Wright Brothers' First Attempt: Three Days Before Flight

Three days before they changed the world, Wilbur Wright crashed. On December 14, 1903, the Wright brothers made their first attempt at powered flight at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Wilbur won a coin toss for pilot, launched down their wooden rail, pulled the nose up too sharply, stalled, and dropped into the sand after three and a half seconds. The brothers had prepared for four years. Since 1899, Orville and Wilbur Wright, bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio, systematically solved the problems of flight through wind tunnel experiments, glider tests, and careful observation. Their key breakthrough was wing warping, a method of twisting wings to control roll, giving the pilot authority that no other aviation pioneer had achieved. Their aircraft, the Wright Flyer, was a biplane with a wingspan just over forty feet, powered by a twelve-horsepower gasoline engine built by machinist Charlie Taylor. No automobile engine was light enough, so Taylor fabricated one from aluminum in six weeks. A sprocket chain drive, borrowed from bicycle technology, connected the engine to two hand-carved wooden propellers. The December 14 failure was minor. The Flyer sustained slight damage to the front elevator when it nosed into sand, requiring three days of repairs. The brothers analyzed the problem: Wilbur had over-corrected on takeoff, a matter of pilot technique rather than aircraft design. When they tried again on December 17, Orville took the controls and managed a twelve-second flight covering 120 feet. By the fourth flight, Wilbur flew 852 feet in fifty-nine seconds. The age of powered aviation began with a failed first attempt and a damaged elevator.