December 17, 2007, - 12:11 pm
By Debbie Schlussel
One of the great things about America is the genius and entrepreneurial spirit of so many of its citizens. Two of those, Orville and Wilbur Wright, took the first flight 104 years ago, today, at 10:35 a.m.
At the time, flying was a fantasy. But they willed it, and they achieved it:
Most of history’s great breakthroughs were made on days long forgotten.
But there is something about the image of Orville and Wilbur Wright on the windswept sands of Kitty Hawk, coaxing an awkward mechanical bird off the sand – and, with the shortest of flights, allowing humans the hope that they would not be forever confined to the ground.
It was 104 years ago today that the Wright Brothers achieved the world’s first powered flight of a heavier-than-air craft, and the anniversary will not be ignored.
Today, officials with the Wright Brothers National Memorial expect 500 to 1,000 people to gather to remember an achievement that was at once humble and world-changing. They will listen to patriotic music and speeches. Advertisement
At 10:35 a.m., the exact moment that the Wright Brothers’ glider lifted from the ground, a dozen military aircraft will soar overhead.
They hold a similar celebration each year to commemorate the first flight.
“The invention of the airplane is probably the greatest technological achievement of the 20th century,” said Darrell Collins, historian for the memorial. “It has touched and shaped the way all of us live today.”
But Collins acknowledges that it’s probably not just the import of their achievement that keeps people coming back to the Outer Banks every December. After all, the invention of the automobile and the telephone, the discovery of penicillin, also shaped modern life.
Collins said it is the story of two brothers, working together with few resources but their own hope and determination, quietly transforming fantasy into reality, that draws people to the memorial.
“In less than a minute,” he said, “they changed the world.”
Historians say the Wright Brothers, although born four years apart, had the emotional and intellectual bond of twins. They owned a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. They lacked college degrees, but shared a restless, vigorous intellect and became self-taught aeronautical engineers before there was such a profession. Wilbur was the visionary. Orville was the tinkerer and inventor.
Historians note the disputed claims of earlier flights but credit the Wrights with the first sustained powered flight by a heavier-than-air craft.
Americans have dreamed up and invented so many innovations that have changed lives around the world for the better. You don’t see any such developments coming out of the Islamic Greater Barbaria that is the Middle East. (Only that wonderful island amidst it, Israel, shares such a track record and its history is far shorter than ours.)
And despite America’s decline in so many ways–culturally, educationally, in the sciences, etc.–we are still inventing.
Today, for example, snowstorms are dealt with easier with . . . beet juice?!
These creations and innovations will continue . . . so long as we enjoy freedom and free markets.
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