 The most famous photograph in the history of aviation. The Wright Brothers first flight. December 17th, 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. How do you do? I am Paul Garber. It is my privilege to be the historian Emeritus for the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. I'm pleased to bring you another of the series on the history of flight, part two of the Wright Brothers. I want to emphasize the significance of this wonderful photograph. This occasion that you are seeing was the first time in the history of the world that a machine heavier than air, not a balloon, not an airship, heavier than air, carrying a man had risen from the ground under its own power, had flown forward under control without reduction of speed and had landed without wreckage at a point equally as high as that from which it had started. Now that very excellent definition of what constitutes true flight is the best setting forth of the principles that constitute practical aviation. There are many other persons for whom the first flight was claimed. Oh, Whitehead in Connecticut, Adair in France, Maxime in England, Santos Dumont in Brazil, Jethro in Germany. Each one deserving his place. But when you take their claims for the first flight and sift those through that definition, none can equal the qualifications that the Wright Brothers did possess and they remain preeminent as the first to fly. That definition is contained in the first article prepared by Orville and Wilbur Wright. It appeared in the Century Magazine for September 1908 and is an excellent article for all of you to read. You will enjoy it. You will benefit from it, as I did. There were four flights made that day of December 17, 1903. The first with Orville at the controls was for 12 seconds, a distance of about 120 feet, 10 feet per second. The second by Wilbur, about 175 feet. The third by Orville, the Brothers alternating, was a similar distance. But the fourth by Wilbur was 852 feet in 59 seconds. He really got up and flew that thing. But in the landing, which was abrupt, nobody had ever flown an airplane before. No books on this, no training lessons. They had to teach themselves. And each flight ended as a wingtip would touch some little ground. But in that landing by Wilbur, there was some damage. And they took the aircraft back to the hangar and there had taken off the front elevator member and were going to repair it. Now, the wind was very strong that day, 27 miles an hour. And as they were talking about the flight and working on this repair, the wind got under those wings and all of a sudden the aircraft was raised up and then over and then over and over and over just like a box kite with a broken string. And it was impossible to repair it at that time so the Brothers decided to pack up and go on home in time for Christmas. But first, they wanted to send a telegram to their father. In fact, they'd planned to fill the gasoline tank all the way and fly over to the telegraph station. But they walked over and there they did send this telegram. Success. Four flights Thursday. Thursday morning. All against a 21-mile wind, actually 27. Started from the level with engine power alone. Average speed through the air, 31 miles. Longest, 57 seconds. Really 59. Informed the press. Home Christmas. Signed by Orville Wright. Well, the telegrapher had mixed up a couple of figures there. But when the father received this, he gave it to his daughter and said, hurry on down to the newspaper and tell them this wonderful news. Well, the Dayton Journal had but recently heard about some flights made by a Zeppelin airship from O'Fridish coffin to Stuttgart or some 60 miles or so. And he thought, well, what does a 57-second flight got to do with anything of importance? The Dayton Journal had nothing at all. In fact, well, the Virginia pilot newspaper did have a very flamboyant article, quite incorrect. But that was copied here and there. Came out of the New York Herald about a month later and a very flamboyant description of things that just could not be said the flight had been for three miles and this picture shows a propeller underneath to push it up. But even so, it was publicity. And yet, then it subsided and the world forgot all about Wilbur and Orville Wright. Well, they no longer had the need, you see, for the high hills and the strong winds and the soft sand there at Kitty Hawk. And so, near their home in Dayton, Ohio, they obtained the use of a field about seven miles away called Huffman's Prairie. Now, Wilbur made this sketch several years later to show some friends where it was. There was a huge oval there with a hanger up there at the top and there was a streetcar line that ran on one side of the field and a public road on the other. Persons who say the Wright brothers practiced in private just didn't realize the facts. But there at Huffman's Prairie, the Wright brothers first set up a rig similar to that which they had had at Kitty Hawk. That is the long rail for takeoff. And yet, in the summertime the