The Wright brothers fly into history

Have you ever loved flying on an airplane? Well, the Wright brothers flew into history with their first plane on December 17. On the North Carolina coast, Thursday, December 17, 1903, was a cold and windy day. When Orville and Wilbur Wright awoke that morning, they thought it was almost perfect. Three days earlier, after years of trials, they had tried to get their primitive powered ‘airplane,’ with its 40ft wingspan, into the air. No sooner had Wilbur got it off the ground that the aircraft stalled and plunged back down into the sand. Born in 1867 and 1871 respectively – the sons of an evangelical Christian clergyman – the story goes that they were first smitten by the principle of flight when their father bought them a helicopter toy. The pair opened a bicycle shop, capitalizing on the craze for cycles but all the time tinkering with schemes to get an aircraft into the sky. It was the first of four flights made that day, each longer than the one before. On the fourth trial, Wilbur guided the world’s first plane through the air for a distance of 852 feet in 59 seconds. For the first time, humankind had the power of flight. It was a genuinely extraordinary moment.

(Source: www.historyextra.com)