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The First Flight in North Carolina

By: Fleur Paipa

North Carolina is the state where the Wright brothers took their first famous airplane flight. Though Orville and Wilbur Wright lived in Ohio, they decided to take their flight trials down south in the sandy hills of a small town called Kitty Hawk which is located on the chain of Barrier Islands known as the Outer Banks.

Orville and Wilbur Wright owned a bicycle shop in the town of Dayton, Ohio when they got the brainwave to develop a flying machine. They worked on it despite many odds and made many designs before coming up with the famous "Wright Flyer" This was made of wood and metal with canvas stretching across the wings. The pilot had to lay flat on his stomach to steer the controls and fly the plane.

The Wright Brothers had taken four years to build this newfangled flying contraption. They worked on it from 1899 to 1903 to figure out the proper aerodynamics necessary to create an airplane. Even their sister helped them by sewing and stretching the canvass across the wing's frame. It took them many years to finalize the design of the first practical airplane.

The Wright brothers visited Kitty hawk many times before they actually completed their flying machine. They went to the North Carolina coast and tested gliders to get a better idea of aerodynamics. Finally, they left for Kitty Hawk in Spetember 1903 to take their first test flight. They have now become well versed in local topography and often used the services of local people to help them in towing and maintaining the flying machine.

Orville and Wilbur’s 1903 version of the Wright Flyer was a great deal heavier than the previous planes, in fact it was a whopping 125 pounds heavier than the brothers intended. Since the plane was unable to be launched like the previous models, a 15-foot launching rail was built to help propel the plane skyward. This rail was laughingly known as “Grand Junction Railroad.”

The brothers then had to postpone their regular tests because of the inclement weather in the late fall and early winter of 1903. This lead them to doubt whether they will at all be able to achieve their intended test flight that year. Things however changed for the better soon, enabling Wright brothers to start testing again and take their historic flight.

On December 17th, 1903 the Wright brothers accomplished their goal and their Flyer took off into the air. After a quick coin toss to see which brother would serve as pilot, Orville climbed into the controls and took off at 10:35 in the morning. Although the temperatures were cold, the plane soared into the North Carolina sky for a whole 12 seconds. The flight was only 120 feet long, but enough to propel the brothers and their plane into the history books.

After the first historic flight, the brothers made three more flights, with Wilbur piloting the longest course, staying in the air for 59 minutes and covering 852 feet. The great state of North Carolina was witness to this feat of engineering and man on a cold December day. They proudly built a monument to the Wright Brothers on top of the hill that saw their first flight in Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina to commemorate the historic event.

Article Source: http://www.simplepetcare.com/pet-articles

Fleur Paipa is the owner and operator of F north carolina, the web's premier resource for information about north carolina. For more articles on north carolina visit: www.fyinorthcarolina.com/articles
Click here for other unique north carolina articles.

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