Twelve Seconds at Kitty Hawk
On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright flew the first powered, controlled airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the real sequence of events from their bicycle shop in Dayton to a cold morning on the sand.
[WILBUR] In a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, we build wheels that spin and glide, [ORVILLE] I watch the pigeons bank and turn and wonder what lifts them into the sky, [WILBUR] Three summers straight we hauled our gliders down to a lonely strip of sand, [ORVILLE] Testing wing after wing, keeping notes on what worked, and what missed.
[TOGETHER] Twelve seconds, a hundred twenty feet, Two brothers, one engine, one heartbeat, From a bicycle shop to a strip of sand, The first machine to rise and land.
[WILBUR] No factory would build an engine light enough to lift a plane, [ORVILLE] So our mechanic Charlie Taylor built one in our own shop, again and again, [WILBUR] December seventeenth is cold and clear, and this time it is your turn, [ORVILLE] Five witnesses stand in the wind, and Daniels holds the camera steady.
[TOGETHER] Twelve seconds, a hundred twenty feet, Two brothers, one engine, one heartbeat, From a bicycle shop to a strip of sand, The first machine to rise and land.
[ORVILLE] Twelve seconds in the air, a hundred twenty feet, shorter than a wingspan today, [WILBUR] Four flights that morning, mine the longest, eight hundred fifty two feet flew, [TOGETHER] Every airplane crossing the sky today traces back to a cold December morning, Two brothers from a bicycle shop who taught the world to fly.
Key Concepts: Wilbur and Orville Wright, bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio, tested gliders at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina for three years before building a powered airplane with an engine their mechanic Charlie Taylor built in-house | On December 17, 1903, Orville piloted the first powered, controlled flight, twelve seconds and 120 feet, witnessed by five people including photographer John T. Daniels | The brothers flew four times that day; Wilbur's final flight covered 852 feet in 59 seconds, the longest of the day, and the brothers telegraphed the news home to their father
Key Words: Wright brothers, Kitty Hawk, Wright Flyer, flight, glider, Dayton