The Wright Flyer: The Spectacular Birth of Modern Flight (That Many People Believed Was Fake)

[@QBCPerdition]

And now a scrap of the wing material is included on the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, making it a piece of the first powered, controlled, heavier-than-air flight on two different planets.

[@IneptOrange]

It also means that a part of a spacecraft on another planet is over 110 years old

[@IdoloOcelot]

I was really hoping for a mention of this in the Legacy portion of the video. Maybe the script was written before that was made public.

[@nommchompsky]

I hope that once a Mars colony is established that piece can be recovered and end up in some other amazing first flight

[@CharmsDad]

I did not know that. Thanks for posting this information. That was a wonderful tribute to the Wright Brothers.

[@womble321]

It wasn't controlled they crashed.

[@Lethgar_Smith]

When I was young back in the 70's I asked my grandfather, who was born around the turn of the century, if he remembered the first time he ever saw an airplane. He smiled and leaned back and recalled a tale of when he was a child living in Georgia on his family's farm. "My Daddy had a cask of moonshine he kept in the barn. I couldn't have been more than 5 years old but I was old enough to know that I liked to take a sip of Dad's moonshine. There was a tin cup hung on a nail that he drank from. I knew I wasnt supposed to touch the stuff but I liked to get a little nip now and then. So one day when Im up in the loft drinking a sip of moonshine I hear a strange sound up in the sky. "Whrrrrrrr" Rrrrrrr" it was. So I stuck my head out the hayloft door and look up in the sky and I saw what I thought was the Devil himself coming to get me for drinking Dad's moonshine. I ran out the barn so fast yelling for my mom that the Devil was going to get me. Mom came outside to see what I was on about and I pointed up at what to me looked and sounded like a giant mosquito. My mom said, No son, that aint the devil. That's an airplane. I read about them in a magazine. The government uses them to carry the mail. Unfortunately for me, in my excitement I had revealed what I was feeling so guilty about and I got a good whoopin' from my Dad and I never did drink anymore of his moonshine. He died in 1989. I like to think about all the things he saw in his lifetime. Two world wars, first man on the Moon, the invention of radio and television. I can even remember him asking me, "What does it do?" when I showed him my first computer, a TRS-80. The hardest question I ever had to answer. I now have two grown children that were born around the turn of the most recent century. I wonder what changes they will see by the time they are old.

[@Lethgar_Smith]

Recalling that story of my grandfather's inspired me to do a little research. The government first began using planes to deliver mail in January of 1918 which is when his mother would have read a story about it. In 1918 my grandfather would have been 8 years old. That makes a little more sense for drinking moonshine. Also in that same year the US began building an airfield in Georgia and supplying it with Standard J-1 aircraft and is likely the airplane he saw that day.

[@cowfrank]

That was an awesome story.. Thank you so much for sharing that. ❤ .. you are a pretty good story teller btw.

[@mikryan5846]

Thank you best comment I've read

[@mikryan5846]

I live next to forth rail bridge, witch was bombed during ww2, my gran was hanging out clothes on the line, my uncle tried to get her to shelter, she replied, don't worry, that's just birds, then...

[@ethannorton564]

@@Lethgar_Smith just to clarify it's the standard j-1 not the junkers plane of the same designation

[@uzaiyaro]

And to think that less than 100 years later, we now have aircraft big enough to not only house the wright flyer, but also its entire flight, which can fit inside the fuselage of an An-225.

[@taironus]

One of the interesting things about the whole story is that the wrightbrothers grasped the hard facts of the requirments of flight better that their contemporaries, initially, but the rigidity of their processes left them with the inability to innovate beyond. where as the french took off (badumbum) with the design ideas and really went to town. excellent video! keep em coming!

[@Musikur]

Yes it's ironic isn't it. I think particularly they stuck with an extremely odd and unintuitive control scheme which was probably partially responsible for some of the early deaths, and of course their litigiousness ended up causing them no end of stress, and arguably took a lot away from their ability and scope to improve. 10 years later, I think about the only difference in their design was that the pilot had a seat instead of lying down. Meanwhile, aeroplanes like the sopwith camel existed.

[@oldenweery7510]

@@Musikur Yeah, their wing-warping controls were rudimentary, but they'd patented them, so when Curtis came up with ailerons and other improvements, they sued. Even though the later system only used a fraction of their ideas, everyone had to pay them--until, I believe, near the end of the 1920s, when someone in authority apparently decided they were milking it in restraint of progress. (Speaking of ailerons, I suddenly remembered a kit airplane, built by a lot of people, had a problem of accidents from ground effect instability during landings. Turned out the instructions for mounting caused the ailerons to be mounted wrong-side-up.)

[@Munkenba]

@@Musikur Strikingly similar story to Henry Ford and Thomas Edison then. Fame and fortune came to both of them but ultimately they'd become so convinced that they'd got it right the first time that the Edison spent way too long launching legal battles and smear campaigns at his competitors and Ford kept the Model T in production far beyond its usefulness.

[@matpk]

@@Musikur Compare 1930s Nazi Germany Vs 2020s Communist Chinazi IN YOUR NEXT VIDEO Project!!!!

[@ElsinoreRacer]

@@Musikur Litigious? How about inventing the airplane and the Smithsonian trying to screw you with the blessings of the US government? You can roll over, buy a gun, or go to the courts. What would you suggest?

[@jaybee9269]

One of the Wright’s great achievements was their reasonably efficient propellers. They were much better than any before. The Wright’s realized that propellers were vertical airfoils-it was a key (and un-obvious) insight. They also built their own wind tunnels.

[@alfnoakes392]

Absolutely, a look at some of the 'crude paddles' of propellors being used by other early aviators really makes one realise how advanced these two were in some ways.

[@jaybee9269]

@@alfnoakes392 >> All hail Wilbur & Orville!

[@ronclark9724]

@@alfnoakes392 The French living in Le Mans have seen people gliding before, but Wilbur's first flight there was seen by a few, the next day Wilbur's second flight was seen by thousands. Wilbur was flying in circles and figure eights, not just a straight line being shifted by the wind. Everything about their planes was superior at that time, from lift to control... They were flying, not riding a projectile through the air.

[@nickthompson318]

​@ronclark9724 not everything. The French aircrafts had superior engines.

