With four powered flights totaling 98 seconds 100 years ago, the Wright brothers changed the world.

Dawn at Kill Devil Hill By Rebecca Grant

‘ sn’t it astonishing that all these hard work to come together as some- Isecrets have been preserved for so thing momentous. many years just so that we could It was cold on the morning of Dec. discover them!!” 17—almost too cold to work out- The words were those of Orville side. A cold, gusty north wind was Wright, written in June 1903. Within blowing, and almost at gale strength. The Moment. On the sand flats stretching north six months, Orville and his brother, The steady, 25 mph wind made the from Kill Devil Hill, mankind begins a new day and Wilbur, were at Kitty Hawk, N.C., 30-degree temperature feel like 16 the Wright brothers make history. The camera with their fully assembled and fully degrees. The term “wind chill” was snapped the first flight at 10:35 a.m., Dec. 17, 1903. tested machine, the Flyer, waiting still unknown in 1903, but the Wright Orville is at the controls. Wilbur watches from the for all of the discovered secrets and brothers understood the effects only side. With four powered flights totaling 98 seconds 100 years ago, the Wright brothers changed the world.

Dawn at Kill Devil Hill By Rebecca Grant

‘ sn’t it astonishing that all these hard work to come together as some- Isecrets have been preserved for so thing momentous. many years just so that we could It was cold on the morning of Dec. discover them!!” 17—almost too cold to work out- The words were those of Orville side. A cold, gusty north wind was Wright, written in June 1903. Within blowing, and almost at gale strength. The Moment. On the sand flats stretching north six months, Orville and his brother, The steady, 25 mph wind made the from Kill Devil Hill, mankind begins a new day and Wilbur, were at Kitty Hawk, N.C., 30-degree temperature feel like 16 the Wright brothers make history. The camera with their fully assembled and fully degrees. The term “wind chill” was snapped the first flight at 10:35 a.m., Dec. 17, 1903. tested machine, the Flyer, waiting still unknown in 1903, but the Wright Orville is at the controls. Wilbur watches from the for all of the discovered secrets and brothers understood the effects only side. The brothers loved the place. “The sunsets here are the prettiest I have ever seen,” Orville reported. “The clouds light up in all colors in the background, with deep blue clouds of various shapes fringed with gold before.” They liked Kitty Hawkers, who returned the sentiment. “Our fame has spread far and wide up and down the beach,” Orv joked on one occa- sion. And it was the beach that hooked them. “The sand is the greatest thing in Kitty Hawk,” said Orville.

The Passion In late 1903, Will was 36 and Orv was 32—middle-aged men for that era. Although unmarried, they were domestically settled, the youngest Big Hill. In 1901, the Wrights camped near Kill Devil Hill, a prime gliding spot. sons of the bishop, living content- This photo, taken Dec. 14, 1903, shows the track used in the Wrights’ first, edly in the family’s foursquare Day- unsuccessful attempt at flight. The Dec. 17 flights took place nearby. ton home with their father and sister. Orv liked camping and made cara- too well. The body loses heat at an such an out-of-the-way place,” Kath- mels and fudge for his niece and accelerated pace. Hands become stiff. erine groused to their father, Bishop nephews. At age 18, Will suffered Eyes water. The throat feels cold, Milton Wright. “Probably the mail an injury playing ice hockey and the ears tingle. Hauling, lifting— goes out but once a week.” She was gave up the idea of going to Yale. indeed, any heavy work outdoors— right. It left each week in a small Instead, he spent three years caring makes the wind feel like an adver- sailboat. for his mother, a tuberculosis case, sary. Kitty Hawk was a fishing village who finally succumbed. The brothers had been to North where no one ever sold a fish. The Before long, the brothers set out Carolina before, but never had they commercial catches all went to Bal- to become newspapermen. They wrote stayed so late in the year. Through timore, where they fetched a higher and published a little local broad- the fall, the weather had taunted them, price. The Kitty Hawkers ate wild sheet, but they soon found that the bringing high winds and rain on some game—in or out of season—and fish money was in printing. Orv at age 17 days and dead calm on others. On if they caught it. Milk came only in built a high-speed printing press so the worst nights, water puddles would cans. Orv thought the horses, cows, peculiar it led a visiting pressman to freeze. They woke to wash basins and hogs were the most pitiful-look- declare, “It works, but I certainly filled with solid ice. ing livestock he had ever seen. don’t see how it does the work.” True, they had a good stove in- side, built by Orv. They also had his French drip coffee pot, complete with a custom filter of wire mesh imported from Dayton, Ohio. Still, the brothers on several occasions that fall had given in to the cold wind and suspended their outdoor work. One day they noted they were “too sore” from gliding to do much work at all. It is ironic, then, that, on the morn- ing of Dec. 17, 1903, the fierce wind howling across the dunes would be- come the Wrights’ partner in one of mankind’s greatest achievements.

