Wright Brothers | Wright Flyer Misconceptions

Were the Wright brothers born in Dayton, Ohio, or Ohio at all? To say yes is a partially true statement.

Nearly every piece of video footage shows the Wright Flyer being launched by a catapult system, but was the Wright Flyer flown during the first flights launched by such a device?

If watching a video that claims to be the first flight of the Wright Brothers, pay attention to how the Brothers were sitting as they piloted the Wright Flyer. If sitting upright, the Wright Flyer being flown by Orville or Wilbur was a much later model than the Wright Flyer I version that first flew on December 17, 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The history of the Wright Catapult:

 
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[robertwalker]

Orville lived long enough to see the Bell experimental jet break the sound barrier!

[PRH]

There was no catapult for the first flight, but there was a rail…. which was essentially the airstrip, as kitty hawk is all soft sand, from which few aircraft today could take off from….

[MATTNMEMPHIS]

Remember, it was only a little over 40 years later when the sound barrier was broken and 65 years when we landed on the moon. Horses were still in common use in 1904. That's a lot of advancement in less than a century.

[jonathanmcnabb]

When the Wright brothers were children, they lived in the house right next door to my grandparents house in Richmond, Indiana. The house is on the historical tour of the city.

[FatMadt]

No video? Imagine being the first person to take flight in a heavier than air machine and forgetting to bring your cell phone.

[ottopartz]

The thing that gets me is that it was only 61 years between the Wright brothers first flight and the first flight of the SR71 Blackbird. The amount of technological innovation packed into that period is stunning.

[ppumpkin]

The Wright Brothers wired news of their first flight back to their other brothers in Dayton, who was supposed to publicize in the Dayton newspaper, and hopefully picked up in national news, but they paper would publish the information because they thought a flight of less than a minute was not big news.

[christopherjohns]

One side note. The Wright brothers didn’t know if their proof, the pictures, existed until days later. The person who took the pictures had to take the plates home to develop, and the photos weren't done for a few days, so the brothers couldn't provide proof of the flights for about a week.

[GoodmanMIke]

Not "OLDEST" of the 2 brothers but the "ELDER" of the two.

[paulcarey]

The first flight could have taken place in the cargo hold of an AN-124 jet's cargo hold

[DaveCMH-MD]

I’m born and raised Dayton, Ohio. Thank you for this.

[willmfrank]

The "Wrong about the Wright Brothers" joke was RIGHT THERE, dude.

[jeffbranchick]

Two impeccably intelligent, determined and focused engineering minds that never gave up.

[BEder-itlf]

OBX - Outter Banks North Carolina. Kitty Hawk Nagshead. Great Fishing.

[kimdurig]

It's amazing how much two world wars helped to expedite advancement in aircraft technology

[turkeytrac]

It's my understanding that the rail the original wright brothers aircraft ride along was placed on a downhill slope. Not as much of a slope as for a hang glider, but a slope none the less, so in a large stretch they used gravity via the slope as a catapult

[michman]

That photo of the first successful flight captured both inventors as they made history. Capturing invention as it happens is still a very rare event.

[mtrest]

i always wondered
why these guys dressed up in suites
when they were testing the aircraft on the beach.

were people back then that formal?

also... its impressive how much research these brothers did during design of their plane including wind tunnel testing before they ever tried their first flight. Literally, they invented the techniques by which planes should be built at a time when not a single plane in the world had been built.

[Eric-gikg]

Learned all these True facts in grade school... early 70's

[romeowhiskey]

KITTY HAWK (Kill Devil Hills) airport designation is FFA.
First Flight in America.