[@marcosbastos8634]

​​@@ronclark9724Talking sounds nice, but there is no factual proof, no reliable evidence about it, just words without any basis! Talking is easy, but showing is much more difficult, which is why no image before 1908 has ever appeared and no replica before that date has actually flown. Just remember the most famous event, such as the Centenary celebrations of the flyer in 2003, a fiasco, as well as other replicas prior to 1908, until today! Everything is the result of marketing by the Smithsonian Museum and the American Government, that's a fact!😮

[@chrisyanover1777]

Simon, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket would make a great Megaprojects! It was one of the first private rocket to get astronauts to space and the first returning stage 1 rocket changing the way all rockets will return for reuse forever!

[@FiferSkipper]

The wing warping wasn't controlled by a lever. The pilot moved his hips side to side in a cradle to warp the wings.

[@米空軍パイロット]

And before anyone tries to correct you and say there was a control lever, that lever controlled the elevators. Not the wings.

[@Jiuhuashan]

I don't know it it's still there, but there was a full-scale mockup of the Flyer in a museum in Nags Head (around 1991 when I was there). The levers and cables were fully functional and the presenter demonstrated how the wing warping worked. Pretty fascinating.

[@alfnoakes392]

The universal acceptance of a joystick effectively controlling movement in all 3 axes did not come about immediately. There were early 'sit in the cockpit' configuration aircraft which had control cables attached to a belt worn by the pilot, who moved his body to operate the control surfaces. As with car and motorcycle controls, it took a while for a 'standard' set-up/pattern to emerge.

[@fantabuloussnuffaluffagus]

@@alfnoakes392 In modern aircraft the joystick (or yoke) controls only 2 axis (pitch and roll). Yaw is controlled by the rudder pedals.

[@loopshackr]

@@Jiuhuashan The full-scale Flyer model is in the visitor center at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, just feet from where the first flight took place, and about a quarter-mile from the iconic granite pylon on the high dune. The whole complex is in the Town of Kill Devil Hills, between the towns of Nags Head and Kitty Hawk (the Memorial does not appear in the video's zoomed-in Google Earth view of Kitty Hawk). The area was downright lonely when the Wrights were here... now the Memorial is mostly surrounded by beach-tourism urban sprawl (still some nice natural areas though).

[@tgmccoy1556]

Side project: the Wrights and Glenn Curtis's sueing themselves into merger.

[@SEAZNDragon]

There's already a Business Blaze on that

[@tgmccoy1556]

@@SEAZNDragon I will watch.

[@evanobryant8045]

@@SEAZNDragon which one?

[@SEAZNDragon]

@@evanobryant8045 here you go kzbin.info/www/bejne/gIXCc3uslLqsZ7s

[@larryo6874]

I believe Curtis invented ailerons which were a better choice than wing warping.

[@michaelevans1193]

I would have loved for this to have included the story of how the original plane ended up in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. There was a lot of negotiations necessary because the Smithsonian had claimed that their former director had beaten the Wright Brothers to the skies, which is why the Smithsonian is very deliberate in how they categorize the Wright Brothers’ achievement.

[@f3xpmartian]

I’ve always thought this was an interesting story in of itself. At one point the Smithsonian was displaying Langley’s flyer as the first airplane. Samuel Langley was running the Smithsonian while building/testing his own flyer. Also finding out the Wright Flyer survived a flood (in Dayton). Then spent the Second World War in a tunnel in London.

[@LEO19495]

The 2nd prototype is in dayton oh

[@sanpol4399]

It is interesting that there are lots of excuses to justify everything . The explanations would make much more sense if it was admitted that the Wright brothers never flew before 1908. - Why there is absolutely nothing written in serious magazines or newspapers about Wright brothers fantastic claims before 1908.( Were the reporters lazy at that time ? ) - Why none of the Flyer replicas made so far ,can fly sustained ? -Why nobody presents a proof that the Wright brothers flew an airplane before 1908? - Why after 1908 the Wrights flights were short and way less impressive than their claims from 1904?

[@johnhoney5089]

​@@sanpol4399Eh, the Chicago Tribune did write of tests of the Wright Flyer II in Ohio. An interesting story is that of Amos I. Root, the beekeeping magnate of Ohio at the time. He is known for witnessing the Flyer II in action and writing an article in his own periodical about it, the Jan 1905 issue of Gleanings in Bee Culture. He had also attempted to contact the Scientific American. That, in addition to his involvement with Hellen Keller, may be one of his big contributions to the historical record.

[@sanpol4399]

@johnhoney5089 rumors. But do you have a single proff about any Flyer flight before 1908? If yes, please, paste the link here.

[@JacobT-1]

Been watching most of your vids on most of your channels for a while now. Love 'em. Thanks for all your(whole team) hard work and consistently great quality.

[@glrider100]

One of the things I hoped would have been mentioned was the Wright brothers rewrite of Lillienthal's lift tables. Lillenthal was considered the foremost authority on flight, and the brothers modeled their glider wings on his numbers. But never got the lift the numbers dictated. So, they build a wind tunnel, and tested numerous wing designs. This was still during their glider testing. Their subsequent glider designs, with the new numbers, performed much much better. To me, this was their true genius, taking a scientific theory, test, proof approach to their problem. The brothers pattented their designs on their gliders, not the airplane, and spent much of their life defending those patents. Truly genius.

[@crimony3054]

Many of their unique qualities persist in aviation today -- safety first, thorough research, collaboration, and incrementalism.

[@sanpol4399]

@@crimony3054 Collaboration ? REALLY? The Wright brothers were extremely selfish. Glenn Curtis could confirm that.🙂

[@johnardbeg6381]

One aspect that is always overlooked about the Wright Brothers is how methodical their process was. For example; the wind tunnel that they built is a engineering marvel located in the United States Air Force museum in Dayton. The structure is a huge wooden tube, but more importantly is the measurement chamber that they tested lift and drag for the components of the aircraft. The precision they achieved with the tools they used makes their achievement amazing.

[@Azerkeux]

It did surprise me that after their first flight the brothers spent the rest of their lives trying to essentially copyright troll the concept of airplanes instead of making better ones that flew longer or w/e

[@RIlianP]

Yeah, instead of just continue to invent and patent those innovations the tried to sue everyone in sight burying their prospects for big earning into the ground.

