1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,080 On the morning of December 17th, 1903, history was made off the sands of Kitty Hawk, North 2 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:11,240 Carolina. 3 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:16,160 For the first time in history, man had achieved controlled flight of a heavier-than-air machine. 4 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:20,960 The Wright brothers had achieved what all their predecessors had only dreamed of, flight. 5 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:25,280 While many of their contemporaries had focused on very complicated designs, the Wrights chose 6 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:28,720 a straightforward design as a means of accomplishing flight. 7 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:32,160 Controlling the aircraft was a key area most designers took for granted. 8 00:00:32,160 --> 00:00:35,700 This is where the Wright brothers targeted most of their design and innovation. 9 00:00:35,700 --> 00:00:39,240 Most early inventors thought that flight control can be achieved by a pilot simply shifting 10 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:41,120 his weight back and forth. 11 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:44,080 The Wrights, on the other hand, knew that controlling the plane would be the key to 12 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:45,080 successful flight. 13 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:48,920 To find out how the Wrights accomplished the goal of flight, I spoke with Jim Cross to 14 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:50,680 find out how it works. 15 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:53,080 Well, it started when they were both pretty young. 16 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:56,080 In fact, at the time, they were living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 17 00:00:56,480 --> 00:00:59,960 They didn't always live in Dayton, even though that's where they considered their home, to 18 00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:01,480 be Dayton, Ohio. 19 00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:05,360 Their father was a minister, in fact, he was a bishop in his church, and he would take 20 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:07,680 long trips away from home. 21 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:11,080 When he would come back, he'd often bring the boys a gift. 22 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:15,920 Well, one time he came back from a trip, and he walked into the room and had something 23 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:16,920 in his hand. 24 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:21,280 And when he opened his hand to show them what it was, it flew out of his hand. 25 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:25,400 Now, what he had brought them was a little helicopter, I guess is what you'd call it 26 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:26,400 today. 27 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:31,120 But at that point, Orville was only seven years old at the time, Wilbur was 11. 28 00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:35,240 That seed of flight was planted, and it never left them. 29 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:41,240 They really just started sort of as enthusiasts and hobbyists, but when they got started on 30 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:44,880 it, they knew before they did anything, they were going to have to learn everything they 31 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:45,880 could on it. 32 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:51,000 In 1896, they decided that they were going to get involved and take an active part in 33 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:52,880 trying to solve this problem of flight. 34 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:56,600 Now, they were in their 20s at the time, young men, owned a bicycle shop, the Wright 35 00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:58,480 Cycle Company right there in Dayton. 36 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:01,920 But what really propelled them was the death of Otto Lilienthal. 37 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:04,840 Now, he was a great German glider pilot. 38 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:07,600 He had made thousands of glider flights. 39 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:10,880 When the Wrights heard of this, they took a look at this and they said, you know, how 40 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:12,360 is this possible? 41 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:17,640 How could he possibly have something go so wrong that it could cause an accident that 42 00:02:17,640 --> 00:02:19,400 he could lose his life in? 43 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:25,880 At that moment, they decided that they wanted to maybe get involved to see if they could 44 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:26,880 figure this out. 45 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:32,240 At first, they didn't have this idea of they're going to go out and invent an airplane. 