The Wright Brothers

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The Wright Brothers

• American Dreams

Power point created by Robert L. Martinez Primary
Content Source A Story of US An Age of
Extremes, Joy Hakim
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• On December 17, 1903, two men flew. They were
  brothers from Dayton, Ohio, and they owned a
  bicycle shop. Neither had graduated from high
  school.

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• Their names were Wilbur and Orville Wright.

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• It was not luck that made them the first persons
  in history to build and fly and airplane that
  lifted off the ground with its own power. It was
  hard work and determination.

1903 Horizontal 4-Cyclinder Engine
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• Before they built that plane, they studied all
  that was known about flying. They thought,
  argued, and experimented.

Leonardo Davincis Ideas on Flight
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• They built a wind tunnel and tested 200
  differently shaped wings. Then they carefully
  built their plane.

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• When they flew, it was from Kill Devil Hill at
  Kitty Hawk, on North Carolinas Outer Banks. In
  1803, Kitty Hawk was an empty sandy beach.

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• On that windy December day, Orville won the toss
  of a coin. He got to fly first, lying flat on his
  stomach on the wing of the kite-like biplane.

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• Wilbur ran beside him as the plane lifted a few
  feet above the sand and stayed in the air for 17
  seconds.

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• The brothers took turns and flew four flights
  that day. The longest lasted 59 seconds. Man had
  flown.

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• Men from the lifeboat station had seen them and
  taken a picture. The headlines in the morning
  newspaper, told of the flight, although most of
  the details were wrong.

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• The headlines in the morning local newspaper,
  told of the flight, although most of the details
  were wrong. Other newspapers didnt bother to
  print the story, no one paid much attention.

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• Orville and Wilbur went home to Dayton and set to
  work. They knew they could fly, but they knew
  their plane needed improving.

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• In addition, they needed to learn to be pilots,
  more practice in the air. So they flew around a
  big pasture in Ohio.

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• Only a few people believed that men were actually
  flying. Most people just did not want to believe
  that men could fly.

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• When reporters arrived to witness the
  manned-flight , the brothers were having
  mechanical problems with their plane. The upset
  reporters stayed two days, with no flights to
  witness.

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• Some reporters wrote that the Wright Brothers
  were fakes.

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• Finally, in August 1908, Wilbur went to Europe to
  fly his plane at a racetrack in France. This
  time, there were 24 witnesses. They went wild,
  throwing their hats in the air.

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• The next Monday, 4,000 people were at the
  racetrack to watch him fly. The news went
  worldwide.

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• A month later, in Virginia, Orville showed
  Americans that people could fly. He lifted his
  plane into the air and swung around an army field
  one and a half times before he landed.

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• The crowd of watchers rushed forward screaming
  as loudly as they could, overwhelmed by the
  miracle that had taken place before their eyes.

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• For thousands and thousands of years, men and
  women looked at birds and dreamed that they, too,
  could fly into the air. The dream was now reality.

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• Suddenly, the two shy brothers were celebrities.
  They were carried in parades and toasted at
  banquets. Kings and presidents invited them for
  visits.

Parade in Wright Bros. Hometown of Dayton, Ohio.
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• Merchants began to sell Wilbur and Orville caps
  and merchandise. Finally, everyone believed that
  people could fly.

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• Three problems needed solving in order for people
  to fly. Scientists called them lift, propulsion,
  and control.

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• The Wright brothers needed to find a way to lift
  a plane into the air and keep it there they
  needed to propel the plane forward and they
  needed to control the flight, to turn, to climb,
  to land.

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• Those problems had baffled some of the greatest
  scientific minds of all time. The Wright
  brothers, two high-school dropouts, solved these
  problems.

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• If men and women could fly, anything might be
  possible.

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• Never giving up on your dreams is the greatest
  gift the Wright Bros. gave to the American people.

President Theodore Roosevelt takes a ride in an
airplane.