[@GlanderBrondurg]

They tried to **patent** the concept of an airplane. That was something arguably patent law is supposed to do. The problem is that patent law is so utterly ineffective and those with substantial amounts of money can use to ignore patents altogether that the Wright Brothers are a good example of how patents really are a most worthless concept ever. And you are utterly wrong about them not making better airplanes. They did make better ones. The company that the Wright Brothers founded even still exists in the form of the Curtis-Wright Aviation Company. It is now mostly a flight instrument company rather than something which makes aircraft, but the company is still in existence and still has influence on the aerospace community. And yes, Curtis-Wright equipment has gone into space too. The Wright Brothers were attached to the concept of wing warping rather than flaps, but wing warping is still being used in some of the most advanced aircraft and has had a bit of a resurgence now that computer aided design and flight controls exist. In many ways those two brothers were nearly a century too soon with some of their designs. They pioneered a number of basic design techniques and completely understood the physics of flight in a basic way that some later designers didn't comprehend. Aeronautical engineers who ignore the Wright Brothers do so at their own professional peril.

[@paoloviti6156]

Very interesting comment you made about the Wright brothers! In truth I never thought why they stopped improving or invented solutions for their airplane. Apparently they wasted their life copyrighting or fighting the "copycats".....

[@sanpol4399]

The bottom line is, the Wright brothers never proved they flew an airplane before 1908. The reality shows up when none of their replicas can even fly sustained.

[@hifinsword]

@@paoloviti6156 I would not call copyrighting their invention a waste anything, especially their lives. They did produce much better planes eventually landing a contract with the U.S. Army to produce planes for them just prior to The Great War. They had to fight with the director of the Smithsonian Institution at the time as well, who fought them at every turn while he was trying to be the first to claim to be the first in flight.

[@ryanroberts1104]

You gotta admit "lack of pilot experience" is a good reason why your first airplane ever failed.

[@fantabuloussnuffaluffagus]

Its kind off like job postings that ask for 5 years experience in a tech that's only existed for 1 year.

[@arnepianocanada]

Hahahaha very good point!

[@sanpol4399]

In the case of Flyer 1, 2 , 3 , it was lack of engine power and lack of stability. That is why they never proved they flew before 1908.😉

[@johnhoney5089]

​@@sanpol4399They were proven to have flown in 1904-1905. There were numerous photographs and even a local magazine at the time covered them. Nice try, though.

[@frocat5163]

When I took Aviation History during my undergrad, we discussed many of those examples you referenced in this video. The consensus was that the Wright Brothers' flight in 1903 was the first flight that actually landed at a higher elevation than it took off from, and it was possible to turn under power. The other "flights" referenced either didn't demonstrate the ability to continuously climb without stalling (making them essentially "powered gliders"), or had no ability to make a controlled turn. Regardless, without reliable, documented, confirmation of the other "flights," the Wright Brothers' achievement is the only one that stands.

[@TomSmith-kc8mz]

Except there is reliable documentation that Whitehead flew in 1901. Significant evidence.

[@frocat5163]

@@TomSmith-kc8mz Pics or it didn't happen.

[@tenaciousrodent6251]

Would love to see Turbinia eventually! A ship worthy of it's own theme song.

[@jaybee9269]

Have you seen Lindybeige’s video on Turbinia?

[@lorensims4846]

This is one of my very favorite stories along with the Apollo 11 moon landing (which a lot of people also say didn't happen). Our family visited Kitty Hawk when we were kids and I had a model of the Flyer. The particular innovations that the Wrights introduced were the airfoil wing and the aerial propeller, both developed in their wind tunnel that they are said to have also invented. Their work in the family bicycle shop honed their mechanical ability and skill at light construction. There were a lot of pretenders but these were the Real Deal.

[@sephirotic87]

The Moon Landing most definitely happened, Wright Brothers alleged flight before 1908? Never happened. Proof of that is that to this day not a single accurate replica of fliers I-III (before the engine and wing upgrades from 1908) ever flew.

[@frocat5163]

@@sephirotic87 LOL. Except for the photos taken 1903, their own detailed notes (in which they never hesitated to admit their failures), and the eyewitnesses. But, sure...there's no evidence. I'm surprised you admit the moon landings happened.

[@johnhoney5089]

​@@sephirotic87Multiple people witnessed the Wright Flyer III in action, including magazine owner Amos I. Root (who wrote a whole special issue in his periodical about it, the Jan. 1 1905 issue). In addition there are numerous photographs, which aren't hard to find (even frickin' Wikipedia has them).

[@rexmann1984]

What was the importance of the wright brothers is they figured out how to control a powered craft. That is what their patent consisted of.

[@licencetoswill]

They never figured out ailerons like Richard Pearse did. And ailerons are how we control aircraft (roll) to this day. That's potentially why mr Pearse was flying around his farmland for minutes at a time, where's the wrights only maintained control for 12 secs.

[@BooBaddyBig]

Just barely. It was really, SERIOUSLY unstable, it lacked a tail plane.

[@GlanderBrondurg]

@@licencetoswill Wing warping like what the Wright Brothers used has seen a bit of a resurgence in aviation design and is actually a far more advanced concept than ailerons. The problem is that it can make a wing unstable aerodynamically if misapplied and needs of course a flexible material on the wings. Some of the most modern and advanced aviation designs still use wing warping though. The Wright Brothers were able to get their powered aircraft to eventually operate for hours at a time. It took some time for them to work out the issues of flight but they weren't stupid.

[@paulschlusser1085]

@@licencetoswill That's generally not considered to be accurate. The Wrights fully understood that the rolling effect could be accomplished via movable flaps on the wing rather than twisting the entire wing structure. This idea was upheld in the many patent fights that ensued. At the time, the Wrights decided that the inherent flexibility in the box section making up their biplane wings would be used simply and effectively to cause a twist and that's what they used, rather than the added complication of a separate movable panel or flap. Many examples exist of strange aileron designs including where an entire panel detached from both upper and lower wing (mounted in between the wings) because the inventors felt that this might circumvent the Wrights patents (i.e. making an aileron that was not part of the actual wing). It remains that case that the Wrights were the first (by many years) to fully understand 3 axis control and the essential role of the pilot in control over the aircraft in flight. Most innovators as the time were pursuing the idea of an inherently stable aircraft with large dihedral etc to keep the wings level at all times. Inherent to the Wrights success was that they not only discovered the basic principles but actually LEARNED TO FLY. Like a bicycle, the Wrights understood that an unstable machine could be made to work by proper control over it via a skilled operator.

