The+Wright+Brothers+and+The+First+Flight

Wright brothers make historic first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, 1903. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images The success of Mr Wilbur Wright's flying machine has been truly remarkable. Delagrange's terse comment "We are beaten," shows clearly the impression which they have made upon expert witnesses at Le Mans, and although Mr Henry Farman and Mr Delagrange will be remembered as the first successful public exponents of the art of flying, it cannot now be doubted that Mr Wright and his brother actually anticipated them, and have a higher degree of proficiency in either the construction or management of flying machines, or perhaps in both respects. One cannot but marvel at the self-restraint which has enabled these American brothers for so long to refrain from public demonstration of their unique accomplishment. For two or three years past they have said that they could fly, and they have said that they have flown, but such things are easily said, and hardly anybody believed them. Whilst others were winning the laurels of the pioneer they went on quietly practising and experimenting at home, content to be regarded as humbugs if the world chose to take that view of them. Meanwhile the Wright legend grew in the American newspapers; all kinds of stories were told of their negotiations with Governments for the sale of their secret at fabulous prices, and yet, for all that was really known to the scientific world, it might have been as worthless as the [|Lemoine diamond formula]. Even the description and photograph published a few months ago of a prodigious flight in America was by no means convincing; the photograph looked as if it might easily have been "faked"; there was a suspicious absence of corroborative testimony, and even now we find it hard to believe that the description was accurate in regard to times and distances. But the Le Mans flights, which are said to have been made only for the purpose of familiarising Mr Wright with the control of his aeroplane, make it very difficult to know how much it is safe to disbelieve. Certainly the fundamental problem of flight has been solved, and the remaining difficulties incidental to the weight, fuel economy, and cooling of motors lie in a sphere in which there are innumerable able workers and in which great progress would certainly be made even if there were no "aviators." If the nineteenth century was the age of steam, the twentieth may be the age of the conquest of the air, and who shall say positively that the potentialities of the flying machine are not as great as those of the steam engine?

Guardian, T. (2013, 8 14). //From the archive, 14 august 1908: French impressed by wright brothers' flying machine//. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/aug/14/wright-brothers-first-flight-aeroplane