By Joan BroanWettinfeld
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings,
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds-and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of-wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew-
and, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
Written by World War II Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr., Royal Canadian Air Force, died in England, age 19, in December 1941.
This year, as we celebrate a century of manned flight, we honor a pair of archetypical American inventors: brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright. Individualists, self-educated, dedicated and never having attended college, the Wright brothers built a heavier-than-air flying machine and initiated the actuality of aviation science.
The Wrights’ father was a Midwestern bishop who was interested in science. The boys’ curiosity was immediately piqued when, in 1878, their father gave them a flying toy made of cork and bamboo with a paper body and powered by a rubber band. Their mother also encouraged them toward mechanical things, leading them to become inveterate tinkerers from childhood on.
In 1888 they built a large printing press and soon were established a business. In a few years they set up a bicycle shop and were soon manufacturing their own designs and beginning to experiment on implementing their dream of building a full-size flying machine. It was a lonely pursuit but a world-changing dream onto which they held. Wilbur read every available book and paper on the science of flight.
By the 1890s the Wright brothers became keenly interested in experiments around the world and began to analyze critically the reasons for the failure of those attempts. They began to recognize others’ flaws and felt that the theoretical bases then held for heavier-than-air flight were unsound. They began experimenting with kites, and from these studies Wilbur became convinced he could build an aircraft “capable of sustaining a man.”
They built the first-ever wind tunnel and tested at least 200 wing designs. From these humble beginnings stem today’s science of aerodynamics.
In 1902 and 1903 they made and tested hundreds of plans and models of gliders. By 1903 they were convinced they knew at last that what was necessary for success was a gasoline engine and a new airscrew, their version of which they soon completed.
On Dec. 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, N.C. in the presence of five witnesses, man truly flew — even if the flight was a short one with Orville reclining on the airplane’s wing.
The years saw continuing experiments that caught worldwide attention. Pioneers in aviation, the brothers continued developing their craft in designing, building and promoting the field. They truly believed nothing was impossible. Wilbur died in 1912 of typhoid, while Orville lived until 1948 and witnessed the important contributions of flight during World War II.
Rarely, if ever, has there been a partnership such as that of the Wright brothers. Their obsessive beliefs were a force that led them to invent single-handedly each of the many technologies they needed for the pursuit of their dream. In the end they created one of the greatest cultural forces ever known.
Their invention was to usher in an age of globalization that influenced the world’s cultures, economies and policies, eventually setting us toward goals as far as man’s reach beyond the Earth itself.
Note: The Library of Congress has microfilmed the contents of the first three containers of the diaries and notebooks of the Wright brothers, available on interlibrary loan from local libraries. AC#17,424.
Joan Brown Wettingfeld is a historian and free-lance writer.