[@ameybirulkar7503]

@@licencetoswill Their plane later fly longer. Did you watch the full video?

[@StefanMedici]

Thank you for mentioning Richard Pearse, doesn't get enough recognition but a fascinating story. Well remembered in our small country.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:35 - Chapter 1 - Early aviation 3:45 - Chapter 2 - The wright brothers 4:55 - Chapter 3 - Development 8:10 - Chapter 4 - The wright flyer 10:30 - Chapter 5 - 1st flight 13:10 - Chapter 6 - Legacy

[@markbailey6230]

Another little remembered fact an innovation was that they crossed the chain on one side so that the propellers turned in opposite directions, minimizing the "P" factor that causes torque roll on twin propeller airplanes.

[@owenshebbeare2999]

True, this factor was well known, but could have been easily left out. It is a design feature on many belt-driven steam and air pumps prior to the Wrights using it on the Flyer, but a clever use in the first aircraft.

[@ColetteOConnor]

In discussing the first Wright flyer, I was surprised that the megaproject of the first aluminum, aviation engine, having been designed and built, by Charlie Taylor, with consideration for the Wright brothers requirement for size and weight, was not given any consideration. The fact that he built it all, by hand, in a matter of six weeks, is an amazing story in and of itself.

[@justcarcrazy]

6:57 Camber isn't the thickness of the wing, but the amount by which the centreline deflects away from the theoretical straight line connecting the leading edge and the trailing edge.

[@NajwaLaylah]

The thing to remember about folks who did not complete high school back in the days of the Wright Brothers is that many of them had eighth grade educations... eighth grade educations that were more complete and effective in the basic subjects they covered than eighth grade educations today, when many who graduate 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade are functionally illiterate.

[@rodchallis8031]

My dad had I think a grade 8 education, maybe a bit more, before the realities of the Great Depression had him leave school. It didn't hold him back much, I don't think. He did night school and became a metalurgist in the mid 60's. And, his cursive hand writing was a thing to behold. They used to teach penmanship, in those days. My handwriting was why I learned to type.

[@marknerren402]

If you want to learn there is really no limitation.

[@MrPig40]

Oregon no longer requires you know how to read to graduate high school.

[@alfnoakes392]

They were blessed with a mother (as mentioned in the video) who encouraged them to learn and to 'tinker'. And the fact that they were commercial bicycle manufacturers says a great deal about their 'practical' abilities.

[@marknerren402]

@@MrPig40 So they caught up with the rest of the nation.

[@orcasea59]

No one believed that the Wrights had accomplished all that they claimed until they flew at the Le Mans air meet in France in 1908. Previous to the Wrights turns in the early aircraft were made by kicking the rudder over hard in a flat, jerky turn that flirted with a spin and resulting crash. After much anticipation and preparation the Wrights finally took off, and after a short climb, entered a bank that terrified the watchers. The crowd cried out in dismay as that *always* heralded a spin & crash, but instead the Wright Flyer continued the graceful climbing turn around the race track, and as one observer noted, all present realized at that moment that the Wrights were the undisputed Kings of the Air.

[@markgrissom]

From Kitty Hawk to the moon in a lifetime...simply incredible, miracles of human achievement.

[@raykewin3608]

Megaproject....... The Reliant Robin.

[@Beryllahawk]

Fantastic video! What a great story - you never really hear about the fits and starts, the gliders, the destruction of the first Flyer, none of this! It's all just "they did it first" and then BOOM jet engines. (I should note: that's the oversimplification and massive non-continuity stuff that happens in public school history lessons in the US, since they're trying to cram SO much content into each term.)

[@olsonspeed]

Thanks for giving credit to all those that preceded the Wright Brothers. As with most new inventions, there are usually many creators working on similar design, seldom is something created without the benefit of others work.

[@u2mister17]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5zTgnR9hs6parM

[@jameslmorehead]

You missed one of their biggest crowning achievements. They were one of the first to do wind tunnel testing, which gave them the design for their propeller. If you look close, their propeller is much closer to what we use today than what their piers at the time were using.

[@K1NKYG4M3R]

It’s mind blowing that Orville Wright saw aviation advance from the Kitty Hawk flying 12 seconds to the Enola Gay destroying an entire city on its own. And 24 years after that aviation had advanced to the point of humans landing on another celestial body.

[@sanpol4399]

World aviation had almost no help from Wright brothers to achieve bigger steps. They delayed aviation development in USA just fighting on courts against other creative airplane inventors. They also were very slow to upgrade their old airplane concept. Even the landing gear took them ages to be included, while for the rest of the world it was a basic , common thing.

[@ronclark9724]

@@sanpol4399 Unfortunately the Wright Brothers were not large corporations with large research and development budgets. They were a local bicycle shop proprietors. Somehow they were able to defend their patents, they knew they couldn't out produce J.P. Morgan...

[@sanpol4399]

@ronclark9724 my post written before, above , is still valid.

[@hifinsword]

You missed a piece of history about the Smithsonian Institute's Wright Flyer. It was in England for many years due to the director of the Smithsonian Institute during the time of the 1st flight. S.P. Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution from 1887 until his death in 1906 claimed for himself first flight status. He relegated the Wright brothers to second class status at the Smithsonian. That soured Orville so much that he donated the Wright Flyer to the London Science Museum in 1928, refusing to donate it to the Smithsonian as long as the Institution "perverted" the history of the flying machine. The Smithsonian didn't reverse their claim till 1942. Orville then requested the Wright Flyer be returned to the U.S. But the Wright Flyer wasn't returned to the U.S. until after WW2 and after Orville's death.

[@cardinalRG]

Prior to 1942, the Smithsonian didn’t claim “first flight status” for Langley, but claimed that Langley’s _Aerodrome,_ which preceded the Wright Flyer I, was the “first man-carrying aeroplane in the history of the world _capable_ of sustained flight.” That was equally erroneous, and enough for Orville Wright to send the Flyer I off to England, as you describe.

