Wright Brothers Pictures; Science and Technology - Oklahoma Aviation

and Wilbur Wright succeeded a century ago, just outside Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, modern day pilots found themselves struggling today. During an initial try, a replica of the craft flown in 1903 couldn't get airborne. The Muslim winged flyer drooped off the end of its track and sputtered into a mud puddle. The attempt to recreate the historic flight had been delayed for three hours by a downpour. Earlier, President Bush made a quick trip from Washington to North Carolina to pay tribute to the Wright Brothers' accomplishment. He told a drenched crowd of 35,000 that weather conditions 100 years ago were not ideal either, but that didn't deter the first flight. The Wright Brothers had some disappointments along the way, and there must have been times when they had to fight their own doubts. They pressed on, believing in the great work they had begun and in their own capacity to see it through. We would not know their names today

if these men had been pessimists. And when it was over, they marveled at their own achievement. As Orville wrote in a letter to a friend, isn't it astounding that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so we could discover them? The Wright Brothers' invention belongs to the world, but the Wright Brothers belong to America. A second attempt to reenact the flight was delayed and finally abandoned. In 1899, 32-year-old Wilbur Wright wrote to the Smithsonian Institution, asking for information. I am an enthusiast, but not a crank, he wrote, in the sense that I have some pet theories as to the proper construction of a flying machine. Wilbur and younger brother Orville, sons of an Ohio preacher and owners of a Dayton bicycle shop

had decided to join the ongoing race to fly. An exhibition at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum captures some of what went into that effort. Instruments used in a wind tunnel, such as model wings and balances that measured lift and drag, replicas of the gliders the brothers used in thousands of experimental flights as they honed their skills. And of course, the original Wright Flyer that took off from Kitty Hawk on North Carolina's wind swept outer banks on December 17, 1903. On the first flight, seen here in a computer simulation, Orville Wright piloted lying down. The craft reached an altitude of 10 feet and flew 120 feet. It lasted all of 12 seconds, just enough to change the world. For example, you did had to have a good set of wings, but you also had to have a control system, a propulsion system, even the pilot,

the pilot is part of that system. And when they were developing their earlier gliders, they not only were developing the technology, but they were also teaching themselves how to fly. So when they got on board that airplane on December 17, 1904, Orville had a high school diploma. They had the equivalent of a modern undergraduate education. They were both very strong students. Their family encouraged inquisitiveness. They had a fine home library. They were skilled both in the technical areas as well as the humanities. Wilbur in particular was a fine writer and enjoyed writing. They also had a lot of skills that stemmed from their bicycle work. If you think about a bicycle, it's a completely unstable machine, but it's an entirely controllable machine. And they're experienced with that freedom to think about the airplane in that way. That was successful, so they immediately began designing a full-size piloted glider in 1900. But to fly that, they couldn't just go out to the local Dayton school yard or something like that. They needed open spaces with strong steady winds. They found Kitty Hawk just a very welcoming place. They always saw their trips down there as vacations

and became quite fond of the local people. So first they were looking for good conditions, and then it just became a welcoming place and an enjoyable place to do their work. So it's going. And on December 14th, 1903, they flipped it going to see who would be the first pilot. Wilbur won the toss, made an attempt, but the airplanes stalled and take off and really wasn't a true flight. Patched it up. And on December 17th, they awoke to freezing cold winds. It had rained the night before, and there were ice on the water puddles, frozen on the sand dunes. The wind was blowing nearly 30 miles an hour. Orville got on the airplane. And most people have seen the famous photograph of it lifting off at 10.35 a.m. December 17th with Wilbur trailing behind. And there you have the Eureka moment, the moment of invention caught on film. Is it? 100 years ago, the Wright brothers took us into a new realm of human experience, powered flight. Since that time, Oklahoma and Oklahoma have stood at the leading edge of this exciting frontier.

The first flight in Oklahoma took place in Oklahoma City on March 18th, 1910, near the present day's side of Capitol Hill High School. A traveling aviator, Charles Willard, took to the air for a couple of short hops. By May of the next year, Clyde Cessna was test-flying his first airplane over the Great Salt Plains. Air strips and barnstormers made their way into the state during the teens and 20s, and several Oklahoma served their country in the skies over Europe during World War I. It was about that time that Fort Sill began its long association with aviation. In 1924, Hatbox Field in Muscogee was one of the landing sites for the first round the world flight. The Army blazed this new trail for others to follow. Others like Charles Lindbergh in 1927, when he flew the first solo non-stop across the Atlantic. And on his triumphant tour in the US, he stopped in Muscogee and Oklahoma City. He even took time to speak at a ribbon-cutting ceremony

at Oklahoma City University. Frank Phillips sponsored two planes in the Dole Pineapple Rice that same year. The Oklahoma had to turn back. But the Woolerock made the first flight from California to Hawaii. In 1928, Spartan Aviation began operation at the brand new Tulsa Airport. Among the famous airlines who started with Tulsa were Branif and Haliburton's Safeway Airlines, utilizing four tri motors. In 1929, Lindbergh began the TAT airline, going coast to coast in 48 hours by plane and by train. Lindbergh personally chose the site of Winoka for a plane to train change. The 1930s was the decade of Wiley Post. His triffs included a round-the-world trip in eight days. A solo trip a couple of years later. And the discovery of the jet stream and invention of the flight suit. Tragedy came in 1935 when he and Will Rogers were killed in a plane crash in Alaska.

