The Birth of Flight - Page 4

	1901 Wright Glider				First Flight, Kitty Hawk, NC – 1903

In 1900, after much careful experimentation in learning how to control kites with wingspans almost five feet long, the Wright brothers built a larger "kite" (with a 17 foot wingspan), which they called a glider, that could carry a pilot. They devoted much time to looking for a suitable place where they could fly the glider, even contacting the U.S. Weather Bureau for advice. They finally settled on Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, a small village on the coastal area known as the Outer Banks, because of its steady winds and the sandy beaches, which would minimize the damage and potential injury in case of a crash. In 1901, the Wright brothers returned to Kitty Hawk to fly a second, improved glider. The results were encouraging, with the brothers managing to briefly become airborne in the glider.

They were so encouraged, in fact, that during the winter of 1902, they began developing a small motor and propeller to add to the glider design. This new "airplane" had a wingspan of 39 feet, and weighed, including the pilot, about 750 pounds. Finally, on December 17, 1903, at 10:35 A.M. at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, Orville Wright made the first successful powered, heavier-than-air controlled flight, which lasted about 12 seconds and rose about 120 feet, setting the stage for a new era of human-controlled flight.