly of the Flyer. Open- and Orville had built at home and one Inside the shed, Wilbur worked on up for a short ride. The brothers had ing the crates at the Bollée factory the he had never yet flown. preparations. It was nearly three in the already decided they must never fly next morning, he could hardly be- On August 6, Wilbur, Bollée and afternoon by the time he opened the together. That way, if one were to be lieve what he saw. The Flyer was in Berg hauled it down the road to the shed doors and the gleaming white killed, the other could still carry on shambles--damage caused by careless Hunaudieres racetrack, where it was Flyer was rolled into the sunshine. Ap- with the work. French customs inspectors. That afternoon, Wilbur went up A dozen or more ribs were broken, alone. He made a mistake with the one wing ruined, the cloth torn in rudder and suddenly plunged to the countless places. Everything was a FINALLY, WITH DUSK SETTLING, WILBUR ground. The machine turned on end. tangled mess. Radiators were smashed, TURNED HIS CAP BACKWARD AND SAID Wilbur had to be pulled from the propeller axles broken, coils badly wreckage. There was a cut across his turned up, essential wires, seats, nuts, QUIETLY, “GENTLEMEN, I’M GOING TO FLY.” nose, but he was not seriously injured. and bolts, all missing. The plane, however, was a total wreck. Wilbur set to work making repairs, The tests had come to an end. Two most of which he had to do himself, put away in a shed. To keep guard over pearing in the gray suit he usually wore days later, Wilbur was on his way to “as it is almost impossible to explain the plane, Wilbur would sleep beside and a cap, he walked the field, made France to proceed with the required what I want to men who only one- it that night and the nights to follow. sure the starting rail was headed into demonstrations. Orville would do the fourth understand English.” There Neither his left arm nor the Flyer the wind, checked the catapult and su- same in Washington. were no drawings to show anyone how was in a condition he would have pervised the raising of the iron weight. During a week of test flights he things go together. Those who worked liked. A first public demonstration that The aircraft, mounted temporarily on and Orville had been the subjects of with him at the factory marveled at failed in almost any way would be a two sets of wheels, was positioned on far more attention and praise in the his meticulous craftsmanship, how serious setback. the starting rail. press than they had ever known. Still he would make his own parts when Finally, at 6:30, with dusk settling, no major public performance had yet needed, even a needle if necessary. Overwhelmed Wilbur turned his cap backward, and been made. The rabbit had still to be On the evening of July 4, Wilbur was aturday, August 8, 1908, was a to Berg, Bollée, and the others said pulled from the hat for all to see. standing close by the mounted engine, day as fine as could be hoped quietly, “Gentleman, I’m going to fly.” giving it a speed test, when suddenly a for. The sky overhead was a great He took the seat on the left. Two The Flyer Is in Shambles radiator hose broke loose and he was Sblue vault. A northwest breeze was a men started the engine, each pulling Of possible sites for a public demon- hit by a jet of boiling water. His bare little gentler than Wilbur would have down a blade on the two propellers. stration, the Hunaudières horse race- left forearm took the worst of it, but he wished, but he was up to go. Wilbur called to a mechanic to ask if track, near Le Mans, 125 miles south- was scalded as well across his chest. It Among the crowd at the racetrack some small, last-minute adjustment west of Paris, seemed to Wilbur most would be a month before he could use could be seen several notables, includ- had been made on the motor. The man

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Wilbur dazzled ing to shake the hero’s hand. Hart see Orville fly. On this day, Wilbur and the French Berg, knowing how Wilbur felt about Orville, seated side by side, took off with his flights such things, did all he could to keep near Le Mans into the air with Orville at the controls. in 1908. the men from kissing Wilbur on both It seemed they had accomplished all cheeks. “The enthusiasm,” reported they had set out to do, and so at last Le Figaro, “was indescribable.” Even saw no reason to postpone any longer Wilbur lost his customary composure, enjoying together the thrill of flight. overwhelmed by the success and un- bounded joy, which his friends Berg When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the and Léon Bollée shared. moon July 20, 1969, he carried with Then, his face beaming, he put his him a small swatch of muslin from a hands in his pockets and walked off wing of the Wright brothers’s 1903 whistling. That night, while the nor- Flyer. mally sleepy town of Le Mans cel- ebrated, the hero retired early to his shed. In less than 24 hours it was headline said it had. According to an eyewit- taken off. In all he was in the air not news everywhere. Leaders of French ness, “Wilbur was silent for a moment. quite two minutes and covered a dis- aviation joined in the chorus of ac- Then, slowly leaving his pilot’s seat, tance of two miles. claim, even Ernest Archdeacon, who he walked around the machine just to The crowd was ecstatic, cheering, stepped forth to say, “I count myself make sure that this particular adjust- shouting, hardly able to believe what among the first to make amends for ment had been well and truly made.” they had seen. As said in the Paris Her- the flagrant injustice.” Cheers went up as he sailed away ald, it was “not the extent but the na- toward a row of tall poplars, where, at ture of the flight which was so startling.” AS WILBUR’S DEMONSTRATIONS what seemed the last minute, the left There were shouts of “C’est l’homme continued before crowds in Le Mans, wing dropped sharply, he banked off qui a conquis l’air!” “This man has con- Orville was in Fort Myer, Virginia, pro- to the left, turned in a graceful curve, quered the air!” viding one sensational performance and came flying back toward the “We are children compared to the after another. The two “bicycle me- grandstand. Those in the crowd who Wrights,” said pilot René Gasnier, and chanics” and their flying machines had brought field glasses had seen Louis Blériot declared outright, “I con- were causing simultaneous sensa- how he twisted the wings as he turned sider that for us in France, and every- tions on both sides of the Atlantic. and rounded corners as naturally as where, a new era in mechanical flight The next summer, the War Depart- though he were on a bicycle. has commenced.” Then, catching his ment signed a contract for $30,000. Very near the point he had started, breath, Blériot said he was not yet suf- Their own country was at long last he made another perfect turn to fly ficiently calm to express all that he felt, committed to their achievement. full circle again, all at about 30 to 35 except to say, “C’est merveilleux!” On May 25, 1910, a crowd of 2,000 feet, before coming to a gentle land- Spectators waving hats and arms to 3,000 came to Huffman Prairie to

ing within 50 feet from where he had raced onto the field, everyone want- BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES ©PHILIPP KESTER/ULLSTEIN PHOTO: THE WRIGHT BROTHERS BY DAVID MCCULLOUGH, © 2015 BY DAVID MCCULLOUGH, IS PUBLISHED BY SIMON & SCHUSTER, WWW.SIMONANDSCHUSTER.COM

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