Guided tour around the ORIGINAL Wright Flyer!

[@toxenzz]

Pretty incredible to think it only really took us 60 years from this amazing and humble craft to make it to the Moon.

[@Thornbeard]

Technology has always grown in an exponential fashion rather than a linier one. Just look at computers. We cannot even fathom the technology of just 20 years from now.

[@pepperjack6421]

I’ve been in the military for over 20 years, seen a lot of cool planes, but the Smithsonian is humbling and incredible, in just one afternoon you can see the wright flyer, the Enola gay and Neil armstrongs boots from his walk on the moon, a truly amazing place.

[@marcalvarez4890]

Smithsonian Church Thats a better name than "museum"....because it's a church to those who worship science, learning, and engineering.

[@markmichlewicz5141]

What a fantastically interesting video. Thankyou.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

So nice of you

[@workhardtravelharder9313]

WOW I had seen photos but assume it was a replica! That's one very old airplane. Thanks Paul!

[@ApolloVIIIYouAreGoForTLI]

Personally I think it is a replica... To me here's just too many crazies to have a priceless thing like the original with in reaching distance & really it would be a harmless lie. I could be totally wrong but I know they do this with Dinosaur bones in most museums.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

You are wrong. This is real.

[@koh_ling]

Fascinating invention, we’ve come a long way from the first plane indeed. Very informative, thanks Paul!

[@russellmarriott9396]

What a piece of history - absolutely amazing.

[@bryanlorang417]

Thanks Paul! I always enjoy your vids. ❤️☺️🐱

[@PaulStewartAviation]

My pleasure!

[@flyonbyya]

Incredible indeed

[@SaturnCanuck]

Paul that was great. The last time I saw her she was in the main atrium but hanging up at the NASM, so its nice to see her at ground level.

[@jirihamersky6152]

Very nice video. Great close-ups. Thanks a lot.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Harryjmacneil]

Amazing Paul! Thank you. ♥️

[@PaulStewartAviation]

My pleasure!

[@allgood6760]

Fascinating!.. we like to think Richatd Pearse was first and yes he had eye witness testimony.. thanks mate👍🇳🇿✈️

[@SnappyWasHere]

If you have to do low light again it may be worth taking some long exposure photos with a tripod that you can splice into the video so we can see the details. Great vid as always!

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Yeah the lighting was quite a problem. And the lighting in the room would often fluctuate too. In the past I used to carry a proper mirrorless camera that would have worked better but it was just too much equipment.

[@sbkarajan]

I went to Kitty Hawk myself last December, toured the museum there. Wrights from Ohio may have flown that day, because at that beach, anything flat would have flown in such wind in December. But when they returned home, Ohio, nobody thought what they were doing was flying. 5 years later, Wrights go to Paris, learns a thing or two about flying, and then goes back to Paris and starts flying. Santos Dumont was the real pioneer in flight. After he flew, everyone started to fly, even Wrights. Their 1903 replicas, none can fly. Replicas of Dumont's airplanes, all of them flies, and flies very well. What did Wrights do? Motivated with greed, they just sued everyone who were building anything that flew. Wrights patented the flight itself, without inventing it.

[@glynmatthews6697]

Good video , I can’t help but think it’s a bit daft taking a piece of the original Wright flier to the moon , must have been a lucky charm !🍀

[@JettTyler17]

The plane that started it all off! This plane is the first page of modern aviation as we know it today and I'm glad it exists.

[@user-tn1vc1xz5d]

The late astronomer Patrick Moore met Orville Wright, plus Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong.

[@petr-podrouzek]

Amazing, Paul 🙂

[@Bad_Karma1968]

Paul as always a great vlog

[@ClassicCarLogic]

Awesome video

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Calebs_Aviation]

Great video Paul! I loved it the original version is so cool to see in person however I wasn’t lucky enough to see it a few weeks ago when I was there in DC at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington DC! I visited the one out by IAD Airport in Virginia not the downtown location! (It’s so stupid and frustrating that there are two different places and not one museum! 😩 I’ll have a video about that a full guided tour around that museum coming out very soon!

[@KlingbergWingMkII]

The Wrights were professional bicycle manufacturers so, putting wheels on their airplane would have been quite obvious. However, there are two good logical reasons why they did not do so. One, they were flying off of sand and wheels that work in sand, would have to be very wide and large around, which leads to the second reason. Two, wheels could have added a significant percentage to the weight and make flying all that much harder. So, in reality, leaving wheels off was another genius move by the brothers.

[@josephnason8770]

Paul, great info on the Wright Flyer. I especially appreciate, as a carpenter, the craftsmanship as to the woodwork. You would think they were furniture makers instead of bicycle builders. Don't forget to look into the sb2c Helldiver ( Son of a B...h Second Class ). It was great meeting you in DC then again at the Dulles museum. Keep up the good work with the great narrative! Subscribed!

[@robertcoleman4861]

There's a lot of history right there, Thanks Paul.🛩✈🍺

[@kasyo2526]

Great informative video about this piece of aviation history. If you happen to be in Bangkok, Thailand, there is an Air Force museum worth visiting. Although containing military aircrafts only and not a large collection, but I think it is worth the visit.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Thanks for the tip!

