The Wright Brothers' 1903 Flight: How They Solved Powered Flight

On the morning of December 17, 1903, on the windy sand of North Carolina's Outer Banks, Orville Wright flew a powered airplane for 12 seconds. Before the morning was over, he and his brother Wilbur had flown four times, the longest flight lasting nearly a minute.

The flights themselves were short. What made them a turning point was the four years of research behind them, which the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum says laid "the foundation of aeronautical engineering."

This guide follows that work step by step, using the museum that holds the 1903 Flyer and the National Park Service site where it flew. It also covers a lesser-known chapter: the decades-long dispute over who deserved credit.

Starting with control, not power

The National Air and Space Museum says the brothers became serious about flight in 1896, after the widely reported death of the glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal. On May 30, 1899, Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian asking for publications on aeronautics. That summer they built a biplane kite with a five-foot wingspan to test a control idea.

Their idea was to balance the aircraft with air rather than with the pilot's body weight. Lilienthal had steered by shifting his weight. The Wrights instead twisted, or warped, the wingtips in opposite directions with control lines, so one wing produced more lift than the other and the craft banked. The museum points out that this method didn't limit the size of the aircraft the way weight-shifting did.

The National Park Service contrasts this with Samuel Langley, the Smithsonian's own Secretary. Langley relied on "brute power" to keep his machines aloft. The Wrights believed pilots had to learn to fly. As Wilbur put it, "It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill."

Gliders, bad data and a wind tunnel

Dayton, Ohio, their home, was a poor place to fly gliders. After asking the US Weather Bureau, they picked Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, for its open sand and steady winds, and made their first trip there in September 1900.

Their 1900 and 1901 gliders controlled well but produced much less lift than the brothers had calculated. So they questioned the published aerodynamic data and tested it themselves. In the fall of 1901 they built a small wind tunnel with instruments that measured lift and drag on model wings. The 1902 glider, designed from that data and fitted with a movable vertical tail, worked. The museum says they made between 700 and 1,000 glides that year, the best covering 622.5 feet in 26 seconds.

An engine and a new kind of propeller

The 1903 Flyer was essentially a larger, sturdier 1902 glider with a propulsion system added. With their bicycle-shop mechanic, Charles Taylor, the brothers built a 12-horsepower gasoline engine. The Park Service notes that it was cruder and less powerful than Langley's, but the Wrights understood that efficient wings and propellers needed relatively little power.

The propellers were the real breakthrough. Little useful data existed, so the brothers treated a propeller as a rotating wing that produces "lift" pointed forward. The Park Service calls the result the first efficient airplane propeller. On the 40-foot, 605-pound Flyer, chains drove two pusher propellers. One chain was crossed so the propellers spun in opposite directions, which kept the machine from twisting.

December 14 and 17, 1903

Wilbur won a coin toss and tried first, on December 14. He climbed too steeply, stalled and came down in the sand, damaging the machine slightly. After repairs, it was Orville's turn on December 17. The National Park Service says the wind was 27 miles per hour, stronger than the brothers wanted.

At 10:35 a.m. Orville released the restraining wire. John Daniels, from the nearby lifesaving station, snapped a preset camera as the Flyer lifted off, producing the famous photograph of Wilbur running alongside. The flight covered about 120 feet in 12 seconds. Into that headwind, the Park Service calculates, ground speed was only 6.8 miles per hour, while airspeed was 34. The brothers took turns for three more flights. The fourth, with Wilbur at the controls, went 852 feet in 59 seconds. Soon after, a gust flipped the Flyer and damaged it badly. It never flew again.

A note on place names: the flights are usually credited to Kitty Hawk, as the museum does, but the Park Service describes the brothers' camp as being at the Kill Devil Hills nearby, where Wright Brothers National Memorial stands today.

From hops to a practical airplane

The 1903 flights proved the concept. The museum says the brothers made the design practical with improved Flyers in 1904 and 1905. On October 5, 1905, Wilbur flew 24.5 miles around a closed course in 39 minutes.

The credit dispute with the Smithsonian

Langley's own full-size machine, the Aerodrome A, was built with a $50,000 grant from the War Department's Board of Ordnance and Fortification. It crashed on launch on October 7 and again on December 8, 1903, just nine days before the Wrights flew.

In 1914 the Smithsonian hired the aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss to rebuild it. With significant modifications, it made several brief, straight-line flights. The aircraft was then restored to its 1903 form and displayed in 1918 with a label calling it the first airplane "capable of sustained free flight." The National Air and Space Museum now calls that label misleading and the claim "inappropriate at best."

Partly in protest, Orville lent the 1903 Flyer to the Science Museum in London in 1928. During World War II it was stored underground near Corsham, about 100 miles from London. The museum adds that it was not kept in the London subway, as is often claimed. The Smithsonian corrected the Aerodrome's history in its 1942 annual report, and the Flyer came home in 1948. It was formally donated on December 17, the 45th anniversary of the flights.

The object you can see today

The Flyer has had a rough life. In 1913 a flood in Dayton left its crates underwater and in mud for eleven days. Its fabric was fully replaced before the London loan and again in 1985, when a large piece of original 1903 wing covering served as the pattern. It is on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. It is the genuine airplane, though much of what you see has been restored.

Key takeaways

• The Wrights solved control first, using wing warping and later a movable vertical tail, and then added power.
• Their wind-tunnel data and propeller design were original engineering, not lucky guesses.
• On December 17, 1903, they made four flights, the longest 852 feet in 59 seconds.
• For decades the Smithsonian promoted Langley's rebuilt Aerodrome, and it corrected the record in 1942.
• The surviving 1903 Flyer is original, but it has been repaired several times and its fabric fully replaced twice.

Sources

• National Park Service, Wright Brothers National Memorial, 1903: The First Flight
• Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, 1903 Wright Flyer (collection object)
• Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Langley Aerodrome A (collection object)