buoyancy doesn't have the depth, the body, as it does in the winter. So summer air didn't have the same strength and thus the Wright brothers decided they needed more push to get off the ground. So they contrived a catapult. Now, over here at the right you see that tower. That tower had a weight that was pulled up to the top. I can show that better in a drawing. And, thank you, here at the top of the tower was that heavy weight and then a line on that weight went up to the top over the pulley down that front leg way over here to your left over the end of the track where there was another pulley and then the line went to the front of the airplane. Then you see when the weight came down the airplane was pulled forward and thus into the air. Now, that was first tried on September the 4th of 1904. There's Wilbur up there attaching the fittings for the pulley take-all and there's the heavy weight there on the ground. Actually, this picture was taken a few years later but it shows what I'm trying to illustrate. The use of this catapult for take-off. We all know today you've got to have more gun to get off the ground than you do to stay up there. So, in 1904 they made 105 flights the longest over 5 minutes. That was on September 20 when for the first time they flew out and back. Now, these others I spoke of were the rudimentaries over there in Europe. They've made little bounces off the ground but in a straight line. But the Wright brothers there on September 20 flew out and back in big circles and in figure eights gaining good control of this aircraft. The next year, 1905 they flew for more than half an hour a flight of 24.2 miles in 38.5 minutes. This was such an excellent accomplishment that the Wright brothers then wrote to the War Department and said, well, we've perfected an airplane and we'd like to demonstrate to you. We think it has military possibilities. We'd be very pleased to show it to you. The Wright, the War Department paid no attention, just sent them a form letter saying that, well, it wasn't at all helpful just saying that demonstrations had to be given. The Wright brothers had already asked for that but here they did receive their patent in 1906. 1903. And this patent is another thing I want to emphasize to you. This was not merely a patent for lift. Aircraft had been lifting since the first kite 3,000 years ago. Things had been steering since the Chinese put a rudder on a boat, maybe another 3,000 before that. But the patent of the Wright brothers was for the combination of balance, lateral balance and the control of yaw. This was the tendency of an aircraft to sort of slew around in flight but by the addition of that rear vertical surface and the manipulation in connection with lateral balance the Wright brothers did develop the basic elements of true flight. It's interesting to see what the rest of the world is trying to do during this period. There was Voya of Bulgaria who had made this very interesting aircraft. The French Nusée de l'Air at Chalet Moudon in France. You should go over there and see it. It has an Antoinette engine and it barely skipped along the ground. Maybe the tracks got a bit light. Here is Elahammer in Denmark. And this rose about a foot and flew about a hundred feet but it was tethered to a post so that some of those some of that lift could have been centrifugal. Then there was Alberta Santa's of Brazil. He was in France and he as you see rose a bit and went about eighty-some feet and then later on went about two hundred feet. These were the first flights officially witnessed by representatives of the Fédéracillon Éternatique Internationale in Paris and thus Santa's Dumont is often credited as the first to fly. But it was not until the end of nineteen seven as you see here that anyone else flew an airplane as much as a minute. And yet the Wright brothers had flown more than half an hour back there in nineteen five. Now the efforts with the War Department continued to be frustrating. The Wright brothers had hoped that our own country would be interested but there was very little response in the meanwhile other countries were becoming interested. Russia and France and England and Germany and so in nineteen seven Wilbur went to France and tried to make some arrangements for demonstrations then Orville followed and tried to help with these. Then Orville was asked by Wilbur to prepare one of their airplanes for demonstrations abroad but it just lay in customs while all of these negotiations were going forward. But now in the meanwhile there was a plan to have a meeting of all the navies of the world down at Hampton roads. And the Wright brothers thought well nobody believes we can fly all of these efforts to get together with these governments are so frustrating and disappointing. Let's go back to Kitty Hawk they said let's put floats on our aircraft and see if we can't fly off Albemarle sound and then we'll fly over those those vessels and certainly the feats of the world will be impressively convinced that an airplane does exist and