[@peterthomas9919]

I’ve been to this place a awesome airplane museum

[@negativeindustrial]

I wonder what percentage of that is original.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Good question. It seems like the cloth and props (at least one of them) are not original. Sounds like the anemometer too although it’s unclear if the one in the cabinet was used on the ground and/or the flight as well.

[@negativeindustrial]

@@PaulStewartAviation Interesting. If the cloth is still original then there is probably a good chance that percentage is very high. I would have expected the cloth to have been the most likely component to have been replaced. Thank you for your answer.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

sorry I made a type, the cloth is NOT original as I said in the video@@negativeindustrial

[@negativeindustrial]

@@PaulStewartAviation You have caught me! I’ve got a sleeping GF next to me at the moment. I saved the video for later in the day and watched it on mute. Looking forward to listening to it later!

[@PaulStewartAviation]

haha all good @@negativeindustrial

[@SundbyCPH]

Saw it with my son when we visited DC in 2019. Amazing history. Ever heard of Ellehammer?

[@PaulStewartAviation]

No I haven’t?

[@SundbyCPH]

@@PaulStewartAviation first danish powered flight in 1906.

[@jameskelly7782]

You should get together with Dr. Mark Felton.

[@shaider1982]

Man, Practical engineering is now also into airplanes, nice!🤣✌️

[@fattywithafirearm]

Wasnt a small piece of the original fabric of the flyer included on the mars helicopter?

[@Delatta1961]

Point of fact, the actual and original Wright Flyer was destroyed the day after in a high wind accident. The same incident was the first fatality due to an aircraft accident when it killed a ground crew member. That’s why there are only pieces of debris left from the plane

[@PaulStewartAviation]

I believe this is that aircraft that has been reassembled

[@SteveandLizDonaldson]

After four flights of this aircraft, due to strong winds it was flipped over and tumbled multiple times. One of the volunteer ground crew was John T. Daniels, from the nearby US Coast Guard lifesaving station. From Orville Wright’s diary: “Mr. Daniels, having no experience in handling a machine of this kind, hung on to it from the inside, and as a result was knocked down and turned over and over with it as it went. His escape was miraculous, as he was in with the engine and chains. The engine legs were all broken off, the chain guides badly bent, a number of uprights, and nearly all the rear ends of the ribs were broken. One spar only was broken.” Daniels fell 15 feet to the sand below and tumbled away from the flyer suffering only minor scrapes and bruises to his rib from his first flight. The force of the flyer’s errant flight and crash caused the engine block to crack in half, rendering the flyer useless. The aircraft in Paul Stewart's video is that exact aircraft.

[@bluebarron351]

Very interesting video! I assumed the original had been destroyed and everything else was a replica.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@c1ph3rpunk]

I’ve wondered, did they think wing warping would be a sustainable method for control long term? Was it just something to use to achieve the immediate goal or was Wilbur really all in on wing warping. Curtiss’s invention of the movable aileron was as impactful to aviation as anything else. But man, no love lost between the Wright’s and Curtiss, it’s a shame it went down the way it did.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Agreed and it’s a good question. Surely the durability would have been poor

[@bdh985]

I have to wonder how much of the aircraft, other than the replaced fabric, is still original.

[@frostedbutts4340]

Interesting question. Certainly nowhere near 100%, the original had a hard life being crashed, drowned and passed around.

[@bdh985]

@frostedbutts4340 which is completely understandable, tbh. It just makes genuinely curious. My av-nerd mind wanders like that. Lol 😆 Also amazing to think how difficult it was to fly, compared to modern aircraft. A Museum in Colorado (dunno if it's OK to mention the name) has a simulator of one of the Wright Flyers, where you lay down on your stomach and use a facsimile of the original controls. My friends all crashed it within a few seconds, I managed to get the thing airborne, and shakily flew it for a bit, but crashed when attempting to land. 🤣😅

[@wiwingmargahayu6831]

kite kids toys

[@chriskeentechnician]

SECOND plane to fly. Richard Pearse flew several months before the Wright Brothers 👌

[@Rosethecat528]

Hi

[@PaulStewartAviation]

hi

[@guylancaster2055]

99% of the history of flight right there…. The rest is detail…

[@flyingfalcon8999]

I'm sorry but you are incorrect. The original flyer was destroyed on the first day it flew after a gust of wind caught one of the wings.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

I know. I said that in the video. This is that aircraft.

[@matthewgreenwood5074]

Litterally the grand daddy off all we see today..from this to the A380. You could only imagine what the wright bro's would have made off seeing an A380 get air born ! ps : I can imagine if did this in the usual flight review format. The cabin or lack off...is laid out in a one, one none format. The IFE system was none existant but still better than air china. The lie flat bed was comfy but I found it could only be used lying on my front. A drink was not offered after take off and also a meal service was not offered on this flight. Flying altitude today was 30 feet..and todays flying time was 57 seconds. Over all I would not recommend this airline if planning anything longer than 1minute.