IN DEPTH: AVIATION
Breaking news: humans can fly
CBC News | December 17, 1903
This is a reprint of the original story filed to the Associated Press by the two principals. Spelling, punctuation and grammar are original
By ORVILLE WRIGHT
and WILBUR WRIGHT
For The Associated Press
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- It had not been our intention to make any detailed public statement concerning the private trials of our power "Flyer" on the 17th of December last; but since the contents of a private telegram, announcing to our folks at home the success of our trials, was dishonestly communicated to the
newspaper men at the Norfolk office, and led to the imposition upon the public, by persons who never saw the "Flyer" or its flights, of a fictitious story incorrect in almost every detail; and since this story together with several pretended interviews or statements, which were fakes pure and simple, have been very widely
disseminated, we feel impelled to make some correction.
The real facts were as follows:
On the morning of December 17th, between the hours of 10:30 o'clock and noon, four flights were made, two by Orville Wright and two by Wilbur Wright. The starts were all made from a point on the level sand about 200 feet west of our camp, which is located a quarter of a mile north of the Kill Devil sand hill, in Dare County, North Carolina.
The wind at the time of the flights had a velocity of 27 miles an hour at ten o'clock, and 24 miles an hour at noon, as recorded by the anemometer at the Kitty Hawk Weather Bureau Station.
This anemometer is thirty feet from the ground. Our own
measurements, made with a hand anemometer at a height of four feet
from the ground, showed a velocity of about 22 miles when the first
flight was made, and 20 1/2 miles at the time of the last one.
The flights were directly against the wind. Each time the
machine started from the level ground by its own power alone, with
no assistance from gravity, or any other source whatever.
After a run of about 40 feet along a mono-rail track, which held
the machine eight inches from the ground, it rose from the track
and under the direction of the operator climbed upward on an
inclined course till a height of eight or ten feet from the ground
was reached, after which the course was kept as near horizontal as
the wind gusts and the limited skill of the operator would permit.
Into the teeth of a December gale the "Flyer" made its way
forward with a speed of ten miles an hour over the ground and
thirty to thirty-five miles an hour through the air.
It had previously been decided that for reasons of personal
safety these first trials should be made as close to the ground as
possible. The height chosen was scarcely sufficient for maneuvering
in so gusty a wind and with no previous acquaintance with the
conduct of the machine and its controlling mechanisms. Consequently
the first flight was short.
The succeeding flights rapidly increased in length and at the
fourth trial a flight of fifty-nine seconds was made, in which time
the machine flew a little more than a half a mile through the air,
and a distance of 852 feet over the ground.
The landing was due to a slight error of judgment on the part of
the aviator. After passing over a little hummock of sand, in
attempting to bring the machine down to the desired height, the
operator turned the rudder too far; and the machine turned downward
more quickly than had been expected. The reverse movement of the
rudder was a fraction of a second too late to prevent the machine
from touching the ground and thus ending the flight. The whole
occurence occupied little, if any more, than one second of time.
Only those who are acquainted with practical aeronautics can
appreciate the difficulties of attempting the first trials of a
flying machine in a twenty-five mile gale. As Winter was already
well set in, we should have postponed our trials to a more
favorable season, but for the fact that we were determined, before
returning home, to know whether the machine possessed sufficient
power to fly, sufficient strength to withstand the shocks of
landings, and sufficient capacity of control to make flight safe in
boisterous winds, as well as in calm air.
When these points had been definitely established, we at once
packed our goods and returned home, knowing that the age of the
flying machine had come at last.
From the beginning we have employed entirely new principles of
control; and as all the experiments have been conducted at our own
expense without assistance from any individual or institution, we
do not feel ready at present to give out any pictures or detailed
description of the machine.
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