The Wright Brothers

Wilbur and Orville Wright’s flying machine looked more like a giant kite with propellers than an airplane. It jerked wildly in the strong breeze. Yet their first successful flight of an airplane in December 1903 stunned the world. Many people refused to believe it, but the world would never be the same again.

The Wrights’ exciting day on the beach at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, came after years of study, experimentation, and hard work. Although neither brother had graduated from high school or attended college, both of them had a combination of mechanical skill, physical daring, curiosity, and high intelligence. They also shared and discussed their thoughts and their exchange of ideas often produced brilliant answers to difficult problems.

The Wright brothers were good at building machines and fixing them. As teenagers, they designed and built their own printing press. They became experts at repairing and building bicycles. When they needed a light-but-powerful engine for their airplane, they built it themselves. The propellers were connected to the engine with the same type of chain and gears used on bicycles.

The brothers taught themselves the complex science of flying, known as aviation. They drew inspiration from watching vultures. When designing wings for their airplanes, they tried to copy the wing movements of these soaring birds. The brothers even sewed the cotton cloth to cover the wings for their airplanes.

Wilbur and Orville also designed and built a wind tunnel: a special machine to test their wing designs. Basically, it was a large fan blowing air through a rectangular box open at both ends. After several months of testing, the Wright brothers became experts on airplane design.

The brothers realized the importance of controlling the airplane once it got into the air. At first, they built large kites that looked like airplanes and controlled them from the ground with strings. Once they mastered kites from the ground, they experimented with gliders, aircraft that soar in the air without engines.

Beginning in 1900, the brothers spent the first of four seasons in North Carolina. The frequent winds, open spaces, and soft sand (for landings) made the beaches there a good place to experiment. There were mishaps, crashes, and disappointments. But each visit added to the Wrights’ knowledge. The first flight was not very long: It lasted only one minute. But Orville and Wilbur Wright’s persistence and experimentation had paid off—and the other side of the world suddenly got a whole lot closer and their system of airplane control is still used today on modern jets.

And Let’s Not Forget . . .

Robert Goddard

On March 16, 1926, the first liquid-fueled rocket rose 41 feet into the sky at a speed of 60 miles per hour. The whole flight lasted only two and a half seconds. But it was modern rocket science’s first flight. Robert Goddard, the man behind this test, had always been interested in science and loved to read everything he could about space. Most of his experiments were failures, and at times he was mocked for his ideas, but Goddard never gave up. He was convinced that space travel was possible. During his lifetime, very few people knew about Goddard’s work. He pursued his dream in the loneliness of a test ground in the New Mexico desert. But his belief that human beings could reach for the stars earned him the nickname “Father of Modern Rocketry” and Robert Goddard is responsible for the basic design of more than 200 parts found on today’s spacecraft.