Airplane Failure

On December 17, 1903 Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright became the first Americans to succeed with the first powered flight, being in the air for fifty-seven seconds with an average speed of thirty-one miles per hour (Telegram). Two guys from Dayton, Ohio were able to solve the navigation problem that was baffling the human generation for years. These brothers encountered several failed attempts before they were successful, but those failed attempts led to discoveries and those discoveries led to new solutions to the problems they faced. Once they had mastered the skill of flight, the brothers went about to make advances to the airplane, to better the takeoff, flight, and landing. The Wright brothers were very successful with the flight of airplanes

As well, the first few flights were fairly short but as they fixed their mistakes and grew more confident, the flights lasted longer. Upon the fourth trial, they were flying for about fifty-seven seconds and crossed eight hundred and fifty-two feet, while being a half a mile in the air (Octave Chanute Papers). While testing out their airplane, the Wrights used photography to document their work and show people what they had accomplished. Photos were also taken to fix their mistakes and increase their knowledge on airplanes and the skill of flight (Photography and the Wright Brothers). An image that documents their work is one of Orville Wright flying the airplane lying on the lower wing with Wilbur Wright running alongside to balance the machine (Wright Wilbur). A general correspondence by A. I. Root explained the Wright Brother’s flight by stating, “With a gliding machine made of sticks and cloth they learned to glide and soar from the top of a hill to the bottom; and by making not only hundreds but more than a thousand experiments, they became so proficient in guiding these gliding machines that they could sail like a bird and control its movements up and down as well as sideways.” People all over the nation were excited about this

Despite Wilbur Wright saying he didn’t believe the machine could be improved upon, and didn’t think it should be enlarged, they made great improvements that advanced the technology of the plane (Scrapbook 1909). Wilbur Wright also compared the airplane to a humming bee saying, “The humming bee travels as fast as the eagle, and the little flying machine will gain nothing in speed by being made bigger”, but they realized that changes to the airplane would be beneficial (Scrapbook 1909). The first improvements they wanted to make was in March of 1903, where they wanted to “provide means for maintaining or restoring the equilibrium for lateral balance of the apparatus to provide means for guiding the machine both vertically and horizontally, and to provide a structure combining lightness, strength, convenience of construction and certain other advances” (Subject File March 1903). Their main objective was to not allow the wind to affect the position of the airplane, and no matter the speed of the wind it would move forward swiftly and how it should (Subject File March 1903). Then in February 1908 they filed to add more revisions that would “provide automatic controlling mechanism for maintaining the balance of the machine about longitudinal, lateral, and vertical axis” (Subject File February 1908). They added to their first