The Wright Brothers built and flew the first successful heavier-than-air, powered, manned aircraft.
At 10:30 A.M. on December 17, 1903, Orville Wright achieved the first piloted, sustained, controlled and powered flight. His brother, Wilbur Wright, stood by and timed the flight with a stopwatch. The first flight lasted twelve seconds and the aircraft flew 100 yards. The location was Kill Devil Hills, near Kitty Hawk in North Carolina. After four years of experiments with kites, gliders and wind tunnel testing, the Wright Brothers finally achieved their dream. Three more flights were made that day and the longest was nearly a minute and covered more than half a mile. They designed their own engine with the aid of their bicycle mechanic, Charlie Taylor. He designed and built an original engine that just met the Wright Brothers minimum specifications. The propellers were remarkably efficient considering there was almost complete lack of knowledge on this subject at this time. Wilbur Wright was the first person to recognize that a propeller is nothing more than a twisted wing, where the "lift" force is now pointing forward for propulsion. Using his theory in conjunction with their airfoil data measured during previous wind tunnel testing, Wilbur designed and constructed a remarkably efficient propeller. This aspect of the Wright brothers' technology is sometimes not fully appreciated, yet it was one of the most important technical victories that led to their success. Wing warping was used for lateral control. Wilbur conceived the idea of bending, or deflecting, the tips of wings to achieve lateral control around the longitudinal axis of an aircraft. The concept of wing warping was another one of the major ingredients for the Wright's success. The Wright Brothers were the first to treat a flying machine as an integrated system involving aerodynamics, propulsion, structures, and flight dynamics. They fully appreciated the interaction and mutual importance of all these aspects. In this sense, they were the first to build a total flying machine, which encompassed all of the major aspects of a modern airplane.