1932 was the year that Oklahoma's Thomas Cox Allen and J. Herman Banning became the first black pilots to fly across the continent. The 30s was a heady time for aviation in Oklahoma, with all of the aviation greats flying into the state. Here, Amelia Earhart was seen demonstrating her auto gyro at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds. World War II boosted aviation like never before. Douglas Plants at Tulsa and Oklahoma City began mass production of warplanes. Military airfields popped up all over the state, including Tinker, Altes, Ardmore, Clinton, Inet, Frederick, Woodward, Ponca City, Will Rogers Field, Mustang, Norma, Chick-A-Shea, Neuramp, Buscogee, Tulsa, Miami, Gage, and Perry. Future Tuskegee Airmen left for training in Alabama. And wasps took basic training and still water. After World War II, facilities like Will Rogers Field

was converted to the future FAA center. The Douglas Plants at Tinker became part of the new Air Force base. Many of the military airstrips became civilian airports around the state. By the late 1950s, Oklahoma's were entering the new realm of flight, known as space travel. Gordon Cooper from Shawnee, Tom Stafford from Weatherford, Stuart Russo from Claremore, Owen Garriott for Meated, Bill Pogue from Okima, Shannon Lucid from Bethany, and most recently, John Harrington from Wattunca. The Oklahoma Pioneer spirit is truly evident in the field of aviation and space. As we push that envelope further and further out there, the pioneers like Billy Parker, William Ponder, Bennett Griffin, Paul Branif, Roy Hunt, Keith Kale, Clarence Page, Mary Heisler, Mary Wallace Funk and Jerry Cobb, along with so many others, will always be the giants whose shoulders we stand on. Begin with Wilbur and Orville Wright.

In an effort to learn more about wind control, they began designing gliders in 1900 and testing them near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 1903, the Wright brothers developed the first heavier-than-air craft to successfully fly on its own power, simply called Flyer One. It was flown four times on December 17 after much trial, error, and problem solving. For those who are here, many of them pilots, they're celebrating Wright brothers' tenacity as much as their scientific achievement. Hailing from Dayton, Ohio, Wilbur and Orville Wright opened a printing business and then a bicycle shot before the older of the two, Wilbur was bitten by the aeronautical bug. It didn't take long for Orville to get on board. We didn't play and caught the train.

Oh, yeah, OK. And then there's the footage of the astronauts, quick shot. Should be going to space. And that was the flight right before the plane to get. Oh, really? Actually, I didn't know if there was a dodgeable. Do you have a little summer time? In January, it was a very difficult connection to the Mars landings that were going to happen in January. Her crew members did it in getting this thing together. And got a part of Mars's team, and then he called David Noor, which is really from up on the city. You're on again? Yeah. He, uh, he was always, yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah, as I trusted Jack in my life, if he had said, Chuck, if you fly that, you're not going to make it. That would have been it for years, truly. Well, on the, um, on the horse ride, I don't know, because it's an orange colored plane. I've seen that in this.

There's that thing, just that fan. It's amazing. You look at that thing, head on. There's a lot of Oklahoma. Eisenhower administration, we've didn't even see what he's going to do. He's out on the final job. He said, you come to Oklahoma and revive that shape, if you'll revive it. In 57, they were looking at, um, uh, David. He said, well, you can do it. There was a group they started, heard of from the city, that talked about the other states could take. No, this, uh, Oklahoma is doing the crime. It was just long straight. Yes. Bob Kerr, calling you the greatest Oklahoma in the North Carolina area. That's good. Yeah. Very long. What do you mean? I've never been able to find out. But I'm just thinking about it, I think, and they're trying to separate themselves from the worst. Yeah. They don't want to jim and I, jim and I, you know, they're going to be on this name, then, because of the twin, that started out in the afternoon. This was a reproduction of the helmet, um, a company

damaged. This must have been an early prototype down here. Yeah, first model. Yeah. The wood very comfortable. And that's a problem. It's just slowly climbing. I mean, you could do it this way, but if you, you know, you'd be able to fix it. It's like, well, I'm not thinking about it. I guess I would say, what sort of work is that after you? It's fine. Well, I don't know. A national airline association would not recognize it because in that regard, two different buses, but I don't know what they're going to do. I'm not even thinking here. What do you design with these tires? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Overall, obviously, he had a lot better to take off. And the way he said in this plane is that he can only have one person at the top for the superman. So it's very skillful to drive that down and kind of mess up the lane, but when they're creation of the jet,

and it just recently changed out. And it was part of that exhibit. There's a pilot's license. There's this pilot's license from 1930. And there's a override signature right down there. Who's born in 1998? This is 1930, the 1930 issue, F-A on certificate number 7347, issued by NAA, National Paranoid Association, and it had to be called a sporty license, if you look right here.

Really? And no eye patch in the end. You know, he only wore the eye patch when he flew because the glass eye caused headaches when he get up. It was cold, so he wore the patch and he would have a eye out. So I think most of the time he wore the patch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

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