First Airplane

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A man named Otto Lilienthal inspired the Wright brothers to build their first airplane.  He glided on a hill in a big kite-type thing called a hang glider.  The brothers really liked this idea and kept thinking about it.  They remembered a toy their father brought home when they were very young.  The boys named the toy, "The Bat."  The Bat could fly and they had played with it a lot. When building airplanes, the brothers knew the plane had three requirements to meet.  It would need wings to lift it in the air, power to propel it, and a way to control it.  The Wrights had the most difficult time figuring out how to control the plane.  The plane needed to go up and down, and side to side.  Other inventors like Lilienthal and Chanute had previous success with the wings and power.  Orville and Wilbur knew that it was very important to be able to control the plane.  They knew the pilot needed to keep the plane balanced just like a person riding a bike needed to keep the bike balanced.  They thought about how a bird flies and wanted the plane to operate like a flying bird. The idea of how to make the plane steer came to Wilbur one day when he was fooling with the ends of a cardboard box.  He made a kite to test his idea that a spiral twist could make one wing tilt up and the other wing tilt down.  The brothers were very happy to see the kite with its five feet wing span could be controlled from the ground with cords running from the wing tips to sticks held upright (one string in each hand). The Wright brothers were the first people to make a motor-powered airplane that could carry one pilot.  The brothers flew their first successful plane on December 17, 1903.  The airplane could fit one person and that was the pilot.  The pilot had to lay down in the airplane.  Wilbur flew their longest flight.  It was 852 feet and was flown in 59 seconds.  On a not so fine day, the brothers were getting ready to fly again when a powerful wind came and turned over the machine that they used to control the airplane.  This was a set back for the brothers because they had to make a new machine. Visiting Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, is a great place to learn about the Wright brothers and to see the Wright brothers' bike shop.  In the bike shop you can see a model of the first airplane they built.  The home of the Wright brothers was moved from Dayton, Ohio, to Greenfield Village.  You can visit their house there today.