To Kitty Hawk “They think that life at Kitty Hawk cures all ills, you know,” wrote Katherine Wright, speaking of her two brothers. Will and Orv had dis- covered Kitty Hawk in the late sum- Origins. Before building airplanes, the Wrights built gliders; before gliders, mer of 1900. “I never did hear of they built kites. Here, they fly the 1901 glider as a kite.

24 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2003 Next came bicycles. In the early 1890s, these two-wheeled wonders were all the rage. The Wright broth- ers did well selling, repairing, and, occasionally, racing bicycles. The two brothers since childhood had had what Will termed a “passive interest” in flight. It soon became a passion. In summer 1896, 25-year-old Orville fell ill with typhoid fever. For six weeks he lay near death. Katherine and Will cared for him, often reading to him in the sick room even. In the midst of the cri- sis, Will spied a notice of the death of a German aeronaut, Otto Lili- enthal, in a glider accident. Lilienthal had based much of his experimental work on the study of birds, and Will reread a book on animal me- Assembly. In this historic October 1903 photo, the Wright brothers bring chanics. As Orv convalesced, Will together the component parts of the 1903 powered Flyer at their new camp read other, more modern works, building, erected at Kill Devil Hill. and, by the time Orv was able to sit up in bed (in October), the two had ers dramatic progress toward their way of earning bread and butter,” begun analyzing what Lilienthal dream of flight. The year 1900 gave Will wrote in February 1902. Pro- had done wrong. them a chance to work out their glid- moters from the forthcoming 1903 Man knew how to make wings and ers. They camped under an oak tree. Chicago World’s Fair talked with engines, they reasoned. The broth- In the next year, 1901, they moved Chanute about staging a $200,000 ers believed the barrier holding man the camp closer to the prime gliding flight competition. Chanute wanted back from flight must therefore cen- spot of Kill Devil Hill. the Wrights to compete, if the deal ter on equilibrium and control. Lili- The experiences at Kitty Hawk ever came off. enthal hadn’t flown much. As they taught them how little they—or any- Wilbur, however, was no gambler. saw it, the German only had a total one—really knew about designing Or, rather, he had the quiet confi- of about five hours’ time in the air in an airplane. At Dayton they built a dence of a gambler holding four aces. his gliders. No one could ride a bi- wind tunnel to test wing shapes, built He and his brother sensed that their cycle on a crowded street after prac- new gliders, and itched for the chance glider experiments had pushed them ticing 10 seconds at a time over five to try them. Will opened a corre- far ahead of the airplane-chasing years. spondence with Octave Chanute, who pack. Will did not believe in “letting The Wrights built kites, then small became their mentor and a source of the opinions or doings of others in- models, and then a glider sturdy strong encouragement. fluence you too much,” as he told a enough for a pilot. The Wright broth- friend. ers wanted time in the air. That was Experiments in 1902 It seems that 1902 was the year the purpose of Kitty Hawk. It was In a real sense, though, the broth- that the brothers truly learned to fly. not the windiest place in America. ers were on their own. They were Gliding from the broad sand slopes Kitty Hawk, however, had an un- pioneers in conceptualizing, con- of Kill Devil Hill that fall, they had beatable combination of wind, re- structing, and testing actual ma- 10-to-15-second bursts in which to moteness, and marvelous sand. chines. Their work had taken them learn how to control a flying ma- At Kitty Hawk, the Wright broth- far beyond other, more famous ex- chine. Sometimes, they opted to forgo ers learned by measurement, expe- perimenters such as Samuel P. Lang- meticulous measurements in order rience, and observation how to build ley. to gain more practice time. The ma- a glider and fly it. Wilbur often They had all of the required quali- chine, wrote Wilbur, was “almost spent time on the dunes watching ties: agile minds, a strong grasp of perfect, or rather it controls both the soaring antics of buzzards, mathematics, and real talent for build- fore and aft and transversely just as eagles, and hawks. To the broth- ing, inventing, and repairing me- we wish it to.” ers, birds offered the one absolute chanical systems. They debated each On Sept. 23, the brothers had made proof that man could fly. Will saw other and kept to a strict code of about 75 glides when trouble arrived. that a bird expended much more fairness, equal work, and equal credit. Orv, gliding at 25 feet above the energy chasing an insect or another Above all, they were motivated by a ground, became preoccupied with bird; in comparison, their level thirst to fly. wing warping, the process by which flight looked easy. Lucky for them, bicycles provided he could control the aircraft. He let In that first year, 1900, the trip to a substantial income. “In the present the front of the glider drift up to 45 Kitty Hawk was a grand “vacation.” stage of the game, aeronautical ex- degrees, with a predictable outcome. Every later visit brought the broth- perimenting alone is not a very sure “The result was a heap of flying

AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2003 25 machine, cloth, and sticks in a heap, in any year before,” Orv wrote buoy- two propeller shafts, which were with me in the center without a bruise antly to his sister. Orv spent his first shipped by express train to Dayton. or a scratch,” Orv wrote later. Or, as full day in camp arranging the kitchen There, Charlie Taylor worked fever- the accident investigation report from and making that French drip coffee ishly to fix them. Will to Chanute stated: “My brother, pot. In mid-November, Orville and after too brief practice with the use Then it was down to work. They Wilbur settled in to wait. They had a of the front rudder, tried to add the had a new building to construct. Plans half cord of wood, chopped from the use of the wing-twisting arrange- called for practicing with the 1902 forests nearby, and “the best stove in ment also, with the result that, while glider on good, windy days and work- Kitty Hawk.” Cold and fog troubled he was correcting a slight rise in one ing on the new powered machine them, and so did the lack of flying. wing, he completely forgot to attend when it was calm or rainy. They The 1902 glider was almost too di- to the front rudder, and the machine hoped that, if all went well, they lapidated to fly safely. They had made reared up and rose some 25 feet and could take a trial powered flight only two glides in three weeks. sidled off and struck the ground on around Oct. 25. They also brooded on the thrust alighting on one wingtip and broke The Flyer itself (though not the of their engine. The 630-pound several pieces of the woodwork.” engine) was completely assembled Flyer had propellers designed for They dragged the precious heap by mid-October. To Orville, it was 90 pounds of thrust, but, with a into the back of the low building “the prettiest we have ever made, pilot aboard, the Flyer’s weight rose where they camped to begin repairs. and of a much better shape, being to 700 pounds. The Flyer was over- “In spite of this sad catastrophe,” smooth on both upper and lower weight by a margin of 10 percent, a Orv said, “we are tonight in a hilari- sides.” All of their flying machines fact which left the pair, said Orville, ous mood as a result of the encour- had personality; Orv described one “quite in doubt as to whether the aging performance of the machine.” of their first as “rather a docile thing, engine will be able to pull it at all and we taught it to behave fairly with the present gears.” Setting Off in 1903 well.” Each was hand-crafted. Every On his visit to Kitty Hawk, Chanute Back in Dayton after the success- inch of the fabric covering the wings had been pessimistic. “He doesn’t ful 1902 season, the brothers set to was marked and cut, often by Orv, seem to think our machines are so work building their “power machine.” then sewn with a machine by Will. much superior as the manner in When no one could supply the en- Gliding continued. On Oct. 26, which we handle them,” Orv wrote. gine they wanted, they, with the help they made 20 attempts at flight, six “We are of just the reverse opin- of local mechanic Charlie Taylor, of which lasted for more than one ion.” built one themselves. minute. Their time in the air was That confidence—grounded in Will and Orv were desperate to building up. logic, mathematics, and experi- get back to Kitty Hawk. They started On Nov. 2, they began to mount ence—kept the brothers going. They shipping dry goods, lumber, and parts the engine onto the aircraft. Chanute joked and made frequent compari- of the Flyer in August but did not visited them, and, on Nov. 7, they sons between their enterprise and leave themselves until Sept. 23. took the 1902 glider out for a dem- the stock market. One day the “stock” After they arrived, it didn’t take onstration. “After four or five flights,” in flying was at rock bottom, another long for Kill Devil Hill to work its wrote Orville, they “came back to day it was a sure winner. usual magic on the brothers. “Things camp on account of cold.” The propeller shafts arrived on are starting off more favorably than A week later, the brothers broke Nov. 20, but the Wrights had trouble with the sprockets. “Day closes in deep gloom,” wrote Orv.

