Vox

Musings, rants, rambling, general nonsense

Take Flight

Posted on | December 17, 2012 | No Comments

The Wright Flyer made four flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, the best covering 852 feet in 59 seconds.

Wright Brothers
It was the first heavier-than-air, powered aircraft to make a sustained, controlled flight with a pilot aboard.

It was also one in a long line of designs over several years. A great deal of time, money, and failure was necessary for that moment (less than a minute) of triumph.

Orville Wright once said of their inventions: “We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate what ever aroused curiosity.” A lesson to parents & teachers everywhere.

Of course, it pays to remember that even visionaries are sometimes wrong:

“No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris …[because] no known motor can run at the requisite speed for four days without stopping.”
– Orville Wright

From that brief glide to super-sonic passenger flight – to walking on the moon. What a wonderful world.

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Category: education, General, USA

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