46 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:37,240 Their initial idea was simply to study the problem, to learn everything about it they 47 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:42,080 could, and what their hope was was to be able to come up with possibly some little tidbit 48 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:46,760 of information that they could add to this body of knowledge that man was accumulating. 49 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:51,000 And then they figured someday somebody's going to put it together and figure this out. 50 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:54,320 The Wright brothers recognized early on that the pilot would have a very limited range 51 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:56,520 of motion in which he could shift his weight. 52 00:02:56,520 --> 00:03:00,120 They realized that a pilot would become fatigued quickly if he was constantly adjusting his 53 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:01,840 weight to control the craft. 54 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:06,440 They understood that movable surfaces would be the only way a plane could be controlled. 55 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:09,360 Wilbur Wright came up with a solution quite by accident. 56 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:13,120 As he was talking with a customer in the bicycle shop, he was fidgeting with a small cardboard 57 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:14,240 box. 58 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:18,160 As he twisted the box back and forth with his fingers, he realized the same principle 59 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:20,440 could be used on an aircraft's wings. 60 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:24,680 This idea came to be known as wing warping, allowing the control they'd been looking for. 61 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:28,800 They tested the idea on a kite glider and were pleased to see how well it worked. 62 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:33,520 With this discovery, the brothers were well on their way to solving the mystery of flight. 63 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:36,720 The Wright Cycle Company right there in Dayton was really a key. 64 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:40,600 A bicycle at the time, late 1800s, was cutting edge technology. 65 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:45,440 Now, a bicycle is an unstable piece of machinery. 66 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:47,720 If you just get on it and sit there, you're going to fall off. 67 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:53,820 Now, even if you start riding it, if you want to turn, you can't simply turn that handlebar. 68 00:03:53,820 --> 00:03:59,720 But if you lean a little into that turn and then turn the handlebar a little, you're making 69 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:00,720 the turn. 70 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:02,760 Same thing with an airplane, they figured. 71 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:04,280 So control was the key. 72 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:05,280 That's what they were going for. 73 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:09,920 In the fall of 1900, the brothers tested their first glider design on the Windy Dunes here 74 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:11,760 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 75 00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:16,040 Although the test flights were somewhat successful, the aircraft needed more design modifications. 76 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:19,960 For the next three years, the brothers would leave Dayton for a few months out of the year 77 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:22,280 to test their new designs at Kitty Hawk. 78 00:04:22,280 --> 00:04:26,880 In the late summer of 1902, the brothers finally had a glider that worked well. 79 00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:28,760 But that was a turning point for the Wrights. 80 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:31,080 At that point, they were no longer hobbyists. 81 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:33,140 They were no longer enthusiasts. 82 00:04:33,140 --> 00:04:37,020 They were now true scientists and engineers. 83 00:04:37,020 --> 00:04:40,460 They had entered a whole new realm. 84 00:04:40,460 --> 00:04:43,940 All that was left to do was find an adequate engine and propeller system, and they felt 85 00:04:43,940 --> 00:04:45,980 that they would soon be flying. 86 00:04:45,980 --> 00:04:50,460 Unfortunately, automobile engines of the time were not up to their exacting standards. 87 00:04:50,460 --> 00:04:54,320 So in typical Wright fashion, they hired their friend Charles Taylor to make an engine especially 88 00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:55,740 suited for their needs. 89 00:04:55,740 --> 00:05:00,740 The engine weighed 180 pounds, and it gave them 12 horsepower. 90 00:05:00,740 --> 00:05:03,380 That's 50% more than they needed. 91 00:05:03,380 --> 00:05:04,380 So they had that engine. 