[@bassman87]

I saw the Wright Flyer III when visiting Dayton,OH. That city has so much history.

[@joepg1608]

It sure does

[@midnightrambler8866]

At the United States Air Force Museum?

[@Miklos82]

@@midnightrambler8866 When the Air Force Museum first opened it was in an unused hangar on Wright-Patterson AFB. As time passed, a larger facility was needed, so in the early 70's the museum moved off base. Today an area of historic significance is located between WPAFB and the Air Force Museum- Huffman Prairie. It's claim to fame is it was probably the world's first airport. There in 1904 & 1905, the Wright Brothers perfected the art of flying, making about 150 flights.

[@Clay3613]

Lotta crackheads though. Love the USAF Museum.

[@falloutpictures]

One thing I learned during my visit to Kill Devil Hill, the park rangers there would take shells from the shore there and when they go to Dayton, they would put the shells on the graves of Orville and Wilber graves.

[@SimonAmazingClarke]

While there were several flights before the Wright brothers, none had three axis control. Thst was the significant difference. Hence the long name from the Smithsonian.

[@amb163]

I feel sorry for Orville, who lived long enough to see his technology progress enough to carry bombs, including the first nuclear bombs, across the world. I doubt that's what he and his brother had in mind.

[@dmk0210]

Actually, he was probably very proud that aircraft did their part to defeat the Nazis and Japanese. The first thing the Wrights did was sell their aircraft to the Army. They had a very different outlook on things back then then people do today.

[@loke6664]

He did hold up American aircraft industry pretty badly though due to his patents which is the reason US pilots mainly flew French planes during the great war. Basically it meant that controlling an American plane required paying him a lot of money for his patents. Sadly, he got more into court and protecting those patents then to actually build acceptable planes. But it is amazing how fast things went after the Wright brothers showed off that plane in France in 1908, just 7 years later there were dedicated fighter planes like Fokker EIII, DH2 and Nieuport 11 dogfighting over France. I have a feeling Orville understood that planes would be used for military purposes even if the Nukes certainly wasn't his fault. I don't think he knew how fast things would move but I doubt he was stupid enough to think that the military wouldn't be interested in powered flight once it could perform well enough. You could argue that both airplanes and tanks really were the fault of Benz though, without his engine planes would be impossible and while a steam powered tank probably could be built it would be far less effective in war. Really though, it is not an inventors fault when the military uses something for war unless that was what it was designed for in the first place. If something can be used to kill people someone will do just that on purpose. And no Wright plane were used in a war either. Besides, while the Wright plane is usually seen as the first heavier then air plane due to it's control in flight someone else would have pulled it off. There are already several people who claimed they were first and even if they weren't (or lacked the controls to fly anywhere else then in a straight line) someone would have succeeded within a few years. The only reason it took so long and that Lillenthal didn't succeed earlier is that the engines didn't exist before that. Heck, already the Wright flyer basically had a lawnmover engine. 10 years after it, the engines had become so good that you could fly over the English channel with one. The Wright flight was an amazing achievement for humanity but it was bound to happen as soon as the engines became good enough (not to lessen the Wright brothers achievement but it would have happened before 1905 even if they kept to bicycles). And Zeppelin technology already existed at the time for bombing, so bombers were certainly not poor Orville's fault no matter how you see it.

[@josephotoole9088]

Bonus fact, they flew in Kill Devil Hills not Kitty Hawk. Kitty Hawk was the site of the closest telegraph office where they sent their message of success from.

[@owenshebbeare2999]

My comments regarding my views on the Wrights are above, but they had the recorded evidence of their exploits. As with many claimed firsts, it is about what you can prove, and the Wrights had evidence.

[@Taser3141]

Being a 46 year old history buff, I have never witnessed a more complete retelling of the origins of powered human flite. I'M PRETTY SURE THAT'S THE LONGEST I EVER WENT WITHOUT BLONKING.

[@Battle_Beard]

Did I just witness a “badabumbum tsch” ? What a Blazing Megaproject.

[@dancook828]

Danny and sam wrote the script inorder to be served an extra few nuggets of magic spoon one evening... Alegedly

[@thejudgmentalcat]

@@dancook828 Danny has peanut butter, Sam likes cinnamon. Same as Simon

[@thejudgmentalcat]

The Blaze is slowly taking over Simon. Danny's plot is unfolding

[@Fitten06]

Simon really needs to trademark the Whistler Rim Shot.

[@Chronohome]

Please Simon, do a Side-Projects episode on professor Samuel Langley’s “Aerodrome” flyer and the Smithsonian’s efforts to discredit the Wright Brothers. It’s a classic tale of a well-connected failure pulling the strings to ruin the lives of the true achievers.

[@hagerty1952]

I'm really surprised that this got no mention at all.

[@ShiroZ31]

The Wrights had gotten aerodynamic data from the Smithsonian. Then found out it wasn't any good so they built their own wind tunnel to regenerate it.

[@hagerty1952]

@@ShiroZ31 - Actually, they built the first operational wind tunnel. The Smithsonian data had come from brilliant minds (like Octave Chanute and A.G. Bell) but their methods involved kites and other experiments in the real wind. Too many variables left uncontrolled if you are trying to characterize something like lift and drag coefficients of different shapes. BTW, yes, that's the same A.G. Bell, the telephone guy.

[@ShiroZ31]

@@hagerty1952 bad data is bad data no matter how brilliant the mind that collects it.

[@jsl151850b]

@@ShiroZ31 GIGO.

[@53kenner]

The problem with giving the 1903 Flyer's speed and distance is they are measuring ground speed rather than air speed. If we take the head wind into account, both speed and distance were much greater than normally assumed.

[@cardinalRG]

Good point.

[@marcosbastos8634]

😂😅😂

[@marcuswardle3180]

It appears that the original Wright flier has also flown on Mars. A small patch of the fabric was built into the Ingenuity helicopter. This has now flown on Mars.

[@KraussEMUS1]

I have two patents for the first ion propelled aircrafts to lift their power supplies against Earth's gravity, I'm an inventor. There are more than 40 flight footage videos of the crafts on my channel. While they can fly silently and without any mechanical moving parts, they can't lift people yet. I really enjoyed the Wright Brothers video as well as its title!

