The twentieth century was the greatest century of human invention. The scale of technological and scientific development produced during that hundred years staggers the imagination and defies adequate analysis--even in the present. The century saw the development of antibiotics, the widespread application of electricity, the harnessing power of the atom, the development of the transistor and the microprocessor, and the electronic revolution. The commercial development of the automobile and the widespread use of the internal combustion engine led to a revolution in human mobility that literally changed the shape of American life.
Nevertheless, the most exhilarating technological development of the twentieth century must have been the invention of the airplane. The development of heavier-than-air powered flight opened a new epoch of human history. No longer were human beings bound to the earth. The advent of flight promised that the geographic obstacle of space could be collapsed even as time for travel was radically reduced. No previous invention had so collapsed space and time to human advantage.
December 17, 2003 marks the centennial of the Wright brothers' first successful flight. On the morning of December 17, 1903 the Brothers' took their primitive airplane to Kill Devil Hill at Kitty Hawk, located on North Carolina's windy coast. The rest is history.
The background to that historic landmark is a fascinating story of human dreams, colossal failures, and grim determination. James Tobin, author of To Conquer the Air: the Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight, noted that the dream of human flight was routinely discounted by many authorities of the day. "In the entire world," Tobin recounts, "only a handful of men with any standing in science had suggested that human flight was possible."
In the years prior to the Wright brothers' success, various inventors had made their own gallant attempts at flight. The French, who had pioneered human flight with lighter-than-air balloons, fervently hoped to be the first to succeed at powered flight by means of a "flying machine.". Even after the Wright brothers reported their success, many Frenchmen claimed that the Wrights were "liars not fliers." The German pioneer Otto Lilienthal had produced a series of successful gliders, but died in a crash in 1896. Percy Pilcher, an intrepid Scotsman, died in a similar crash in 1899. Experiments at flight did not make for a long life.
In America, the most promising pioneer in aviation appeared to be Samuel Pierpont Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Langley had everything going for his proposal. He had the backing of the United States government, access to the best suppliers, and a great deal of media attention. His attempts at powered flight garnered a great deal of attention as the experiments took place in the middle of Potomac River, observed by a gaggle of reporters. His plane, called the "Great Aerodrome," crashed into the Potomac for a second time just nine days before the Wright brothers' success at Kitty Hawk. The Wright's first flight, with Orville at the controls, lasted for only twelve seconds and traveled only 120 feet. Three other flights took place on that historic day, the longest of which was 59 seconds in duration and 852 feet in length.
Once the news of the flights traveled from Kitty Hawk to the world, many responded with indifference. Frank Tunison, an Associated Press reporter stationed in Dayton, dismissed the report as insifficiently newsworthy. Misreading the telegram that reported a 59 second flight as 57 seconds, Tunison responded; "57 seconds, hey? If it'd been 57 minutes then it might have been a news item." Tunison missed one of the great news stories of the century.
Orville and Wilbur Wright were the younger sons of the Rev. Milton Wright, a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, and a staunch defender of conservative doctrine in his denomination. The Wrights grew up in an active household that was unquestionably led by a strong father and infused with a work ethic. Long before turning to flight, the Wright brothers had already established a printing operation and were running a bicycle shop in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio. Dayton then stood at the statistical population center of the United States and, despite its rather modest population, ranked third in the nation in terms of new patents.