that we can fly it. Well they never did complete this experiment here you see them on the Miami river near Dayton they had incidentally I want to emphasize that they used hydrofoils on those floats now you think hydrofoils are new well they were invented in 1905 by Forlanini in Italy but the Wright brothers here just two or three years later had learned about them and put them on these floats they got some lift but they gave up these experiments before they were completed because France did show some positive interest but the Wright brothers hadn't flown since 1905 so they went back to Kitty Hawk and there this photograph quite retouched was taken by Jimmy Hare of Collier's magazine and the article by Byron Newton described how these Wright brothers actually did fly those reporters lay there sort of in ambush the Wright brothers knew they were there but the reporters didn't know the Wright brothers did and they took this picture and they made this drawing which shows that for the first time they they were sitting up and there also for this first time is a passenger carried in an airplane the passenger is Charlie Furness one of the Wright brothers mechanics and these flights were very helpful in regaining their skill teaching a new method of control you recall that previously they had laying prone and so with this new experience this new practice Wilbur then went to France he got that airplane out of customs which Orville had sent over the previous year and he had this shed constructed for him Mr. Hart O'Burg was his very good friend over there and this shed was much like the one he had at Kitty Hawk the one out of Huffman's Prairie and Wilbur lived in that shed he didn't go at home to some hotel at night he lived there he had his galley over there in the corner he had a bunk some kind of a canvas bid and he lived and worked and lived until he got the job finished but in the meanwhile these French thought that he was just bluffing they thought well look at all the wonderful flights that our persons have made and yet this Wilbur Wright is just a bluffer so this was called Le Bluffeur and there were other criticisms that were not at all complimentary but Wilbur kept on working and then came the day when he brought the aircraft completed, repaired ready to fly I said repaired because there had been some damage to it while it was in customs Warville later thought somebody had gotten into that box and was responsible for the damage that Wilbur complained about in the packing but here is the aircraft repaired brought out the rear rudder put on the front elevator put on already for these demonstrations now these were to take place at Le Mans Le Mans about 30 miles I was told outside of Paris later they went down to Pau which was a warmer section of that country but here's Wilbur he's got those beams those 2x4's maybe that's a 2x6 that he's going to lay in the line for that launching track and then he's going to climb up there in the tower make that all rigged up get that ready for the weight here he is fixing up the lines by which the aircraft is to be catapulted into the air and then the aircraft was brought out placed upon the track there it is being moved out now we have a wonderful motion picture here the first ever made of an airplane in flight and I'm so pleased that through the help of National Archives and this wonderful crew here in the Navy the 2 gyms that we can show it to you there's Wilbur putting a wheel under that wing under the other wing and thus it is just rolled over the ground those wheels were just for temporary use now here's a working party in fact persons later considered a great honor to help pull that weight up there's a passenger seated because you see Wilbur was going to take passengers over there also and teach persons to fly starting the engine by getting those propellers on compression and then down she goes and there goes the weight and there goes the aircraft and into the air there were hundreds thousands of persons came to see these flights these were astounding they were the greatest news of the day just as later on we had the news of the trip up there to the moon and these flights all about 35 miles an hour well a short film but very impressive and I'm so glad we had it now the first of Wilbur's passengers was Mr. Zens a noted balloonist of that time interesting to look at that control Wilbur's left hand controls the front elevator his right hand controls the rudder when he pulls it back and forth and then controls the wing warping as he moves the lever from side to side no safety belts just sort of sit there and hope you're kept in by the wind pressure then off into the air now Mrs. Hart O'Burg is said to be the first woman ever to fly in an airplane she was the wife of the man who had made the arrangements for Wilbur over there in France I want to call the ladies attention to that very modest bit there this line has been tied around her dress at the ankles it was just terrible back in 1908 to show an ankle later on in when I became a little