Aircraft Geek’s Exclusive: 25th Oct

We’re at the Kill Devil Hills, four miles south of the town of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. On Dec 17th 1903 an event occurred in this place the repercussions of which changed the world. It was man’s first flight, more precisely, Orville Wright’s first flight, lasting 12 seconds and covering just 120 feet. The in-flight movie didn’t even have time to get past the opening credits.
The photo below is the precise moment that the aircraft became airborne, with brother Wilbur running alongside having just let go of the wing.

The photo underneath is of exactly the same spot, and now looks nothing like it. In 1903 the area was windblown sand and dunes, now it has been grassed over and formalised, as you’d expect for a museum. What you can see is the black stripe in both pictures. This was the rail needed to launch the plane because of the soft sand, and this was the reason Wilbur was holding the wing to stop the machine tipping over before it reached flying speed.
The big rock is the launch-off point and the four “tombstones” are the distances reached in other flights on that day. The furthest one is 852 feet, in 59 seconds.

Looking the other way from the big rock in the photo above, we see the Kill Devil Hills, or hill really as there’s only one, but in the 1900’s shifting dunes there were apparently several. The monument atop commemorates the Wright Brothers not only for powered flight but also for their gliding experiments off the hill. In 1911 Orville Wright soared aloft for nearly 10 minutes and this record stood for 10 years. Much more satisfying than soaring aloft for nearly 10 years and being beaten 10 minutes later.

The brothers were bicycle engineers from Dayton, Ohio. They chose Kitty Hawk to develop their aircraft because of the prevailing wind and because the local postmaster, to whom they wrote before deciding, seemed enthusiastic in support of their project. Their working conditions were basic and the weather unpredictable: they lived in the right-hand shed whilst working in the other, for months on end. Boeing Dreamliner here we come!