"Kitty Hawk, 2002"
Kill Devil Hill, then and now.
Antique photo, courtesy National Park Service.
December 17th, 2002 was the 99th anniversary of the world's first controlled flight under power at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville and Wilbur Wright chose Kitty Hawk from a list of six possible testing grounds, journeying there in the fall and early winter seasons in search of "good winds and soft sands" to apply their theories. I went there this year for ceremonies that marked the beginning of a year-long celebration of flight, which will culminate at that same place December 17th, 2003. This report is not about that ceremony, but rather about two of the most amazing men of the 19th and 20th centuries.
It didn't come to them in a blinding flash; it was the product of rock-solid determination and cost them years of hard, careful work. Flight was the product of careful analysis, design, building and test, working it out one step at a time. They started to work seriously in 1899.
 
Orville Wright, 1897. Wilbur Wright, 1899.
While it's tempting to assign everything to the four flights performed on December 17th, 1903, the truth is that the brothers had put most of it together in the winter of 1902.
Left: 1902 Glider tests.
They did hundreds of gliding flights to work out control in three axes, knowing there could be no successful flight, no practical use for flight, without mastery of pitch, roll and yaw.They got so good at it that they could turn the glider into the wind and simply hover for several seconds at a time. So, when they went back to Dayton at the end of 1902, they felt they had what they were looking for. All that remained, they thought, was to add power, and they knew what size and weight engine they would need. The trouble was they would have to make it themselves because none of the automotive engine builders of the time could make one so light, nor did they want to be associated with "two nuts who thought they could fly."
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