older why ankles were no longer a mystery but in those days women were a bit more modest and again you see the method of control with Wilbur's hands she made a flight that she enjoyed a great deal and as Wilbur continued to fly this news came to the ears of royalty now you always hear about a royal command requiring a person to go to see that royal person but here's the king of Spain coming there to France to see Wilbur the king of Spain there at the right had on very interested in all that he was witnessing Wilbur was showing him how the engine operated how the controls were working and the king wanted to take a flight in fact he got as far as that front seat but about that time the queen said no so poor Alphonse never got his flight and yet he was so impressed as was the king Edward of England who also saw the Wright brothers fly and the king of Italy as you'll learn when I give the next part of this story so in the meanwhile now James Gordon Bennett the editor of the New York Herald had originated a number of prizes for competitions and transportation the James Gordon Bennett balloon prize was won by Frank Lom who you see there at the left he was Lieutenant Frank Lom United States Army cavalry his companion was Major Hersey and they did win that first James Gordon Bennett race but in the meanwhile Frank Lom and his father were learning about the about the work of the Wright brothers and it was so impressive to them they were so proud of these Americans and so they interceded with Theodore Roosevelt and urged that the Wright brothers be permitted to demonstrate their airplane in America even though the war department had not shown the interest so Theodore Roosevelt directed his secretary of war to get on the beam specifications were written and bids were let out in fact 41 persons responded they thought the rights would be the only one but 41 persons responded at various prices won one of the million dollars with the Wright brothers bid $25,000 and the contract was awarded to them so then Orville was to give those demonstrations at Fort Meier while Wilbur was giving his demonstrations in France and here is one of those specifications being fulfilled that the airplane had to be sufficiently portable to be carried from one place to another on an ordinary army wagon there is Orville on the running board of that car the craft is coming up the hill there at Fort Meier and then was to go across the drill field where at that time as you'll see the army was experimenting with balloons in fact the army had used balloons as far back as the Civil War and we're going to tell that in another one of these parts also the army was interested in an airship and this airship had been made by Thomas Baldwin and the power was provided by Glenn Curtis Glenn Curtis of Hammonsport be mentioning him a little further on and this airship was quite successful the flights by it were in July now here we are September 30th part of September in 1908 the airplane being unloaded into the hangar there where it was assembled Orville supervising the mechanics getting a hand from the men of the signal corps there and then it was brought across the field again using those temporary wheels as you saw being taken over to the catapult the launching tower again there were thousands of persons there to see these flights uh oh look out girls get out of the way there's that miniskirt of 1908 demonstrated by these two ladies who were in the way at the moment then over to the launching rail and you can see at the left the tower and the launching track is underneath and then the aircraft was being adjusted ready for takeoff there's the takeoff the first one was on September the 3rd and then you see part of these specifications required that a passenger must be carried and also that the craft be able to fly for an hour well lieutenant Lahm now there at Fort Meyer and shown here with Glenn Curtis who made the engine for that airship that you saw Frank Lahm was to be the first military passenger and on September 9 Orville first went up for a flight of 57 minutes and 25 seconds then on his next flight he flew for an hour 2 minutes and 15 seconds the first time in the world that an airplane had flown for more than an hour at Fort Meyer in fact some time when you go to Fort Meyer Virginia you'll see at the reviewing stand there are bronze plaque that my wife and I provided through the early birds organization that's a bunch of old time flyers and on there we've listed all these famous firsts of aviation at Fort Meyer well then on September 9 Lahm became the first passenger military passenger to fly and the duration was 6 minutes and 24 seconds 6 minutes 24 seconds a world record with a passenger then on the 12th of September the passenger was to be Major Squire Major Squire standing there with his back to us now notice that flag on the front strut there the elevator that had been given to Orville by Mrs. Winfield Scott Clime she became wife of the photographer and later they gave that flag to the National Air and Space