[@Matthew-by6vl]

The evolution of planes leading to the development of rocketry stemming from their historic flight is amazing and I can't wait to see what the future holds.

[@DanThompson1014]

The major development going into them being able to fly was the brothers was another invention of theirs. The wind tunnel. It’s the wind tunnel that figure out everyone else’s errors in calculations.

[@sanpol4399]

They were not the inventors of the wind tunnel. It already existed.

[@ziggy2shus624]

The only difference between a glider and a standard airplane is the ENGINE. A glider gets its forward momentum from gravity, an airplane gets its forward momentum from the engine. The development of the internal combustion engines used in the Wright Flyer started with: 1) Nicolas Otto developing the four stroke natural gas internal combustion engine in 1861. 2) Carl Benz developing the liquid gasoline powered Otto engine. Using an atomizer Benz was able to turn the liquid gasoline into a quasi-gas in 1885. Benz development of the waste product gasoline into a fuel to run engines changed the world. 3) Charlie Taylor was the man who built the engine used in the Wright Flyer. From pictures in a magazine Taylor created probably the most powerful horsepower-for-pound engine in the world at that time. Taylor was given no credit by the Wright Bros for his great contribution to make the worlds first heaver than air flight possible. ( Taylor is also given no credit by Simon)

[@PastPresented]

2-and-a-half) French engineer Léon Levavasseur patented the V8 engine in 1902, and an improved version was used for the first aeroplane flight in France, by Santos-Dumont in 1906. Levavasseur's engines had significantly better power-to-weight ratios than those used by the Wright brothers; hence European aeroplanes did not need assisted take-off.

[@dmbixby]

Side Project: The first aircraft engine produced by Charlie Taylor (May 24, 1868 - January 30, 1956) after numerous engine manufactures said such an engine was impossible or completely ignored the Wrights request.

[@riedjacobsen8620]

That engine was an amazing construction project! Talk about a scratch built accomplishment.

[@jsl151850b]

A few decades earlier aluminum was more valuable than gold. The Washington Monument was capped with it.

[@PastPresented]

Meanwhile, over in France in 1902-4, Léon Levavasseur developed a compact engine for speedboats, with a new design known as "V8" which gave a fantastic power-to-weight ratio ...

[@keithdrewv1161]

I'd love to see a story abount the first recorded powered aircraft fatality, Lieutenant Thomas E Selfridge. I am currently a firefighter at Selfridge ANG Base in Michigan and love the history associated with this instalation! I'm not sure it falls into the format of the current story, but it's a fascinating story none the less. Lt Selfridge graduated West Point in the same class as General Douglas MacArthur. Although trained as an Artillery Officer, Selfridge was fascinated with gliders and built his own flying them in Maine. Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of telephone) was placed in charge of putting together a government group exploring powered flight for military use. Graham Bell selected Lt Selfridge to seek out promising powered flight designs, the Wright Brothers were seemingly the most advanced and Selfridge naturally sought them out. The Wright brothers were very skeptical of Selfridge suspecting that he would steal their designs especially since they knew he had been working on advanced heavier than air gliders himself. While on a government sponsored flight test in 1908, Orville Wright & Lt Selfridge were on the Wright Flyer, during the short flight part of a propeller broke and severed a control wire, damaging a wing. Orville did his best to glide, but ultimately lost control. Selfridge was killed and Orville suffered broken bones but lived. Soon after the crash, the Army began placing orders to buy the Wright Military Flyer.

[@SteveandLizDonaldson]

Another demonstration of the Wright Brother's brilliance: as stated, they learned (by watching birds, actually) that the way to turn an aircraft was to roll the aircraft, not by using a rudder to yaw it around. So the 1902 glider had wing warping for roll, but the rudder was fixed. But it did not work. For example, to turn left, they wanted more lift on the right wing, and less on the left, hence warped the wing to give more angle of attack on the right wing, and less on the left. But, with more lift comes more drag, so the right wing now has more drag, so even thought the aircraft rolls to the left, it yaws to the right. This is now known as adverse yaw, and every pilot learns about it. It led to continued crashes of the 1902 glider. The story they tell is that in the middle of the night, in their cabin in the sand, one of them (can't remember which one) figured that they should make the tail moveable and controllable, so that in the left turn described, they could also apply left rudder, to yaw the aircraft to the left, overcoming the adverse yaw. They made the changes, and it worked. They knew they had a fully controllable aircraft, and far more advanced that the attempted 'flying barn doors' of others.

[@larryowsowitz2274]

MegaProject Idea: Wind tunnels. The Wrights built and used one extensively to design the airfoils for their gliders and fliers.

[@delliardo583]

Daytonian here, I can't go 3 miles without hitting something with "Wright" in the name. I even went to Wright State University, and my dad worked at Wright Patt AFB for a few years. We also have the National Air Force museum here with a Wright flyer prominently displayed. If the plague ever goes away (Get Vaxed please), I want to head back up there and look at the planes again

[@TK-eg6vp]

Went there back in may on my birthday. Love that museum

[@Nipplator99999999999]

The effect that unnoticed event preformed by the destroyed craft had on my life is nothing short of astounding. The first Wright Flyer will always look like an airplane, and all the others are what looks odd to myself.

[@douglasrogers3918]

Go to the science museaum in London and you will find an exact replica - and a story of why it is there. The Wright brothers first sent the plane to the sicence museum as they had a falling out with the Smithsonian. When they finally agreed it could go back to the USA, the agreement was the science museum would make an exact replica for its own display. (Of course, who is to say if they sent the original or the copy back!) It is hanging in an upstairs room where you will also find the first jet engine - all poorly displayed and if you know what you are looking for, better for it.

[@ethannorton564]

The crazy thing about this is that nobody knew that this happened but the bystanders and the brothers themselves. The wrights didn't want anyone to know about the flight and steal the design. After getting a patent they went on your with the 1908 wright flyer. Simon please do the venera program the buran shuttle and the sls

[@emmata98]

yeah. Everything not doing it now sound so backwards

[@rixxroxxk1620]

Always waiting for a new episode! As an aviation fan, this one was great (not that any of your vids are bad!) THANKS for the upload.

