100 years ago today- a great invention was born

[commander bunnypants]

The birth of powered flight. For all you flying people, check out this sight and find something close to you to try it out. You wont be sorry!!!

www.flyingcircusairshow.com

DDQM

[moof]

1. Congratulations to the Wright brothers

They had the first Right stuff.

PBS did a great multi part series on the history leading up to the Wright brothers First flight. Here is a link about " Chasing The Sun "

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/chasingthesun/innovators/owwright.html

NOVA also did a show that may be on many PBS stations tonight where a team built an exact duplicate of the orginal flying machine.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wright/

[GOPisEvil]

2. I wanted to be at the opening of the Udvar-Hazy center this week.

I'm even a member of the National Air and Space Museum. :argh: I hate being a poor state employee.

[commander bunnypants]

3. Tell me about it

Wees jess po civil servants

DDQM

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. *cough* Santos Dumont *cough*

Secrecy bad. Openness good. Catapults bad. Level groud good.

[WoodrowFan]

10. Cough, flew 3 years after Wrights. cough (nt)

[Kellanved]

5. that's AFAIK debatable

I don't want to spoil the party, by either definition the Wright brothers were the first.
The december 17th flights were hardly controlled; powered heavier-than-air flight was achieved by others in earlier years (although not with the finesse displayed by the Wrights).
The real great invention was in 1905, when they managed to fly longer distances with real 3-axis control. (or in 1904 with the first completed circle, but the 1904 model was catapult launched and thus not self-powerded)

[WoodrowFan]

9. sorry

Sorry, their powered flight was in 1903, they invented the catapult in 1904. The 1903 flight was powered, and controlled. Short, but controlled. Despite the claims of Brazilians and New Zealanders (and of the Smithsonian for awhile) the Wright Brothers were first. Period.

[Kellanved]

12. As I've said: debatable

Hops, and the 1903 "flights" can be considered hops, have been completed years before (Ader, Jatho) . Flying a straight line with the coastal wind as catapult-replacement was noteworthy, but not groundbreaking.
The real fantastic masterpiece was controlling a self-powered plane - the 1905 wright-plane was the first to fit that definition (and even that's debatable, as it was catapult-launched).

Of course there are a lot unproven claims of hops and even flights (Weisskopf, Gilmore, ...) - the definition what counts and what not is rather arbitrary (similiar story with the 1st electronic computer ).

[demnan]

6. Actually, I think it's tomorrow - December 17

[commander bunnypants]

8. D'OH

You are right. Me Bad

DDQM

[terrya]

7. I still marvel at powered flight

Sometimes, I'll be on a plane, and think to myself "how can a metal tube weighing thousands of pounds get off the ground?"

Naive, I know.

[WoodrowFan]

11. Diagrams of the Wright's Planes here.

http://wright.nasa.gov/discoveries.htm

[supernova]

13. First Flight Celebrations at Kill Devil Hills, NC

Here is the Website for the celebrations this week.

Here's a calendar of events: (the flight recreation is tomorrow. Hope for good weather!)

http://www.firstflightcentennial.org/december_celebration.html




http://www.firstflightcentennial.org/

[moof]

14. kick for the proper day.

n/t