Museum not the first flag to be flown because back in 1904 when Roosevelt was elected the Wright brothers had flown a flag on their airplane at Huffman's Prairie but now there's Major Squire he's going to be the next passenger and on the date of September 12 he did have a flight for 9 minutes and 6 seconds that was another world record meanwhile of course Wilbur was making those flights with passengers in France now on the 14th of September the passenger was to be Thomas Ethelin Selfridge the gentleman in the foreground and he is with Alexander Graham Bell inventor of the telephone and Dr. Bell had been interested in aviation for many years up at his summer home in Bedeck, Nova Scotia he had developed a series of kites and then having brought together a group of men who consist here of Casey Baldwin now he's no relation to the airship Baldwin he's the left then Lieutenant Selfridge in the center is Glenn Curtis who had been brought in to make the engines Curtis was a very capable maker of excellent motorcycles and these motorcycles had been seen by Baldwin and an engine had been seen by Bell and thus Curtis was under contract with Baldwin to make engines for the airships and with Bell and associate to make the engines for their airplanes in fact Bell first tried the Curtis engine on a large kite but the kite didn't get off so then at the right there was McCurdy who was carrying a crutch because he tried out one of Curtis's motorcycles well now Selfridge had the honor of designing the first airplane they called it the red wing because there was quite a lot of red silk left over from some of Dr. Bell's kites and this was tried first in March it went up rather steeply and came down rather hard they had left out one very important element and that was lateral control they had lift they had an elevator there for raising it you see that there in the front also had an elevating surface at the rear and then they had that vertical surface for steering at the rear so the aircraft got off but it did not have control that was a very essential element so Selfridge wrote to the Wright brothers and asked for information about lateral control the Wright brothers wrote a very curious reply and suggested that he studied their patent now the next aircraft was designed by Casey Baldwin they called this the white wing they had run out of red cloth probably and in this one Selfridge did fly that was in May May the 19th of 2008 thus you see the first time in the history of the world that a military officer had piloted an airplane Thomas Evelyn Southridge well now this fine young man was to have this marvelous experience of flying with one of the two greatest pilots of that day, Orville and Wilbur Wright this picture was taken by Carl Clawdy a Masonic friend of mine and Carl told me as he gave it to me he said when I snapped this picture Selfridge called to me look out Carl we're just about to take off well they did the weight dropped the rope pulled they went forward and into the air well they'd made four circuits of the field and we're just about at this point over that hangar there in the corner when as Orville later said he heard a tickety-clacketing sound and he glanced back hurriedly he saw that something had broken well a piece of propeller had broken later it was picked up found there on the ground and you see from that piece of propeller how it had struck a wire and we can have just a little bit of the top of it there you'll see where the wire had gouged into it as the propeller broke the propeller broke the wire pulled the wire loose from that connection and of course this happened so fast much faster than I can describe it but it pulled that wire loose now that wire led over to the vertical rudder at the back and without the tension of that wire that rudder lay over and became a horizontal surface and nose the craft over into a crash September 1798 now in that crash Orville was badly injured and oh he suffered injuries to his hip and ribs in fact for the rest of his life he suffered from that he recovered in about seven weeks but selfish had sustained a concussion he never regained consciousness and he died in two hours Self-reach thus became the first sacrifice to powered aviation such a oh such a sad paradox that the first military officer to fly should be the first military officer to give his life for aviation had he lived no doubt the whole science of flight would have benefited very fine young man he's buried now over in Arlington, Virginia in the national cemetery there I often go there to visit his grave in fact the early birds think of that place as sort of a shrine of aviation and we can regret his death and yet we are so grateful for his life because he certainly while he lived did advance the aviation a great deal aviation has had its losses and its great gains and we of the public are those who benefit from the progress that has been made thanks to Orville and Wilbur Wright we do have the beginnings of flight and great advancements in progress as our story continues