Wright Brothers National Memorial, North CarolinaEast, Omega G.
History
Wright Brothers National Memorial, North Carolina
East, Omega G.
Wright Brothers National Memorial (N.C.); Wright, Orville, 1871-1948; Wright, Wilbur, 1867-1912
They carried the airplane back to camp and set it up a few feet west of
the hangar. While the Wrights and onlookers were discussing the flights,
a sudden gust of wind struck the plane and turned it over a number of
times, damaging it badly. The airplane could not be repaired in time for
any more flights that year; indeed, it was never flown again. Daniels
gained the dubious honor of becoming the first airplane casualty when he
was slightly scratched and bruised while caught inside the machine
between the wings in an attempt to stop the plane as it rolled over.
Subsequent events were vivid in Daniels’ mind while reminiscing of his
“first—and God help me—my last flight.” He relates:
I found myself caught in them wires and the machine blowing across the
beach heading for the ocean, landing first on one end and then on the
other, rolling over and over, and me getting more tangled up in it all
the time. I tell you, I was plumb scared. When the thing did stop for
half a second I nearly broke up every wire and upright getting out of
it.
Orville made this matter-of-fact entry in his diary: “After dinner we
went to Kitty Hawk to send off telegram to M. W. While there we called
on Capt. and Mrs. Hobbs, Dr. Cogswell and the station men.” Toward
evening that day Bishop Milton Wright in Dayton received the telegram
from his sons:
Success four flights Thursday morning all against twenty-one mile wind
started from level with engine power alone average speed through air
thirty-one miles longest 57 seconds inform press home Christmas.
Orevelle Wright.
In the transmission of the telegram, 57 seconds was incorrectly given
for the 59-second record flight, and Orville’s name was misspelled. The
Norfolk telegraph operator leaked the news to a local paper, the
_Virginian-Pilot_. The resulting story produced a series of false
reports as to the length and duration of the December 17 flights.
Practically none of the information contained in the telegram was used,
except that the Wrights had flown.
The Bishop gave out a biographical note:
Wilbur is 36, Orville 32, and they are as inseparable as twins. For
several years they have read up on aeronautics as a physician would
read his books, and they have studied, discussed, and experimented
together. Natural workmen, they have invented, constructed, and
operated their gliders, and finally their ‘Wright Flyer,’ jointly, all
at their own personal expense. About equal credit is due each.
The world took little note of the Wrights’ tremendous achievement and
years passed before its full significance was realized. After reading
the Wrights’ telegram, the Associated Press representative in Dayton
remarked, “Fifty-seven seconds, hey? If it had been fifty-seven minutes
then it might have been a news item.” Three years after the first flight
an editorial appeared in the December 15, 1906, issue of the _Scientific
American_, which included the following:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account