Click2History - History of Flight - Chapter 7

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>HISTORY OF FLIGHT</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 7 - FLYER 3</b></font></p> </div>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">Later that afternoon, Orville sent a <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/Dec17_Telegram.jpg" target="_blank"><b>telegram</b></a> to his father who was <a href="http://hawaii.psychology.msstate.edu/invent/i/Wrights/kitty_hawk/4D4.html" target="_blank"><b>home</b></a> in Dayton. Elated, Mr. Wright wrote his <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/MW_Diary_12-17--03.jpg" target="_blank"><b>personal thoughts</b></a> in his diary, including his consternation that the press had not reported the amazing events. Orville also <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/OW_Dec17_Notes_1.jpg" target="_blank"><b>penned</b></a> his <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/OW_Dec17_Notes_2.jpg" target="_blank"><b>reactions</b></a> to the <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/OW_Dec17_Notes_3.jpg" target="_blank"><b>day's events</b></a> in his <a target="_blank" href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/OW_Dec17_Notes_4.jpg"><b>diary</b></a>. </p> <p>The test flights proved Orville and Wilbur Wright had conquered the initial problems of flight. They had filed an application for their <a href="http://hawaii.psychology.msstate.edu/invent/i/Wrights/WrightUSPatent/WrightPatent.html" target="_blank"><b>new invention</b></a> with the U.S. Patent Office nearly nine months before. But they had more work to do before they could make a practical airplane. Flyer 1 was underpowered and hard to control. It would only fly in a straight line for about a minute.</p> <p>For the next two years the brothers improved their designs. They set up the world's first test flight facilities at Huffman Prairie, today the site of Wright Patterson Air Force Base. By the end of 1905, with <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/1905%20Flyer/Diagonal%20s.JPG" target="_blank"><b>Flyer 3</b></a> still <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/1905%20Flyer/Cockpit%20s.JPG" target="_blank"><b>including parts</b></a> that <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/1905%20Flyer/Sprocket%20s.JPG" target="_blank"><b>looked</b></a> as though they <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/1905%20Flyer/Looking%20forward%20s.JPG" target="_blank"><b>belonged</b></a> on a bicycle, they were <a href="http://www.first-to-fly.com/History%20Images/1905_Flyer_over_HP_3.JPG" target="_blank"><b>flying</b></a> figure-eights over Huffman Prairie until their fuel ran out. They had solved the practical problems of flight.</p> <p>By <a href="http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/early_years/ey1-1.jpg" target="_blank"><b>1909</b></a>, the Wright brothers had <a href="http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/early_years/ey1.htm" target="_blank"><b>developed</b></a> their first <a href="http://hawaii.psychology.msstate.edu/invent/i/Wrights/powered_flight/2E1.html" target="_blank"><b>military flyer</b></a>. Wilbur went to Europe and showed Europeans how to fly. (Follow this link to a <a href="http://hawaii.psychology.msstate.edu/invent/gallery/movies/EuroFlyby.html" target="_blank"><b>movie</b></a> of that event.) The Wright brothers' <a href="http://hawaii.psychology.msstate.edu/invent/i/Wrights/kitty_hawk/4F5.html" target="_blank"><b>place</b></a> as two of history's greatest <a href="http://hawaii.psychology.msstate.edu/invent/i/Wrights/powered_flight/2E7.html" target="_blank"><b>inventors</b></a> was assured. </p> <p>Like Gutenberg before them, Wilbur and Orville Wright forever changed life, as human beings had known it. No longer did people live in a two-dimensional world. No longer did men fight battles only on land and on sea. </p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="history_flight_ch6.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="history_flight_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER  </a>   <a href="history_flight_ch8.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>