[@BrunoFerreira-jb9zf]

4:48 *human heavier-than-air flight, sorry for the pedantry but let's not forget humans had been flying for a while!

[@gilberto2056]

Since 1909, the most perfect replicas of the flyers have all remained on the floor

[@18661873]

The Wright brothers approached solving the question of powered flight patiently, tenaciously, logically and methodically. The were destined to succeed.

[@eddietat95]

The internet in 2030: flight is fake

[@Vortex_Zero]

One cannot talk about the success of the wright brothers without talking about the battle they had with Glenn Curtis. supposedly Glenn had the first successful unpowered flight and when the wright brothers took their first powered flight and subsequently tried to patent it legal battles ensued. could make some good content for a video.

[@frocat5163]

An "unpowered" flight is made with a glider or lighter-than-air aircraft. Glenn Curtis absolutely didn't make the first successful "unpowered" flight since we'd been using hot air balloons for 120 years in 1903. And multiple people, including the Wrights and Curtis, had been successfully flying gliders for more than 50 years.

[@jimbo2629]

It was the first controlled and prolonged flight. All the others were not prolonged and controlled. That is why they were correctly accorded the accolade.

[@manadrain9561]

Going to see the place they first flew this is a very strong emotional trip each time. I've been there probably four times and it hits harder each time. Plus it's in my favorite place on earth.

[@Robert-pg2id]

Still didn't update this video to add in Gustave Whitehead flying in 1901 in Bridgeport Connecticut?

[@carolmoya9248]

The Wright Brothers National museum in Kill Devil Hills, NC is awesome. I recommend it to anyone traveling to the Outer Banks, NC area.

[@ColinCampbell64]

I'm very impressed with your research. Many people believe the rudder is used for the turn. Even some pilots still fall for this misconception. Well done sir.

[@masamune2984]

“This one is all about England, which in a way...this is like the smallest country ever, or like just...you know...a bunch of sticks and cloth and a little motor put together. Barely feels like a MegaProject, but also...one of the greatest countries of historical significance in the world. So...definitely a mega project. Let’s. Jump. In.” As someone from Dayton, Ohio, the birthplace of aviation and the Wright Brothers themselves, that’s how it felt hearing that from way across the pond. Only kidding, obviously! Love all of you and your fellow crew of hard workers on all of your different channels, Simon! Thanks for all the effort and wonderful videos ( especially during this last year) 🙂

[@masamune2984]

One major difference: I absolutely loved England when I visited. Dayton SUCKS.

[@jeast417]

While I love hearing about how North Carolina was first in flight I would also love hearing about the other ussr 5 year projects

[@chuckoneill2023]

The Wrights were even more methodical in their approach than most people understand. I think it's also important to know that the Wrights didn't just experiment with full scale craft, they checked their wing designs using a wind tunnel they also designed themselves. As they were in correspondence with other aviation experimenters, it wasn't just they themselves who benefitted from this data. Also: Wright Flyer 1 was always meant as "proof of concept", so its destruction wasn't any sort of major setback -- they would have been moving on to the next model in any case.

[@thepelicancase1062]

It would be great to see a megaproject on the 13 year restoration of the Memphis Bell.

[@duncanyorkston4376]

All your channels are amazing. watch them all keep up the good work. I have learned so much by watching your channels CHEERS MATE.

[@nicholasalonzo354]

You know, just a thought. I watched your whole video before with that spectacula"r F35". And Segway into the "Kitty hawk". Boy, talk about before and after. ...... great work Mr Wistler. ...

[@LAX5x5]

i remember seeing for the first time the Wright Flyer at The National Air & Space Museum in DC and thinking to myself, "hell no would i ever go up in that!" it looked as if it was made from nice lawn furniture, piano wire, and the "engine" looked as if it belonged in a 1950's lawn mower.

[@pamelamays4186]

I requested this subject last year. Thank you Simon & Co.!

[@peterwerner835]

Interesting segment. Unmentioned was the development of the propeller. The Wright Bros realized that the prop was, in a sense, a wing that when spinning provided lift. Earlier prop models had attempted to mimic a ships prop. Amazing that two guys without a high school education could have made such inovative calculations to design a prop that has not been significantly improved upon in 120 years.

[@mattguey-lee4845]

First rule of the internet if there's no video it didn't happen. I guess the wright brother were ahead of the curve on that one.

[@RustyTreeMan]

The wright brothers solved several fundamentals which permitted controlled flight, something no one managed before. All earlier claims of controlled flight simply have no credibility or were simply uncontrolled glides. Even when they did achieve this milestone and notified the press, they didn't publish as it wasn't considered important! They also didn't believe them as they were uneducated bicycle mechanics from Mid West USA. They built the Wright Flyer 2 and moved back to Dayton Ohio. They improved to the Wright Flyer 3 in 1905 and were flying up to 39 km!! Still no one believed them despite the fact an aeroplane was routinely flying over residents in Dayton! The Brothers did somewhat conceal their achievements to prevent people copying their designs. The US military also refused a contract and the French who were obsessed with flying ridiculed them. It wasn't until 1908 when the brothers flew in France and Washington DC that everyone realised they could fly. Wilbur piloted the Flyer 3 in a large controlled circle totally amazing the crowd and sceptics and they became international celebrities, years after the first flight!

[@kellywright540]

I had seen something on TV, maybe the History Channel, about a group of students who decided to run computer simulations on the propellers of the original Wright flyer. My understanding was that they wanted to see if the computer could have designed a more efficient propeller. When all was said and done, the computer designed a propeller that was only 5% more efficient. Not bad for two guys who never graduated high school and designed their propeller in 1903...

[@Blougheed]

I believe full heartedly Simon differentiates his channels by contrast levels!

[@nelsonphilip4520]

I thought it preposterous to reference a Reliant Robin in this presentation of the historically significant Wright Flyer. But then learned how the Flyer only lasted a day!

[@operator9858]

what i find interesting is that the wright brothers never built any ww1 planes. they thought they were at least a decade ahead of everyone else but were shocked when guys like sopwith and others started cranking out their own.

[@alancranford3398]

For an excellent summary of the first four decades of flight, look up the 1943 Disney movie, "Victory Through Air Power." This was where it started because somebody had to be first--officially.