Final Tests Their ingenuity cheered them up again on the next day. They filled the troublesome sprockets with tire cement. They fixed the gas feed, and the engine smoothed out. Best of all, they put the power plant through a test run. They rested the center body of the machine on rollers, attached a pulley to a 50-pound box of sand, and cranked the engine to 350 rpm. It gave them a pleasing 132 to 136 pounds of thrust. “Our confidence in the success of the machine is now greater than ever before,” Orv wrote. But their troubles were not over. It snowed on Nov. 27. On Nov. 28, the Waiting. Wilbur ponders the Flyer. The day is Nov. 24, 1903. On Nov. 27, brothers started having trouble with snow will fall. On Nov. 28, the Wrights will discover a crack in a propeller engine runs and found a crack in the shaft. Soon, Orville will leave for Ohio. propeller shaft.

26 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2003 Last and Best. The Flyer’s fourth and final flight of Dec. 17 carried Wilbur 852 feet and spanned 59 seconds. The only solution to the shaft prob- wide enough to hold the Flyer. To after leaving the track,” Will wrote lem was to send Orville home to fly, they had to reattach the front his father and sister. The Flyer lost Dayton to make new ones before the elevator and rear rudder. At 1 p.m., what little speed it had, and Will weather got any worse. Will stayed they completed the task and hung was, essentially, out of airspeed and alone at Kitty Hawk. With his free signal panels to summon the men ideas, as pilots would later say. time, he split, hauled, and stacked a from the local lifesaving station to Tongue in cheek, he did credit him- three-week supply of wood. help them move the Flyer. self with “a nice easy landing for the Twelve days later, Orv was back. With no wind, they had to take off operator.” He came into camp at 1 p.m. on from the slope of Kill Devil Hill. But for this “trifling error due to Friday, Dec. 11, bringing new pro- They laid out the 60-foot track, slid lack of experience with this machine peller shafts as well as stunning news. the Flyer down, then halted while and this method of starting,” said On Dec. 8, Langley’s own flying they picked up the track, relaid it in Will, “the machine would undoubt- machine had crashed on takeoff at another section, and slid the ma- edly have flown beautifully.” Arsenal Point near Washington, D.C. chine down it once more. Finally They sent home a terse telegram, For the brothers, the path to the first they reached the big hill. Will and which read, in part, “Rudder only flight was wide open. Orv tossed for first whack. Will won, injured. Success assured. Keep quiet.” On the morning of Saturday, Dec. and laid himself down in the pilot’s The Flyer was ready again at noon 12, they set the propeller shafts and position on the Flyer. on Wednesday, Dec. 16. The broth- eagerly hauled the Flyer out for a The engine started. Now the pro- ers took it out and placed the rail trial. But the wind was flat, and they peller thrust was so great that the just a few yards from the hangar. By had to settle for running it along the rope fastener would not come loose. then, the wind was “gradually dy- track. Men from Kitty Hawk pushed the ing.” They sat with it for hours to The next day, Dec. 13, was Sun- Flyer back a little, releasing the rope, see if it would “breeze up” again. day, and even steady west winds and then Will started. “I grabbed the But it didn’t, and Will and Orv had could not tempt them to break the upright the best I could and off we to take the machine back inside its Sabbath. The bishop’s children kept went,” wrote Orv. After a run of hangar. They spent another night their custom. They never worked on some 40 feet, the machine was mov- waiting. a Sunday. Not even after two-and-a- ing so fast that Orv had to let go. Up half months at Kitty Hawk. Not even it rose, 15 feet above the ground, but The Flight with the new propeller shafts ready then it turned up 20 degrees and sank Then it was Thursday, Dec. 17. to churn out thrust. Not even when back down on the ground. One front The brothers woke up early that cold they were the only two men in the skid plowed into the sand and broke. morning and left the cozy stove to world poised on the edge of fulfill- In the excitement, “Will forgot to step next door, raise the hangar’s ing mankind’s dream of powered shut off the engine for some time,” front door, and prop it on stilts. They flight. Orv noted. walked into the shadows of the win- “Air warm,” Orv wrote in his The brothers called it a “partial dowless building and gently moved diary. “Spent most of day read- success”—a 3.5-second flight cov- out the Flyer. ing.” ering 105 feet, according to Orv’s On went the rudder and elevator. Monday, Dec. 14, dawned clear, measurements. The engine banged Up went the signals for the Kitty cold, and calm. After breakfast, the along at more than 1,000 rpm. “How- Hawk men to join them. Orv set up brothers hauled their machine out ever the real trouble was an error in his heavy glass-plate camera on its from its hangar. The hangar was just judgment, in turning up too suddenly tripod. Then they all went back in-

AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2003 27 with the pitch, as before. Then, 300 feet out, Will found the Flyer’s rhythm. According to Orv, his brother “had it under much better control and was traveling on a fairly even course.” Will flew for 852 feet, as the stopwatch in Orv’s hand ticked on to 59 seconds. Then a sharp wind set the Flyer pitching again, and Will brought it down in a hard but con- trolled landing. As Will crawled out of the air- plane, he must have looked back to where Orv and the Kitty Hawk men were standing at the start of the track. He’d gone so much farther. He’d really flown. The two sheds were far, far away, the men jogging to- ward him small in size, just now in shouting distance. He knew what it meant. Their beautiful flyer was a “Success.” Hours after the flights, the Wrights declared victory in this historic telegram. Note two mistakes: Orville’s name is misspelled and the time was success. Watch the pitch and fly as transmitted as 57 seconds instead of 59 seconds. far as you want. They could circle out toward the ocean shore, maybe side to warm their hands over the mand, his to move through the air fly out over the lifesaving station. stove. on feel and instinct and the pitch of They could think about turning and Soon they came back outside to the elevator and the power of the better control and flights, more flights, the Flyer. The brothers warmed up engines. The elevator wobbled, the more and more flights. the engine and rotated the airplane’s Flyer darted down, and Orv, 120 Orv and the men reached Will propellers. They propped the Flyer’s feet and 12 seconds from the point and together they dragged the Flyer right wingtip on a small wooden of takeoff, ended mankind’s first back and set it down a few feet bench. powered and controlled flight. from the hangar. They stood to- Sand, the best sand in the world, Near Kill Devil Hill today, one gether, talking about Will’s super- stretched out for miles. The north finds a pale, granite boulder bearing long flight. Then, the wind that wind was cold and constant, the kind a simple plaque. It marks the spot brought them to Kill Devil Hill put of wind that presses steadily, insis- where Orville Wright and the Flyer an end to their experiments that tently, lifting loose collars, ties, and ascended. About 120 feet north stands day. According to Orv, a “sudden locks of hair. another marker—the point at which gust of wind struck the machine The noise of the propellers and that first flight ended. and started to turn it over. All rushed engine drowned out other sounds. Then come three more white stone to stop it.” Will grabbed the front, At 10:35 a.m., Orv was ready, his markers. Two are close together, Orv and Daniels seized the rear hips in the upholstered wood cradle, and stand near the end point of uprights, but the wind took it, turn- his back slightly arched, his hands Orville’s first flight. But the last ing it over, then causing it to cart- on the wooden controls. Will held stands far out on its own. It is a wheel along, with Daniels still the right wingtip. story in itself. clutching it from the inside. En- Orv released the restraining rope, After the first flight, minor re- gine chain guides bent, rear ends bringing an instant response. The pairs took some minutes. With Will of the wing ribs broke. Flyer slid down the track, going faster at the controls, the Flyer again rolled Will and Orv crated it up and then and faster. down the track. Will flew a little bit sent a telegram to their father. It stated: At the fourth section of the track, farther than Orv had—175 feet in 12 “success four flights thursday morn- the Flyer lifted up. Wilbur Wright seconds. Orv then had the third flight, ing ... inform press home Christmas.” let go. John T. Daniels, manning and he bettered Will’s mark, flying A few days later, the brothers left Orville’s camera, squeezed the bulb. 200 feet in 15 seconds. for home. Then, Orville flew. But it wasn’t over. At noon, Will The Flyer never took to the air Up in the air, 10 feet above took his second turn at the controls. again, but Will, Orv, and the rest of ground, Orville was flying, sailing Orv watched him start off and struggle mankind did. ■ over the sand below. His whole mind and body focused on the front Rebecca Grant is a contributing editor of Air Force Magazine. She is presi- elevator, striving to keep the Flyer dent of IRIS Independent Research in Washington, D.C., and has worked for level. The Flyer’s 700 pounds of RAND, the Secretary of the Air Force, and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. spruce and spars and fabric and Grant is a fellow of the Eaker Institute for Aerospace Concepts, the public aluminum crank case and human policy and research arm of the Air Force Association’s Aerospace Education flesh and bone were airborne. It Foundation. Her most recent article, “Eyes Wide Open,” appeared in the was Orv’s to control, his to com- November issue.

28 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2003