1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,560
Hello everyone, I'm Steele McGonigal, and I'm Kara O'Brien.

2
00:00:06,560 --> 00:00:08,600
Welcome to Destination Tomorrow.

3
00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:12,880
On this special episode of Destination Tomorrow, we'll look back at the first century of powered

4
00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:17,240
flight and the pioneers who designed and built the world's first flying machines.

5
00:00:17,240 --> 00:00:19,840
And we'll discover what the future might hold for aviation.

6
00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:23,840
Throughout history, man has always been intrigued with the idea of flight.

7
00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:29,320
However, most early aviation pioneers could not imagine flight as we know it today.

8
00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:34,520
With limited understanding of basic aerodynamic principles, many of these early pioneers attempted

9
00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:41,640
to build flying machines that were shape-like and emulated the flight of birds.

10
00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:45,760
The crude structures that they built generally relied on feathers and flapping wings as the

11
00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:50,960
catalyst for flight, ultimately leaving a trail of broken men and machines.

12
00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:54,960
History is inundated with stories of these birdmen jumping from towers and cliffs in

13
00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:56,760
a vain attempt to fly.

14
00:00:56,760 --> 00:01:01,000
Flight attempts gradually moved from small feathered devices toward larger structures,

15
00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:05,800
yet many of these attempts still ended in humiliation and sometimes even death.

16
00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:10,760
However, with all of these failures, early inventors were building a foundation of knowledge

17
00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:13,840
for the future of flight.

18
00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:17,640
Although many had tried to build machines that could fly, all earlier powered flight

19
00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:21,280
attempts had failed before the flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903.

20
00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:24,840
Though the Wright Brothers were the first to fly a heavier-than-air machine, people

21
00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:28,040
had been airborne long before the Wrights' first flight.

22
00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:31,880
The Montgolfier Brothers conducted the first public display of a hot-air balloon flight

23
00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:34,920
near Paris in June of 1783.

24
00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:39,280
Balloons were also used extensively during the American Civil War to observe enemy positions,

25
00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:42,680
but balloons could not be controlled very easily, so the search continued to find a

26
00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:45,820
system that would allow heavier-than-air powered flight.

27
00:01:45,820 --> 00:01:50,760
In the late 1700s, Sir George Cayley of England helped define the problem of powered flight

28
00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:54,200
when he observed the problems of lift and drag of birds.

29
00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:58,720
Through a series of mathematical calculations and use of a device called the whirling arm,

30
00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:02,900
he tested numerous wing designs and eventually published many of his findings, providing

31
00:02:02,900 --> 00:02:05,800
a solid basis for flight pioneers of the future.

32
00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:09,600
One of the most notable pioneers that profited from this information was the German glider

33
00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:11,760
designer Otto Lilienthal.

34
00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:15,560
Lilienthal was often referred to as the Birdman because his glider designs were generally

35
00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:17,320
shaped like birds or bats.

36
00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:22,360
In his lifetime, he built 16 different glider designs, testing them from a man-made hill

37
00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:23,640
near his home.

38
00:02:23,640 --> 00:02:29,720
Unfortunately, he died August 10, 1896, after the glider he was testing spun out of control.

39
00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:31,240
His last words were,

40
00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:33,240
"...sacrifices must be made."

41
00:02:35,640 --> 00:02:39,760
Building off of the work of others, Orville and Wilbur Wright began working towards their

42
00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:43,000
goal of building the first heavier-than-air vehicle.

43
00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:47,240
In June of 1899, the Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian received a letter from Wilbur

44
00:02:47,240 --> 00:02:51,240
Wright asking for reading material that related to heavier-than-air flight.

45
00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:55,720
In his letter, Wilbur wrote that he was an enthusiast, but not a crank, with some pet

46
00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:57,200
theories of his own about flight.

47
00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:01,280
A few weeks after his letter was received, Wilbur received a package from the Smithsonian

48
00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:06,080
containing reading material and suggestions referencing virtually every text in existence

49
00:03:06,080 --> 00:03:07,920
that mentioned flight.

50
00:03:07,920 --> 00:03:11,440
With this information in hand, the Wright brothers started their crusade to build the

51
00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:13,760
first viable heavier-than-air ship.

52
00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:17,480
To help us understand how the Wright brothers accomplished their goals and how their early

53
00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:20,800
planes flew, Johnny Alonzo finds out how it works.