[@robertbjgvch190]

The Wright Brothers probably never could have even have fathomed what they had built would visit Mars. I know there is already a video on the Mars Perseverance but I bet they could never have imagined that a piece of their aircraft would be brought aboard the Mars rover🚀🤯

[@DrDirigible]

How about an episode about the St. Lawrence Seaway that connects the great lakes to the Atlantic ocean?

[@inkydoug]

John T Daniels of the US Life Saving Station, Kill Devil Hills NC, was the man behind the camera of that first flight picture, and also was slightly injured trying to hold down the Flyer as it tumbled down the beach, becoming the first person injured in an aircraft accident.

[@historytank5673]

I can’t imagine how thrilling and terrifying Orville felt on that first take off. Sorry for the confusion I was half awake writing this comment

[@owenshebbeare2999]

@John Barber I think, not sure, he his suggesting that Alberto Santos Dumont made the "first heavier-than-air powered, controlled flight", not the Wrights. Trouble with that claim is the Wrights had evidence of their 1903 efforts, and Dumont's 14-bis came in 1904. 14-bis was pissibly the first unassisted take-off, but was also barely controllable in Roll, so the first flights were pretty much straight-line hops, and this was after the Wrights later aircraft were known to be stable and controllable in all three flight axes.

[@historytank5673]

@@owenshebbeare2999 sorry I made a mistake although I did also think about that dude, if he did fly, he’d of had no controls and poor visibility.

[@charliedoyle7824]

The "entire aircraft" wasn't shipped back to Ohio for repairs just before the first flight in 1903. They got a new tubular propeller shaft shipped to Kitty Hawk in November 1903, communicating by telegrams, and when that new shaft also broke in one day of flying, Orville went back to Ohio to make a solid-steel shaft and bring it back to Kitty Hawk himself, because it was faster than shipping it. They wanted to get in a flight before Christmas 1903, and it was very cold and miserable living in a shed in Kitty Hawk, so they were in a big hurry. Luckily they got 21-mph winds on Dec. 17, probably about the minimum they needed for their weak flyer to get airborne. Fortunately, the shafts didn't break, they got their first flights, and the rest is history.

[@mattwest1138]

The image @15:13 is not the Smithsonian, it is inside the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. That is also where the original Wright house and bicycle shop now reside.

[@gilberto2056]

I challenge here. THE PRESENTATION OF A NEWSPAPER OR MAGAZINE DATED BETWEEN 1903-1905 WITH AN ACCOUNT OF A FLIGHT BY THE WRIGHT BROTHERS AND THAT HAS PHOTOS OF THE FLIGHT IN THE REPORT!!

[@didnothing2308]

Hello there, as you seem to be doing a lot of WW2 stuff, have you gotten around to things like the Mulberry harbors or the Red Ball Express?

[@leandrochavez6480]

yep

[@jwv6985]

Great video! I grew up just a few hours north of Kitty Hawk. There is a very nice museum at the site 😁

[@bierce716]

You can indeed turn an airplane with the rudder like a boat if it's designed for that. With enough dihedral and/or sweep, a plane will make a perfectly coordinated turn using rudder only. Fokker's first planes used that method, and today there are thousands of ultralight planes using that method.

[@NoahSpurrier]

Yes, a lot of beginner’s RC planes use this method.

[@DanThompson1014]

Worked in the very building they designed & built the parts for the flyer at Greenfield Village @ The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan.

[@Robert-pg2id]

Gustave Whitehead was the first to fly in 1901 in Bridgeport Connecticut - NOT THE WRIGHT BROTHERS!! They made the Smithsonian lie by contract.

[@cardinalRG]

The Wrights didn't make the Smithsonian do anything. I encourage you to do better research.

[@robertkoons1154]

Lack of progress of Wright aircraft after 1912 has more to do with the death of Wilbur in that year than lawsuits with Curtiss. Chain drive is used on motorcycles and is still used in the majority of car engines for timing. The travesty of the Wright vs Curtis was that the judge decided that Curtis 's seaplane floats was equivalent to Wright 3 axis control.

[@SimonBauer7]

imagine that in 42 years we went from this to almost breaking the sound barrier with jet engines is crazy

[@vegascad]

On 12 July 1910, at the age of 32, Charles Rolls was killed in an air crash at Hengistbury Airfield,[ Southbourne, Bournemouth when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during a flying display. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident with a powered aircraft, and the eleventh person internationally. His was also the first powered aviation fatality in the United Kingdom. Little known fact was the Rolls Royce emblem was red up until then. It was changed to black after that.

[@ThomasDeLello]

They understood two things to their advantage. 1). the airfoil concept and employed it in both cross sections of the wings and in the propellers. 2). How to roll the machine around its center of gravity with wing warping. The Wright Flyer is a prototype in the truest sense of the word. Today, it would be classified as an ultra-light. "Flight" as such must be defined as lifting off, climbing in altitude, turning left, turning right, descending and then landing under its own power and under the control of a pilot. Anything less that that should not be considered "flight".

[@deepseadirt1]

10:47 no, wrong! when the propeller shaft broke they did not ship the airplane back to Ohio. Orville took the broken shafts back and he (and presumably Charlie Taylor) forged new ones. Wilbur stayed at Kitty Hawk with the machine. The train trip for Orville however took some time in 1903 which is why a delay in testing the plane was pushed back to December 1903.

[@clearviewtechnical]

"Heavier than air flying machines are impossible" year 1895 quote by Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society of Engineers. I love it that 2 high school dropouts were far more knowledgeable than a highly trained and respected degreed engineer.

[@speedy01247]

its sort of absurd as birds are clearly heavier then air and that should be proof enough that its possible.

[@clearviewtechnical]

@@speedy01247 Excellent point Speedy. Some people are clearly too closed minded to imagine the possibilities.

[@alfnoakes392]

The brothers did not have the 'blinkers' of a combination of Formal Education and No Imagination, as Lord Kelvin seems to have had. Imagination is needed if Education, at whatever level, is to lead to progress.

[@gilberto2056]

For Santos Dumont was registred in november 1906 "THE FIRST AVIATION RECORD OF THE WORLD," signed Ernest Archdeacom, FAi president!!!!