Science & technology

First flight of Flyer I

17 December 1903

The Wright Flyer, also called Flyer I, was the biplane built by Orville and Wilbur Wright, bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio, that made the first sustained, controlled, powered flights by a heavier-than-air aircraft. The first flight took place on a cold morning at Kill Devil Hills, near Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, with Orville at the controls for about twelve seconds. That day the brothers made four flights, the longest by Wilbur lasting nearly a minute and covering several hundred feet. The aircraft had a 12-horsepower engine the brothers and their mechanic Charlie Taylor built, as well as propellers of their own design, and used wing warping for control. The original aircraft is preserved at the Smithsonian.

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This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.