Wright Brothers First Flight

Orville Wright pilots the first flight in history while his brother Wilbur runs along at Kitty Hawk, N.C., December 17, 1903. The gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight.

On the 100th anniversary of the first flight in 2003, John Noble Wilford wrote in The Times, “The Wrights chose for their flight tests the Outer Banks of North Carolina, beyond the iron rails of land transportation or the ships off the storm-tossed shore. The brothers were attracted to the treeless expanse of sand and the remoteness of the place, away from the prying eyes of the public and rivals.

“There, near the fishing village of Kitty Hawk, they set up camp at Kill Devil Hills. On a blustery Thursday morning, Orville and then Wilbur, then Orville and Wilbur again, made four flights. Their two-winged craft took off from a 60-foot wooden launching rail, headed against a wind of more than 20 miles an hour. On the first test, Orville flew 120 feet in 12 seconds. The last and longest flight, by Wilbur, covered 852 feet in 59 seconds.

“Around noon that day, one of the few witnesses, young Johnny Moore, raced down the beach shouting, ‘They done it, they done it, damned if they ain’t flew!’ ” The iconic photo of the first flight was taken by John T. Daniels Jr., one of three men from a local Life-Saving Station to help out with the test.