92 00:05:04,540 --> 00:05:07,740 Now that was a four-cylinder, gasoline-powered, water-cooled engine. 93 00:05:07,740 --> 00:05:09,940 I mean, it worked great. 94 00:05:09,940 --> 00:05:12,820 With the engine problem solved, they looked to the propeller. 95 00:05:12,820 --> 00:05:16,260 For years, the Wright brothers assumed that the propeller would be the easiest problem 96 00:05:16,260 --> 00:05:18,060 to solve on the aircraft. 97 00:05:18,060 --> 00:05:21,980 Their original design was based on a ship's propeller, but they ultimately found that 98 00:05:21,980 --> 00:05:24,620 this design was not sufficient for their needs. 99 00:05:24,620 --> 00:05:30,100 The Wrights were the first ones to figure out that a propeller for an aircraft truly 100 00:05:30,100 --> 00:05:35,660 needs to be a rotary wing, something that can create lift. 101 00:05:35,660 --> 00:05:39,980 And you just rotate that 90 degrees, you got thrust. 102 00:05:39,980 --> 00:05:44,140 After months of tackling complex mathematics and theoretical physics, the brothers designed 103 00:05:44,140 --> 00:05:45,460 their own propellers. 104 00:05:45,460 --> 00:05:51,860 Now, they hand-made these propellers out of laminated spruce. 105 00:05:51,860 --> 00:05:57,220 They put all of this together on the craft, and when they were done, they had a unique 106 00:05:57,220 --> 00:05:59,020 piece of machinery. 107 00:05:59,020 --> 00:06:03,260 Something that could do what no other machine in the world had ever done before. 108 00:06:03,260 --> 00:06:04,580 They were confident of that. 109 00:06:04,580 --> 00:06:08,100 They knew it, but they had yet to prove it. 110 00:06:08,100 --> 00:06:12,620 After winning a coin toss to decide who would try first, Wilbur climbed into the plane December 111 00:06:12,620 --> 00:06:14,340 14, 1903. 112 00:06:14,340 --> 00:06:18,980 Unfortunately, this first flight attempt failed, causing minor damage to the plane. 113 00:06:18,980 --> 00:06:24,060 So three days later, after repairs had been made, it was Orville's turn to attempt flight. 114 00:06:24,060 --> 00:06:28,300 Now, as they were getting ready to launch that craft, Orville and Wilbur kind of went 115 00:06:28,300 --> 00:06:30,820 to one side and had a little short conversation. 116 00:06:30,820 --> 00:06:35,340 The witnesses said when they left, they shook hands like two people that may never see each 117 00:06:35,340 --> 00:06:36,340 other again. 118 00:06:36,340 --> 00:06:37,340 Now, they come back. 119 00:06:37,340 --> 00:06:41,540 He gets on board that craft, lays down in that pilot position there. 120 00:06:41,540 --> 00:06:44,740 Now, Wilbur's got to take his place out on the wing. 121 00:06:44,740 --> 00:06:46,380 They're ready to go. 122 00:06:46,380 --> 00:06:50,740 Orville releases that wire, and that craft starts down the rail. 123 00:06:50,740 --> 00:06:54,540 Wilbur's running along, holding on to that wing, keeping up just fine until at 1035 in 124 00:06:54,540 --> 00:06:58,540 the morning, 17 December, 1903, it lifts into the air. 125 00:06:58,540 --> 00:07:05,140 And for the first time in the history of the world, we have controlled, powered flight. 126 00:07:05,140 --> 00:07:09,700 First flight, 12 seconds, only went 120 feet. 127 00:07:09,700 --> 00:07:16,300 But it was truly the first controlled, powered flight by man. 128 00:07:16,300 --> 00:07:22,700 Now, they made three more flights that day, total of four flights, and they alternated. 129 00:07:22,700 --> 00:07:25,580 Wilbur made the fourth and the longest flight. 130 00:07:25,580 --> 00:07:32,420 The third flight was only 200 feet, but the fourth flight was 852 feet in 59 seconds. 131 00:07:32,420 --> 00:07:38,460 That really proved it to the world that they had really done it. 132 00:07:38,460 --> 00:07:40,460 What have we seen since then? 133 00:07:40,460 --> 00:07:43,500 I mean, we got a space station in orbit right now. 134 00:07:43,500 --> 00:07:45,620 I mean, we put a man on the moon. 135 00:07:45,620 --> 00:07:50,900 We have literally come from Wilbur's footprints in the sand right here to Neil Armstrong's 136 00:07:50,900 --> 00:07:51,900 footprints on the moon. 137 00:07:52,100 --> 00:07:57,100 Now, when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, he had with him, had it tucked inside a space 138 00:07:57,100 --> 00:08:02,340 suit, he had a small patch of cloth from that original Wright Brothers 1903 powered flyer. 139 00:08:02,340 --> 00:08:08,980 And I can think of no finer tribute to the Wrights than that. 140 00:08:08,980 --> 00:08:09,980 That's all from the Wright Memorial. 141 00:08:09,980 --> 00:08:10,980 I'm out of here. 142 00:08:10,980 --> 00:08:15,020 Oh, but before I go, did you know that Orville Wright was not only the first person to fly, 143 00:08:15,020 --> 00:08:18,660 but he was also involved in the first fatal aircraft accident? 144 00:08:18,660 --> 00:08:22,420 The first person killed in an airplane accident was Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge. 145 00:08:22,420 --> 00:08:26,940 On September 17th, 1908, airplane inventor Orville Wright took Lieutenant Selfridge up 146 00:08:26,940 --> 00:08:29,900 on a demonstration flight for the U.S. Army. 147 00:08:29,900 --> 00:08:34,100 During the flight, one of the propellers separated, causing Wright to lose control. 148 00:08:34,100 --> 00:08:38,140 The plane fell 75 feet to the ground, killing Lieutenant Selfridge, while Orville Wright 149 00:08:38,140 --> 00:08:40,260 suffered a broken leg and pelvis.